EcoNews Report The Green Gang

This week on the EcoNews Report, our host Alicia Hamann from Friends of the Eel River discusses the opportunities and challenges presented by the Great Redwood Trail. The project, proposed to be the longest rail-trail in the nation, is the state's opportunity to fulfill its responsibility to remediate the environmental harms caused by the old railroad. These harms include fish passage barriers, toxic waste, and hazardous debris left in the river. The trail will also provide opportunities for ...

To operate floating offshore wind turbines, we need to know what conditions are like far below the waves. Over a thousand feet beneath the surface, the ocean floor is mostly unmapped, with only scant knowledge about the geologic features present. Offshore wind developers are going to change that with autonomous underwater vehicles—basically drones of the ocean or underwater robots that can map the ocean floor.Ciara Emery and Joel Southall of RWE join the EcoNews to talk about how they pl...

Petey Brucker, stalwart defender of the Salmon River and friend to many, passed away on April 22, 2024. On this week's show, we are joined by his daughter, Allegra Brucker, and friends, Larry Glass and Nat Pennington, to talk about the impact Petey had on the planet on their lives. Listen to Petey's music.OBITUARY: Petey Brucker, 1952-2024Support the Show.

The Scott and Shasta Rivers were once salmon strongholds, but over-allocation of water has made these rivers nearly uninhabitable for Coho and Chinook. The State Water Resources Control Board established emergency regulations that set minimum streamflows during the most recent drought. But those will likely expire soon. Without new permanent instream flows, both rivers could run dry. A coalition of tribal governments, fishermen and environmental nonprofits are asking the State Board for ...

California’s system of awarding water rights is anachronistic and out of touch with modern needs. Yet, we are still bound by it. The Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District is navigating these challenges. The District once provided a lot of water to the pulp mills of Humboldt Bay. When these shuttered, the District faced a challenge: without putting that water to “beneficial use,” the District could lose its water right. (And in the worst case scenario, some big water user could put their straw...

The Smith River needs your help. Agricultural operations along the estuary are polluting the river with high levels of pesticides. This pesticide pollution is impacting coho salmon, tidewater goby and other wildlife that rely on the river, as well as the human residents that live amongst the pollution.Greg King, executive director of the Siskiyou Land Conservancy, joins the show to discuss his organization’s new report detailing the 40 year history of pesticide pollution in the river and what...