Last week, EPIC received a phone call from a concerned community member who explained that PG&E was spraying chemicals on her property, near the well she uses for drinking water. We referred the dangerous situation to our close ally, Californians for Alternatives to Toxics. The following dispatch and action alert has since been distributed by CATS in response to the inquiry.

We encourage everyone to monitor the health of our shared environment. No one knows your back yard better than you.  If you witness a crime being committed against the environment, take action by alerting the proper authority.

Stop Herbicide Sprays Near Your Home

Courtesy of Californians for Alternatives to Toxics

Last week, a concerned Humboldt County resident contacted Californians for Alternatives to Toxics (CATs) to report PG&E cutting trees and spraying vegetation on her property in Freshwater without the owner’s consent.

Davey Tree Company, working on behalf of PG&E, cut two trees and sprayed Garlon 4, a triclopyr formulation herbicide made by Dow Agro Sciences, near the resident’s year-round springs and well. Triclopyr has been shown to disrupt the normal growth and nutrient cycling properties of microorganisms, fungi and mosses, as well as having moderate toxicity to amphibians.

While it is currently unknown exactly where and how much was sprayed, other PG&E rights-of-ways may have been sprayed with Garlon 4 in the Jacoby Creek neighborhood. CATs is currently investigating and attempting to contact PG&E’s vegetation management department who is notoriously difficult to reach.

PG&E cannot spray toxic chemicals on your property without consent. If you see a spray crew in your neighborhood, ask the crew what they are spraying and ask to see a Material Safety Data Sheet (required to be on premise of all pesticide applications). Contact neighbors, your district supervisor and report the spraying to CATs. Late Spring and early Summer is generally a heavy pesticide use time of year. Avoid dead, yellow-looking grass around power poles and utility boxes, and keep children and pets indoors if spraying occurs near you.

Former US Congressmen Pete McCloskey works to protect Richardson Grove.

It’s been one week since EPIC and our allies filed a lawsuit challenging the Caltrans plan to widen Highway 101 through Richardson Grove State Park. In addition, we established the Richardson Grove Legal Fund, and made a fundraising challenge to our supporters to match donations and raise $5000 in one week.

We have seen great success through the announcement of the lawsuit through favorable and extensive media coverage across the state of California. In addition, thanks to supporters like you, we have surpassed our kick-off goal of $5000!

Of course, a lawsuit and state wide campaign depend on continued donations. We sincerely appreciate the support and look forward to continue to provide high quality advocacy work in defense of the Humboldt County and the old growth redwoods in Richardson Grove State Park. If you haven’t already pledged your support, please take a moment and join the effort.

I also encourage you to take a look at the legal challenge that we wrote with our co-plaintiffs and incredible team of first-rate attorneys.  The well-crafted words in the complaint layout 14 points to review, the first of which lays out the issue: This is a case of Trees vs Trucks.

In addition to the legal advocacy, we have been busy reaching out in every way possible to build our public campaign. We celebrated with the local community at the Southern Humboldt Arts and Music Festival, and took the message to the Fairfax Festival, with a booth at Ecofest. These adventures returned almost 1000 signed opposition postcards to the Governor, and the material support of selling over 100 Save Richardson Grove t-shirts to supporters.

Lastly, this week we hosted an unconventional format on Tuesday, during KMUD’s Environment Show. During the show, we heard live in the studio from Joanne Rand, Bud Rogers, Jan Bramlett and Jefferson Parsons. These dedicated activists sang songs they had written specifically to support the Save Richardson Grove campaign.

During the show we made a call out to musicians, artists, poets, performers and the like, who want to join in the movement to protect this important place by contributing their important skills to the campaign. To join in this effort and make a creative contribution to the larger campaign, please write kerul @wildcalifornia.org.

Of course, this is only the beginning. If we are to succeed in providing real protection for the ancient trees in Richardson Grove State Park and the long term sustainability of Humboldt County, we must take these seeds and plant them. We are looking into the future to several large, public events, including coordinating with Tree Spirit Project photographer Jack Gescheidt in his effort to organize a photograph, host a large gathering with exciting special guest musicians, and more.

Right now, we are busy preparing activist toolkits for satellite organizers to use to garner support for the campaign across California. We plan to include postcards, colorful brochures, stickers, posters and other materials in the packets. Please write epic@wildcalifornia.org to request yours!

Ongoing funding will be needed to see this campaign through, so the trees are safely protected. If you have not already, you can still help by pledging your support. Again, thanks to all of the donations our supporters have sent in, these are the folks who made it possible to take the first step to filing this lawsuit.

Now that EPIC has sent out our press release the story has hit the headlines.  You can view and share various articles by clicking here.  Feel free to check them out and leave comments letting them know how you feel about the project.

Thanks for the amazing work everyone!

Kerul Dyer

Save Richardson Grove Campaign coordinator

Last month, EPIC’s Green Diamond Stop Clearcutting Campaign staff and volunteers flew over the timber giant’s patchwork ownership in Humboldt County. This truth-telling mission included video documentation by the Klamath-Salmon Media Collaborative shown here on EPIC’s new Youtube Channel.

From a bird’s eye view, the company’s reliance on clear cut logging and chemical herbicides across their ownership becomes crystal clear.  A century of bad logging by Simpson Timber and their corporate partner Green Diamond Resource Company has left behind a barren patchwork of clearcuts across whole watersheds as is visible in the short film.

Of course many important forest groves still remain across Green Diamond’s 430,000 acres, that must be protected. The forests could regenerate for future generations if the company weened themselves from boom and bust logging habits and integrated sustained yields into their planning process. With rotations of around 45 years, how do they expect these sensitive forest ecosystems to recover from the blade?

Take action now to stop hunting in Tolowa Dunes State Park.  The California Department of Parks and Recreation (Parks) is planning to transfer interest in approximately 1200 acres of the Tolowa Dunes State Park to the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG).  The asserted purpose of this transfer is to allow hunting on this portion of the State Park land. However, hunting is not a legally permissible use of State Parks land.

The proposed transfer of State Park land is being considered and Parks intends to proceed with this transfer without public review, without compliance with the environmental regulations pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), without application for a Coastal Development Permit pursuant to the Coastal Act, and without regard to the terms and conditions which apply for management of State Parks, including those specific to Tolowa Dunes State Park.

This proposed action is being taken because Parks refuses to enforce the law which prohibits hunting in Tolowa Dunes State Parks, and rather than be bothered with enforcement, Parks is poised to transfer the land to allow hunting in violation of the law.

Parks is prepared to act in violation of the law, without any public process, and the proposed transfer is politically motivated in that Parks senior management are apparently trying to appease Governor Schwarzenegger, who is in turn appeasing hunters who wish to use State Parks lands for hunting.  This is a major betrayal of the public trust as well as a violation of other laws.

It is widely understood that the people of California want our State Parks to be protected, accessible, and adequately funded. The notion that a state agency would give away public State Parks land is outrageous. (more…)

Shep is looking down a steep hill within a proposed unit of the Panther Salvage project just above Norcross campground.

Once again, the Klamath National Forest has proposed a heavy handed post-fire logging project in the Elk Creek watershed, amidst controversy. This project, the Panther Fire Salvage represents the third attempt the Happy Camp District has organized a sanitary-sounding plan to log within the Panther fire area. If approved, the Forest Service would give the thumbs up to log 536 acres of steep post-fire hillsides right above the Norcross campground, a popular recreational destination. The fire itself started from a natural ignition during a lightning storm in July, 2008.   A combination of topography and weather resulted in a run that engulfed 13,000 acres, in a single day, October 1st.

In the days of recovery, when soils are sensitive and young seedlings are emerging in their natural cycle, the Forest Service planned to remove large snags in what they continue to call “restoration.” This type of logging not only threatens future forest health through commercial logging on steep slopes and could impact critical habitat for decimated coho and chinook salmon,  it also could undermine the benefit of fire on this fire-dependent landscape.

Please take a moment and submit a comment letter to Patty Granthum and Ken Harris, who could turn this project around and address the critical issues within their management areas. Also, it really helps if you take the extra two minutes and customize your comments to include your personal reasons for opposing destructive post-fire salvage logging projects like this one.

Some legal reasons why this project should be stopped:

The Panther Salvage project is within the steep slopes of Elk Creek Watershed, which is listed as impaired under the Clean Water Act.  It is also a key Watershed, which is critical habitat for salmon recovery.  Despite the impaired nature, the creek is home to Coho and Chinook salmon, steelhead, resident trout and the Pacific lamprey.  All of these species rely on the streams within Elk Creek for all life stages (migration, spawning, incubation, rearing, and holding).  The Elk Creek Watershed is extremely sensitive to disturbance and has been affected by too many roads and intensive timber harvests.

Logging is proposed in “Late Successional Reserves,” (areas set aside to protect and enhance old growth forests and species), in “Riparian Reserves,”(waterways and unstable areas), Roadless Areas and within Recreational River boundaries.

The Panther post-fire logging project is within critical habitat for the northern spotted owl (a species listed as “Threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act). There is overwhelming scientific evidence that northern spotted owls roost and forage in post-fire habitats, and owl territories with severely burned stands in the Panther fire area may continue to be occupied by owls.  Fire-killed trees provide perch sites and future nest sites.   Recent scientific evidence found that survival and reproduction depended upon significant patches of high severity post-fire habitat because it is suitable for a key prey species, the Dusky-footed wood rat.  This habitat is not mimicked by logging as proposed by the Panther project, which would remove snags and prevent recruitment of large downed logs.

EPIC’s ongoing campaign to educate the public on why forests need fires includes fighting bad projects like the Panther, and working with the agencies as much as possible to prevent bad, post-fire logging and promote plantation thinning and other remediating techniques like prescribed fire.

Forest visitors regularly use the area for many reasons including the Sulphur Springs and Norcross Campgrounds and to access the Bear Lake and Bear Creek Trailheads, the Kelsey National Recreational Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail, which lead to the Marble Mountain Wilderness.

Click here to send a letter to Forest Service representatives telling them you oppose the destructive project.

EPIC recently submitted scoping comments on Green Diamond’s new Northern Spotted Owl Habitat Conservation Plan proposal. The new HCP is meant to supersede the existing document and Incidental Take Permits and issue new ones.

Habitat Conservation Plans are a method via the Endangered Species Act whereby landowners can obtain Incidental Take Permits (ITP) for a listed species.  ITPs allow what are considered ‘lawful activities’ i.e. logging, to result in “incidental take” i.e., habitat modification, harm, harassment, or take of a listed species. In exchange, mitigations are proposed, such as set-aside areas.  Despite the name, a Habitat Conservation Plan is more like a habitat modification strategy. (more…)