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King Salmon recovery continues as county and partners consider long-term plan

The Humboldt Bay community of King Salmon continues to recover from historical tidal flooding that inundated dozens of homes, reportedly damaged at least two houses beyond repair and displaced a number of community members earlier this month.

This week, in an online meeting organized by the Humboldt Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD), participants gathered to discuss the ongoing recovery efforts and long-term work to keep King Salmon and neighboring communities literally and figuratively above water as sea-level rise, extreme weather events associated with climate change and tectonic forces bear down on a community already accustomed to living with floodwater.

First weekend of January

Whereas King Salmon residents and their neighbors in Fields Landing have dealt with nuisance flooding for decades, the events of Jan. 2-4 were unprecedented in modern record.

According to NWS Warning Coordination Meteorologist Ryan Aylward, water levels in the Humboldt Bay area on Jan. 2 and 3 “far exceeded” previous records for high tides, reaching over 10 feet above Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW) level both days. Levels of 10.01 and 10.37 above MLLW far exceeded the previous record set 20 years ago of 9.98 (adjusted from a previously stated 9.88).

Humboldt COAD executive director Nick Bown-Crawford, who hosted this week’s meeting, noted that 42 homes experienced “major impacts” by FEMA standards, 18 inches of water inundating the property, noting that “just one inch of water in your home can cause tens of thousands (of dollars) worth of damage.”

Immediate needs of the community

Bown-Crawford told the Times-Standard by phone last weekend that Humboldt COAD had initially been contacted by Cal Poly Humboldt personnel working with the county on long-term resiliency plans for the flood-prone southern Humboldt Bay communities of King Salmon and Fields Landing. He said that the organization, which is not a first-responder organization but rather a coalition that works on disaster recovery, has benefited greatly from the university’s students, faculty and staff on the ground and their work as liaisons in the community.

Within a week of the initial flooding, Bown-Crawford said, “we activated on the ground. We immediately connected with the community liaisons and started meeting community members to start establishing an immediate set of unmet needs, with the effort to restore any health/safety issues that might be in the home.”

COAD staff joined the American Red Cross and others in providing relief during the initial flooding. COAD’s efforts included distributing cleaning supplies to prevent mold and working with the county’s Department of Public Works to bring in dumpsters to dispose of waterlogged and mold-susceptible carpets, textiles and other materials, Bown-Crawford said. COAD has distributed food provided by its member organization Food for People and is working to help residents replace damaged and destroyed necessities like water heaters, washing machines, clothing, temporary housing for displaced persons and other needs.

Community members can donate to COAD’s efforts and learn more about the situation in King Salmon at https://www.humboldtcoad.org. The organization is currently looking to provide a number of resources that have been requested by King Salmon residents, including plywood, dehumidifiers and fans, extension cords, towels and bedding, laundry supplies, refrigerators, laundry machines, water heaters, gift cards and transportation assistance.

Bown-Crawford said that the flood will certainly not meet the federal government’s extraordinarily high threshold for an emergency declaration through FEMA and will likely not qualify for many state-administered disaster relief funds, and COAD is working to “start utilizing our full network of NGOs … to try and see where we can fill some of the gaps where people aren’t able to file insurance claims.”

Recovery benefits from researchers’ relationships in the community

Laurie Richmond, a professor with Cal Poly Humboldt’s Department of Environmental Science & Management, co-chair of the university’s Sea Level Rise Institute and active member of the Humboldt County-led FLKS Living With Water project, has been researching life in King Salmon and neighboring communities for a number of years.

In her capacity with FLKS Living with Water, Richmond said, she and her team — graduate students Kailin Sepp and Clara Riggio and community liaisons Niki Sutterfield, Jenica Feite, Maurice Viand and Kathy Moley with the Humboldt Grange and Athena Doyle, an undergraduate student — help to “lead the community engagement piece” of the project.

Their work has included community workshops in Fields Landing and King Salmon, as well as a door-to-door survey of King Salmon’s 207 residences that has provided key information to assess the significance of this year’s flood events.

“We did interviews; we gathered photos; we had participatory mapping exercises where people could, on maps, draw like these are the at-risk areas, and all of that data goes into the vulnerability assessment and thinking about adaptation planning,” Richmond said.

She said that the recent survey effort reached roughly a third of King Salmon households. It recorded that only five respondents reported ever having had water enter their homes in the flood-prone area. More than 40 homes have been confirmed to be significantly flooded this month.

After the Flooding: Charting the course of King Salmon’s recovery

Under sunny skies punctuated by a stiff wind, representatives from a network of community organizations gathered Sunday to help residents impacted by the New Year’s flooding in King Salmon.

Volunteers, many wearing bright orange vests, warmly greeted those walking up to the meeting spot on Buhne Avenue, learning about their situations, listening to their experiences and providing them with information on support services.

Along the seawall separating the town from the dunes that run to Humboldt Bay were bottles of bleach and other cleaning supplies. Nearby a crate of bright green apples and cartons of food sat by a line of water bottles and boxes of pizza for anyone needing a snack or something to take home to eat.

The latest in a series of outreach efforts to take place since the flooding, the Community Support Day organizers say these events and supports will continue as long as needed, including a focus this week on assessing what kind of appliance needs residents are facing and how to meet them.

While the waters have receded after a combination of heavy rain, storm surge and King Tides — which reached a record-setting peak of 10.37 feet on Jan. 3 — inundated the small hamlet over the course of three days, signs of the deluge that flooded some streets waist-high remain evident.

In the absence of a proclamation of a local disaster, Humboldt Community Organizations Active in Disaster is working with a diverse range of partners as a relief bridge for impacted residents, providing support with necessities in the short-term and helping them navigate different channels to access the resources they need to move forward.

Those include, among others, Pay It Forward Humboldt, the Red Cross, the Pine Hill/South Bay Family Resource Center, Humboldt Grange and the county of Humboldt-Cal Poly Humboldt project called Fields Landing and King Salmon Living with Water, or FLKS, along with county agencies.

Where to Donate, Pitch In, and Get Help:

To Learn More: Fields Landing and King Salmon — Living with Water (FLKS)
or check out the FLKS Facebook page.

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Commercial Dungeness Crab Fishery to Open in Humboldt County

The Director has declared(opens in new tab) that the last closed area of the commercial Dungeness crab fishery in Humboldt County [southern boundary of the Reading Rock State Marine Protected Areas (41o 17.6' N. latitude) to Cape Mendocino (40° 10.0’ N. latitude)] will open at 12:01 a.m., Jan. 30 to be preceded by a 64-hour gear setting period beginning at 8:01 a.m. on Jan. 27 under a 15% gear reduction(opens in new tab). State health agencies determined that Dungeness crab no longer poses a significant human health risk due to domoic acid and recommended(opens in new tab) lifting the delay in the area. With this announcement, all areas of the commercial Dungeness crab fishery are open.

The Fair Start Provision(opens in new tab) is triggered when there are commercial season delays along the West Coast for Dungeness crab. This provision prohibits vessels that fished in another area prior to the opening of a delayed area from fishing, landing and transiting in the newly opened area for a period of 30 days. This will apply to the fishing area that is scheduled to open Jan. 30 and vessels subject to Fair Start may not begin fishing in this area until Mar. 1.

For more information, please see the Frequently Asked Questions for the current 2025-26 commercial Dungeness crab season.

Local and State Leaders Slam Trump Administration’s Offshore Oil Drilling Plan at Packed Eureka Public Meeting

California politicians and local activists heavily criticized the Trump administration’s plan to lease coastal waters for offshore drilling today at a standing-room only community meeting.

Held at the Wharfinger Building Sunday morning, over 100 people attended. It was hosted by the Surfrider Foundation, the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), and Humboldt Waterkeeper. Attendees were encouraged to fill out postcards pre-addressed to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum with their hostility to offshore oil drilling.

Politicians from every level of government spoke for an hour, all of them to voice their opposition to the scheme: in attendance was Representative Jared Huffman, state assemblymembers Chris Rogers and Damon Connelly, Humboldt County Supervisor Mike Wilson, Eureka city councilmembers Kati Moulton and Leslie Castellano, and a smattering of other local bigwigs and activists. Huffman, Rogers and Connelly have attended several similar meetings along the California coast in the last few days.

They highlighted the negative environmental impacts of Trump’s plan, who said in November he wants to open up millions of acres along the West Coast and Florida to oil companies. Trump claims that drilling will bolster the economy, creating more jobs and lowering gas prices. Speakers focused on the potentially drastic, negative effects drilling has on the environment, as well as the devastation overusing fossil fuels is already causing to the climate and coastal communities. Many of them mentioned past oil spills that killed untold amounts of marine life and polluted waterways for years, like the 1989 Exxon Valdez, 1969 Santa Barbara, and 2015 Refugio spills.

“Thousands of pounds of toxic sludge are released due to routine operations of these facilities,” said EPIC climate attorney Matt Simmons. “I look out at Humboldt Bay, and I shudder to think about what a similar disaster would be for our community, for the jobs, the livelihoods, the cultures that all depend on the bay.”

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‘Hell no to offshore oil drills’: Standing room only at Sunday meeting with state, local leaders

Hundreds of people gathered Sunday morning at the Wharfinger building in Eureka to hear from local and state leaders about how to fight offshore oil drilling on the California coast.

“This is the time when the federal government is supposed to listen to communities, to people, and not just to the powerful, polluting interests that sort of got us here in this situation,” said U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael). “So we’re here for a couple reasons. First, on the off chance that there’s someone in the Trump administration that still gives a damn about people and communities.”

In late November, the Interior Department announced plans to significantly expand offshore oil production along the West Coast and portions of the Gulf of Mexico.

“We want them to hear loud and clear from us. We want them to know that support for offshore drilling is in the single digits, by which I mean the middle digit,” he continued, holding up his middle finger. “I want to put it in terms maybe Donald Trump can understand. And the other reason is we want to build a record … this fight will go on in different forums. It will go on in politics, in public opinion and in the courts, and we want this record to be loud and clear. … I just want to tell the Trump administration as clearly as I can what part of the California coast they should open up for new drilling. None of it. ”

North Coast Assemblyman Chris Rogers (D-Santa Rosa), echoed Huffman, noting the offshore oil estimates would not replace a coastal economy flourishing without oil extraction.

“What the studies have shown is that this proposal is a bad deal for the North Coast,” he said. “It is not going to lower gas prices, like the Trump administration says, and it’s going to put at risk an economy that we have all worked so hard to rebuild up here in Northern California. Even the rosiest projections of how much money could be made from offshore oil drilling is one-tenth of the amount that the economy of our North coasts represent in California. That’s why our fishermen say hell no to offshore oil drilling. That’s why our tribal leaders say hell no to offshore oil drilling. That’s why the California Chamber of Commerce is even saying hell no to offshore oil drills.”

While the proposal to open up the West Coast to offshore drilling, opponents at Sunday’s meeting noted, includes all along the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, but, curiously, not near Mar-a-Lago.

Local environmental groups pointed to lessons from history.

“I grew up watching the Exxon Valdez (oil spill in 1989), and then the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spills (in 2010) destroyed precious coastlines. Even when offshore oil drilling isn’t a disaster, it’s always a disaster, because thousands of pounds of toxic sludge are released due to routine operations of these facilities,” said Matt Simmons, a climate attorney for the Environmental Protection Information Center, based in Arcata. “I look out at Humboldt Bay, and I shudder to think about what a similar disaster would mean for our community, for the jobs, the livelihoods, the cultures that all depend on our bay.”

Humboldt Waterkeeper’s Sylvia van Royen said the fight is familiar to many.

“In 1987, the federal government proposed oil and gas drilling off the Humboldt and Mendocino coast. … The proposal covered a million acres of ocean, and it motivated an entire county to fight back,” she told the crowd. “… Now we are also dealing with the effects of climate change, such as sea level rise, ocean acidification, marine heat waves that have devastated kelp beds and toxic algae blooms that have absolutely upended the Dungeness crab industry. To curb the worst effects of climate change, we have to stand together and tell the Trump administration our coast is not for sale.”

Local governments are ready to take a stand.

“Not long ago, there were some proposals being floated around about using Humboldt Bay as an export port for coal,” Third District Harbor Commissioner Stephen Kullman said. “The harbor district stood with the community to oppose them passing an ordinance to prevent using port facilities for the export of coal. I’m here to say that the harbor district will do the same in regards to offshore oil drilling.”

Residents are encouraged to file comments with BOEM ahead of the Jan. 23 deadline to oppose the offshore oil drilling proposal.

Submit comments at https://www.regulations.gov/document/BOEM-2025-0483-0001.