(above & below) Workers protest after Maxxam's hostile takeover of Photo: EPIC Archives

The North Coast Restoration Jobs Initiative, Humboldt County's blue-green group, is rapidly approaching its third year of collaborative work toward nurturing the creation of high skilled, high-wage jobs restoring the damaged environment. Led by a Steering Committee comprised evenly of environmental (including EPIC) and organized labor representatives, the North Coast Restoration Jobs Initiative meets monthly to discuss and act on issues affecting watershed restoration and economic and ecological sustainability and recovery.

Environmental issues in Humboldt County are a top concern for many residents, ranging from forest health to efforts to build a liquefied natural gas import facility outside Eureka (a proposal that was stopped). At the same time, local families suffer from a 6% unemployment rate and an astounding 19.5% poverty rate. Amidst the rhetoric of Jobs vs. the Environment, Steering Committee members of the North Coast Restoration Jobs Initiative banded together to focus on creating Jobs FOR the Environment, laying to rest unsophisticated assertions intent on pitting one against the other.

According to studies by Forest Community Research (a Taylorsville, California-based non-profit organization), watershed restoration is already a vital component of the economy of Humboldt County, bringing in more than $14 million during 2002 alone. The North Coast Restoration Jobs Initiative believes it makes sense for local community and economic development leaders to further pursue opportunities to enrich and support watershed restoration, both because it heals ecological wounds and also because it creates jobs for rural and urban families.

North Coast Restoration Jobs Initiative meetings generally take place on the third Thursday of each month, from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and are open to the public. Meetings are held at the Labor Temple in Eureka, located at 840 E Street. For more information, contact Andrea Davis at (707) 498-4481 or adavis@inreach.com.