TAKE ACTION NOW! After years of abuse from logging, poorly placed road construction, and indiscriminate impacts from Off-Road Vehicles (ORVs,) the Beegum Creek Watershed in the Yolla Bolla Ranger District of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest still provides essential habitat for at-risk Spring Chinook salmon. Spring Chinook salmon in the greater Klamath basin are currently undergoing a status review under the Federal Endangered Species Act thanks to a petition put forth to the National Marine Fisheries Service by EPIC.

Join EPIC on Wednesday, September 21 between 5:00-10:00 p.m. at the Redwood Curtain Brewing Company to try hand crafted artisan ales and get to know the environmental community in our area.

$1 of every pint sold supports environmental protection of the places we love here on the northcoast. Support a great cause and raise your glass to the Environment!

The Brewery is located in Arcata at 550 South G Street #6. Bring your friends, have a few beers for a good cause and meet some EPIC folks

See you there!

At their July 26th meeting, California’s Wildlife Conservation Board approved 19.5 million dollars of funding for the conservation easement to ensure that the Usal Redwood Forest be protected in perpetuity as a functioning community forest. The funding was awarded to The Conservation Fund, which will purchase and oversee the terms of the easement. There were more than 760 letters/e-mails in support and only 3 opposed. Many of the letters in support of the easement were from people who responded to EPIC’s action alert.

Speak Up to Defend the Clean Water Act! The Clean Water Act is under attack by Republicans and few wayward Democrats in Congress. EPIC is working to defend the Clean Water Act and we need your support to push back against three damaging proposals.

The state parks of California are recognized as one our country’s flagship protected area systems. The California Department of Parks and Recreation manages the entire California State Parks System, which includes 278 parks and 1.4 million acres. The California State Park system contains the largest and most diverse natural and cultural heritage holdings of any state agency in the nation. The California park system is an indispensable element in protecting the natural heritage of our landscapes for future generations. CLICK HERE to send Governor Brown your own personal request to keep our state parks open.

Our state parks are slated for the budget crisis chopping block. This will affect many important parks within our region, including Standish Hickey State Recreation Area, Benbow Lake State Recreation Area, Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park, Fort Humboldt State Historic Park and Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park.
On Friday May 13, Governor Jerry Brown released revisions to his budget proposal, which included major cutbacks and tax increases to bring our state’s almost $35 billion deficit into the black. The Legislature in March approved $11 million in immediate cuts to state parks. As a result of these cutbacks, State Parks officials announced the scheduled closure of 70 parks…

Act now to protect our nation’s most precious resource from pesticide pollution. Currently, over 1,000 of the country’s waterways are known to be polluted by pesticides at levels that are harmful to fish, wildlife, and human health. A 2009 US Court of Appeals case orders EPA to require pesticide applicators to get Clean Water Act permits before spraying toxic pesticides on or near the nation’s waterways. However, current efforts in the US Senate, initiated by the chemical industry lobbyists, are attempting to undermine these environmental protections by eliminating EPA’s authority to issue permits to protect our watersheds from pesticide pollution.

The California Environmental Quality Act has come under attack this year through numerous bills that have been introduced. Five members of the GOP are taking it a step further and are withholding their votes on a budget until sweeping changes to CEQA occur. While the legislators declined to share the details of their proposal, you can view it here and see for yourself.

The Smith River Watershed is one of the crown jewels of the Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion. The crystal clear water provided by the one of the Nation’s largest concentrations of Wild and Scenic Rivers supports some of the best salmon and steelhead runs in the lower 48 states. The metallic serpentine soils provide excellent habitat for rare wildflowers that grow nowhere else in the world. Unfortunately, some people choose to damage this place with their extreme off-road vehicles. Every year more meadows are lost to ORV damage and more riparian areas are damaged by riders who do not respect public lands.

EPIC Art and Book Sale by appointment or during office hours at 145 South G Street, Suite A in Arcata. Call 707-822-7711 for more info. If you missed Arts Arcata, you still have about a month to see our art exhibits and check out the books we have available!! The Environmental Protection Information Center welcomes art and book lovers of all ages to its premiere EPIC Gallery exhibition and booksale. For the first time ever, EPIC participated in Arts Arcata and has amazing art displayed in the office until mid January.

EPIC recently received a generous book donation of hundreds of brand new, hard back, botanical and animal related coffee table books with full color illustrations. These books would easily be worth 30 or 40 dollars in a store (and some are listed for up to $150 new on Amazon.com) but we are offering them for a donation of $15-30!

The Environmental Protection Information Center celebrated 33 years of advocacy work on the Northcoast November 5, when hundreds gathered at the Mateel Community Center to dine, dance and participate in EPIC’s annual membership meeting.

The Navy has proposed to increase its warfare training operations off of the Pacific Northwest. The 134 thousand nautical mile warfare training zone will be used for gunnery exercises, bombing missions, missile and torpedo firing, underwater detonations, research and testing and vessel sinking. They have also proposed the use of hundreds of toxic chemicals like lead, mercury, tungsten, red and white phosphorus, undersea warfare training range exercises, mid and high frequency sonar experiments, both land and ocean exercises will use planes, drones, rockets, and sonic booms.

EPIC had a successful weekend at Earthdance! People from all over the world showed their support for Richardson Grove. A huge thank you goes out to Jeri Fergus for organizing Activist Alley, to the volunteers who tabled the event and to the 1,284 people who took the time to write a post card to the Governer…

State Parks Director Ruth Coleman appears determined to downgrade protection for this ecologically unique and culturally sensitive area at the behest of a few waterfowl hunters. Director Coleman has indicated that it is her intent to open ponds and sloughs in the northern section of the Park to waterfowl hunting before the end of 2010, and is pursuing their reclassification from “Park” to “State Recreation Area.”

A new court decision to revise spotted owl recovery plan is a win for the owls because it forces agencies to review and consider flawed agency actions. The ruling is a step toward federal protection of the northern spotted owls based on best available science. This legal requirement will help the government to fully utilize the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and rely on transparent and scientifically credible implementation measures. The following press release was distributed yesterday.

Similar to the Richardson Grove highway widening project, Caltrans has submitted a proposal for an STAA expansion along Highways 199 and 197 through the old growth redwoods adjacent to the middle fork of the Smith River.

Over the last two decades, EPIC Staff Attorney, Sharron Duggan has assisted Crescent City activists with efforts to protect the Lake Earl and Tolowa Dunes. EPIC is particularly interested in helping to protect Tolowa Dunes State Park and threatened species habitat from off-road vehicle (ORV) abuse.

Executive Director of EPIC, Scott Greacen submitted the following letter to the editor of the New York Times in response to an article that was published covering the Northern Spotted Owl.

To the editor –

So seldom does our society review and reassess big decisions we’ve made, especially about conservation, that it’s especially important that we do a good job when we do take a rare look back in the mirror.