At long last, the needed removal of four dams along the Klamath River including the Iron Gate, Copco 1 and 2 and John C. Boyle could be removed in the next decade, allowing fish passage through the otherwise blocked river. This access could dramatically improve the health of the mighty Klamath River.

Green Diamond’s application for a new Habitat Conservation Plan(HCP) for the Northern Spotted Owl (NSO) is now past the scoping stage. The US Fish and Wildlife Service and Green Diamond are now in process of writing the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The EIS drafting process involves the development of alternatives to the proposed action, ie. an HCP with corresponding Incidental Take Permits (ITPs). These alternatives must include a no action alternative, i.e. maintaining the status quo.

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!

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.

EPIC contends in its scoping comments on the new Green Diamond HCP that if Habitat Conservation Plans actually functioned to recover species, we would be the first in line to advocate for them. Our experience with Green Diamond’s first HCP and the Pacific Lumber HCP has been that they are a flawed strategy which contribute to decline rather than stability, let alone any recovery, of Northern Spotted Owls. In practice, HCPs undermine the strategy of the Endangered Species Act and do irreversible damage to endangered species habitat …

Fourteen months after Caltrans closed public comment on the draft plan for the Richardson Grove Improvement Project, they have certified the final documents. EPIC and Center for Biological Diversity are teaming up to challenge the plan, as outlined in a media release sent out Wednesday.

Green Diamond has been extremely busy preparing and submitting logging plans in 2010. The timber giant is by far the most frequent logging plan submitter in 2010. So far in 2010, Green Diamond is responsible for 23 of the 43 plans filed in the North Coast Region. These 23 plans cover a total of 1,935 acres.

Private timber operators logged for years without effective regulation, and nearly destroyed the integrity of forest ecosystems for all of the species that depend on them. Since the 1970s local community activists and EPIC have worked to support better logging practices and provide habitat protection in our region, by monitoring industrial timber operations through the Timber Harvest Plan (THP) process.

Who could have thought it so controversial for an environmental advocacy organization to work to protect an old growth redwood grove from the machines of progress, within a State park?
Over the last several years, EPIC staff and volunteers have poured over documents and kept a watchful eye on the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) in an effort to protect Richardson Grove State Park from a proposal to construct a larger highway through the famed gateway into Humboldt County from the south, on Highway 101.