Posts Tagged ‘Eel River Recovery Project’
Trees’ Indispensable Role as a Non-Profit Incubator
By Pat Higgins, Eel River Recovery Project Managing Director In Spring of 2011, I went to the Trees office in Garberville with my old friend Paul Trichilo, and we met with Trees staff Barbara Ristow and Jeri Fergus and Board member Bill Eastwood. I had been contracting with Friends of Eel River (FOER) trying to…
Read MoreSouth Fork Eel River 2023 Pikeminnow Survey Provides Encouraging Results
By Pat Higgins, Managing Director, Eel River Recovery Project The Eel River Recovery Project (ERRP) conducted its eighth annual survey of invasive Sacramento pikeminnow on the South Fork Eel River from Rattlesnake Creek to Standish Hickey State Park on June 28 and 29, and results were surprising. The invasive pikeminnow population was far lower than…
Read MoreInstitute for Sustainable Forestry: A Brief Retrospective, Current Update on Projects, and Looking Ahead
Submitted by Chip Tittmann, President; Greg Condon, Treasurer; Gray Shaw, Secretary; and Board Directors Richard Gienger, Jeff Hedin, Liz Harwood, and Connie Smyser Over the last 39 years, ISF has built a legacy of promoting forest health, forest protection, and sustainable forest products utilization in NW California, all while collaborating with local NGOs, Tribes, and public…
Read MoreWillow Walls, Cottonwood Containment, and Flood Control
Town Creek Restoration Project in Covelo Gives Round Valley Students Hands-On Experience By Eel River Recovery Project In 2021, the Eel River Recovery Project (ERRP) was awarded a grant from the Department of Water Resources’ (DWR) Urban Streams Restoration Program (USRP) for work in Covelo in northeast Mendocino County. The Town Creek Restoration and Education…
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Annual Pikeminnow Dive Provides Insight
into Health of South Fork Eel River
By Eel River Recovery Project The seventh annual Eel River Recovery Project pikeminnow survey of a key reach of the South Fork Eel River took place on June 28th and 29th. It was determined that despite the population of this non-native predator remaining high, there were a surprising number of salmon and steelhead juveniles and…
Read MoreClimate Change Hitting Home in the Tenmile Creek Watershed
Eel River Recovery Project By Patrick Higgins The Eel River Recovery Project (ERRP) has been awarded California Coastal Commission Prop 1 grants in the 65-square-mile Tenmile Creek watershed since 2018 to help fund tasks that include monitoring and reporting on water temperature and flow, and the fish community. The group has its headquarters in Laytonville,…
Read MoreRestoring Native Grass Species Can Help Reduce High-Intensity Fire Risk
Eel River Recovery Project By Kirsten Hill and Pat Higgins Recent California fires have been devastating, and experts tell us that such catastrophic events are likely to recur. Three causal mechanisms are: years of wildland fire suppression, impacts of climate change, and the continual spread of invasive grasses that exacerbate the intensity of fires—a factor…
Read MoreThe Garcia: A River in Strong Recovery After a 30-Year Effort
By Craig Bell The strong recovery we are witnessing today in the Garcia River is thanks to a 30-year effort that began in 1991 when Mendocino County Supervisors approved the Garcia River Watershed Enhancement Plan (GRWEP, Caldon, Monschke, Higgins 1991). The GRWEP was the first watershed plan in the county (and maybe the state) that…
Read MoreFederal Agencies Need More Funding to Help Respond to Mega-Fires’ Aftermath
By Pat Higgins, Eel River Recovery Project While less than 15% of the Eel River watershed is in federal ownership, public lands are of extraordinary importance with regard to production of clean water and native fishes and maintenance of biodiversity. In the wake of the record-setting one-million-acre August Fire and other recent mega-fires, there is…
Read MoreTime to Forge a New Relationship with Fire in the Eel River Watershed
By Eel River Recovery Project The rapid onset of climate change is partly responsible for the one million acre plus August Complex Fire that has burned vast areas of the east side of the Eel River watershed in 2020, but there are also legacy problems adding to increased fuel loads and the severity of the…
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