EPIC is a small organization that packs a giant punch—watchdogging corporations and government agencies in the interest of environmental conservation. We may be small, but with your support we continue to wrangle some big accomplishments. In the last year, we have helped to protect:
Wildlife and mature forests on public lands from logging by...
Commenting on all of the timber sales that were proposed in the Klamath, Shasta-Trinity, Six Rivers, and Mendocino National Forests;
Filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service challenging California’s largest proposed timber sale in modern history, the Region 5 Post-Hazard Tree Project; and
Launching two action alerts that sent hundreds of emails urging President Biden and his administration to create a strong, lasting national rule to protect mature and old-growth forests nationwide from logging.
The planet from climate change by...
Advocating for the timely development and implementation of a county Climate Action Plan that effectively reduces Humboldt County’s emissions to 40% of 1990 levels by 2030 as directed by the state; and
Engaging in the planning process for the Humboldt offshore wind project to help ensure that it will be on the cutting edge of responsible renewable energy development.
631,000 acres of land in California from development and resource extraction through...
Our work with the Power in Nature Coalition towards achieving the state’s goal of conserving 30% of lands and coastal waters by 2030, including attending the 30x30 Partnership Gathering and Protect California Day.
Jackson Demonstration State Forest from further mismanagement by the California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) by...
Filing a protest against two Water Rights Applications submitted by CAL FIRE that would have directly diverted water from numerous salmon-bearing streams; and
Working with lawmakers, local tribes, and forest activists to halt logging, develop a new management plan with environmental review, and advocate for tribal management of the 48,652-acre state-owned coast redwood forest as a cultural landscape.
The ancient redwoods along Highway 101 in Richardson Grove from harm by...
Filing yet another lawsuit against Caltrans after the agency tried for the fourth time to approve its proposed road-widening project, which it denies will impact old-growth redwoods despite new evidence showing how cutting and paving over tree roots does, indeed, cause long-term harm to coast redwood forests.
Endangered salmon in the Shasta and Scott Rivers from extinction by...
Advocating for the State Water Board to establish minimum flows, water diversion curtailments, and enforceable Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) for pollutants for each stream; and
Winning our 2022 lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service challenging the flawed Shasta River safe harbor agreement that authorized take permits for irrigators harming threatened coho salmon and making a mockery of the Endangered Species Act.
Federally threatened northern spotted owls from extinction by...
Filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for violating the Endangered Species Act by issuing a permit to Sierra Pacific Industries (California’s largest landowner) to “take” spotted owls on its private lands;
Filing a complaint with the Forest Stewardship Council against the Humboldt Redwood Company for refusing to implement an invasive barred owl removal program and allowing spotted owls to go extinct on its properties in order to open more land to logging; and
Filing an objection to the proposed Mad River August Complex timber sale on Six Rivers National Forest that led to the U.S. Forest Service agreeing to log 36% less owl habitat totaling more than 100 acres.
Fishers in northern California and southern Oregon from extinction by...
Filing a petition in 2000 and subsequently a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service seeking Endangered Species Act protections for the rare forest carnivore, which this year the Service agreed to consider and decide by 2025.
Beavers in California from extinction by...
Filing a rulemaking petition in 2019 that the California Department of Fish & Wildlife responded to this year by crafting an internal policy that requires a case-by-case examination of “problem” beavers and empowers Department staff to require non-lethal alternatives to killing beavers, which has been the norm with previously lax rules and the Department’s issuance of “depredation permits”.
One of Mendocino County’s four currently active bald eagle nest trees from PG&E chainsaws by...
Working with tribal partners on consultation and launching an action alert that sent hundreds of emails to PG&E demanding that and successfully keeping the tree left standing.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), our state’s foundational environmental law, from...
Well-heeled NIMBYs in the newly-formed group “Citizens for a Better Eureka” who are abusing CEQA by filing frivolous lawsuits against the City of Eureka for allowing infill development of much-needed affordable housing on city-owned parking lots (instead of building on previously undeveloped land).
And finally, 2023 in numbers:
18,075 members and activists
14,981 comments from online activists
135 letters from ally organizations signed onto
108 mentions in the news
100 blog posts
50 public hearings
48 radio shows
37 projects commented on
36 newsletters
16 coalitions/collaboratives
15 action alerts
3 ivy pulls
3 new lawsuits
2 ongoing lawsuits
Happy New Year!
~the EPIC Team