Northwest California's public lands are home to some of the wildest and most spectacular forest ecosystems in North America including four national forests covering more than 5 million acres, and face threats from timber sales, wildfire (mis)management, salvage logging, grazing, mining, illegal water diversions, climate change, and more. EPIC staff and volunteers go out into the field to monitor what is happening on the ground, as well as monitoring, commenting on, and objecting to projects in the interest of environmental conservation.

California's North Coast hydrologic region encompasses 8 counties and 16 watersheds, including the wild & scenic Eel, Trinity, Klamath, and Smith Rivers, and the 12,000-square mile Klamath River Basin. The bioregion's rivers and streams are home to many special species, notably coho and chinook salmon, which are both listed under the Endangered Species Act. EPIC participates in regional conservation groups and utilizes public education, citizen advocacy, and strategic litigation to advocate for clean, cool, abundant water and healthy watersheds from the headwaters to the ocean.

Northwest California's huge diversity of plants, animals, and fungi must be defended from habitat loss and fragmentation, pesticides, invasive species, and more. From the northern spotted owl, Humboldt marten, Pacific fisher, coho salmon, and gray wolf to the coast redwood and Shasta snow-wreath, EPIC works to protect and restore our threatened and endangered species through public education, citizen advocacy, and strategic litigation.

We must decarbonize Northwest California in order to mitigate and adapt to climate change, as well as build energy independence and climate resiliency in our local communities. EPIC is at work on multiple avenues in pursuit of responsible development of a local net-zero carbon economy, including renewable solar and offshore wind energy development, electrification, and development of transportation free from reliance on fossil fuels. Humans are an inherent part of nature, and we have a reciprocal responsibility to steward and nourish our environment.

Habitat connectivity is an important part of endangered species conservation and restoration for facilitating natural movement, as well as increasingly necessary and evident climate migrations. Northwest California's flora and fauna need intact ecosystems and landscapes unencumbered by forest clearcuts, sprawling developments, or snaking roads, highways and utility right-of-ways. EPIC works toward fostering a landscape where all living beings, human and non-human, can live together more symbiotically by advocating for ecological forestry, local renewable energy and transportation, and responsible development.

Fire is a natural and crucial part of California's ecosystems, and enduring fire suppression and forest mismanagement, in addition to climate change, are main drivers for the unprecedentedly severe wildfires the state has seen in recent years. EPIC is working to help incorporate the Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Northwest California's Indigenous peoples to restore good fire management in California. Prescribed and cultural burning, selective thinning, and related measures are tools that can help reshape statewide approaches to wildfire and restore our region to healthy and sustainable cycles of fire.

Ecologically and economically harmful industrial forestry practices such as clearcutting and herbicide spraying still plague our public and private forest lands, threatening biodiversity and one of our most effective natural carbon sinks. EPIC works at every available level to reform and improve forest policy in California by monitoring and commenting on individual timber harvest proposals, engaging in forest policy-related legislation, advocating for improved forest regulations at the State's Board of Forestry, and, when all else fails, taking the fight to court. Timber plantations are not healthy forests.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) are two of the most democratic laws in the United States and a major reason that EPIC can do any of our important work watchdogging public agencies and commenting on proposed projects. The laws require government agencies (federal and state, respectively) to analyze the potential environmental impacts of multiple alternatives for proposed projects, make project planning documents publicly available, and accept and consider substantial public comments before any project is approved or breaks ground.

EPIC's Save Richardson Grove campaign is designed to force Caltrans to abandon one of their more egregious highway widening projects and to publicize and reform flawed decision-making and environmental review processes that allow this destructive project to move forward.