When I got to Arcata I was briefly involved in writing about forest issues, principally for a documentary film called Voices of Humboldt County: The Cumulative Impact. Professionally it's not one of my happiest memories in that I was never paid and though I got screen credit, that usually doesn't show up in online citations. But in shaping and writing the script (including final draft) I learned a lot about the effects of cutting too many trees in the wrong places, not only on the forest habitat and on local landowners (the destruction caused by flooding made worse by over-cutting prompted the docu) but on salmon habitat.
A rapacious timber company is still alive in the legacy of Humboldt, as evidenced by this letter to the editor by one of the principals involved in that documentary, Dr. Ken Miller (you'll have to scroll down for it, to the subtitle "Gallegos’ proud record as DA") which details some of the conflict of interest, chicanery and mendacity involved in local government as well as the company involved.
But the current threat to salmon habitat comes from the new biggest industry in HC: pot growing. According to another NPR report:
"According to critics, marijuana plantations guzzle enormous amounts of water while also spilling pesticides, fertilizers and stream-clogging sediments into waterways, including the Eel and the Klamath rivers, that have historically produced large numbers of Chinook salmon and related species."
So the first part of the problem is the huge amount of water these "plantations" are said to be taking out of streams, to the extent that many are drying up. That particularly critical because the North Coast along with the rest of California is in drought, and it's getting worse. Here it is mid January and there are forest fires already in the county. Tuesday in Arcata hit 68 degrees, and Wednesday 73--these would be unusually warm temps in summer. Right now it's supposed to be mid 50s and raining. We've had one day of rain this month. Wells are drying up and folks are using water reserves they normally don't touch until late summer.
Salmon need water--cool water-- in streams and rivers.
That puts the focus on the largest users:
"According to Bauer, 24 tributaries of the Eel River — in which once-enormous spawning runs of Chinook salmon have nearly vanished — went completely dry in the summer of 2013. Each, Bauer says, was being used to irrigate pot farms. As a result, Bauer expects to see poor returns of Chinook and Coho salmon, as well as steelhead, in several years. While 2013 saw record-low precipitation in California, drought, Bauer says, is only part of the problem, and he still blames marijuana farmers."
The other problem is the pesticides that the new industrial pot growers are using:
"Fertilizers that drain into rivers can cause floating carpets of algae to grow in the water. When these mats begin to decay, the breakdown process steals oxygen from the water, suffocating fish. Bauer has discovered pools full of dead adult Chinook salmon — fish full of eggs, he says, that had not yet spawned."
"Scott Greacen, the executive director of Friends of the Eel River, warns that, unless pot growers are more closely regulated, some of California's North Coast salmon runs could be looking at extinction."
These issues are part of a very active public dialogue in Humboldt and the North Coast: the redwood forests may have receded in political consciousness, but salmon and weed remain hot topics, and are as least as crucial as cultural as well as economic and ecological issues. Southern Californians may be more used to water as a political issue. Now the North Coast welcomes you to the climate crisis.
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