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3/24/13

In honor of the United Nations’ World Water Day, the World Water Monitoring Challenge (WWMC) has made announcement of the recipients of the fourth annual Water Champion awards. Minakshi Arora, Yamuna Waterkeeper, gets international recognition for her outstanding efforts and contribution to the environment.

WWMC is an international education and outreach program that builds public awareness and involvement in protecting water resources around the world by engaging citizens to conduct basic monitoring of their local water bodies. The WWMC Water Champion Awards recognize superior levels of relevance, educational effort, support and innovation in the promotion of water quality via involvement in WWMC.

Arora initiated several educational campaigns to protect waterways and support WWMC. During the 15-day India International Trade Fair, 6,000 school students participated in quiz programs and games, and 20,000 people received information on water quality. As a result, Arora reports that her organization is being asked to provide even more in the way of water quality education.

“Even principals of various schools are asking to train their students to be environmental scientists with the easy WWMC kit,” said Arora. These activities took place October through December 2012 around Delhi, New Delhi, Delhi NCR, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, and some part of Haryana adjacent to Delhi.
The intended audience was local communities surrounding the Yamuna River Basin and school students. Local residents, whose voices are too often ignored, were eager to find out more about the quality of their water. When they were informed of the simple and easy steps it took to know the quality of their water, they came with us and were eager to learn. They not only participated in the testing process but also raised awareness among their peers about the importance of clean water. They shared their stories and pictures, putting pressure on the state and national government to provide access to clean water. It got media mentions on leading websites.

“Local communities and school children were involved in the activities. First they were trained in the testing process and after getting training people from local communities came forward and offered to take this testing challenge to their local waterway,” said Arora. They also pledged to involve others by raising awareness in their areas. Around 400 people and students were involved directly, while 20,000 community members and 6,000 students were made indirectly aware of the importance of clean drinking water and the hazards of polluted water.

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3/24/13

All signs are pointing to a great salmon ocean fishing year, a good follow-up to last year’s record salmon run.

The Pacific Fishery Man­agement Council is seeking public input on its preseason report, which lays out several options for the length of the season and other restrictions for fishing areas along the West Coast.

Council deputy director Chuck Tracy said, “It should be a good year, the forecasts are strong for both the Klamath and Sacramento rivers, which fuel fisheries in Humboldt County.” Both sport and commer­cial fishing seasons could begin as soon as May, according to Reel Steel Fish­ing Charters owner Tim Klassen. The council will meet in April to decide which option for commer­cial, sport and tribal fishing it will recommend to the Cali­fornia Department of Fish and Wildlife, which will finalize the season dates.

“It sounds like there’s not quite the record run like there was last year,” Klassen said, though he thinks sport fishing season will see an early May opening because fish populations are still relatively high.

Humboldt Fishermen’s Marketing Association Presi­dent Aaron Newman said the fishery council alternatives indicate a potentially long commercial fishing season.

“If you look at Horse Mountain south, which is where the guys who do it for a living go, there’s between 110 and 140 days, which is really good,” Newman said.

Newman is also an advi­sor to the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commis­sion, and says he looks beyond Humboldt County waters for what helps the entire industry.

“That was our goal — to find the best salmon fishing opportunity for everyone at large,”he said.“There’s one big pie, and it’s divided up between tribes, commercial and recreational — and between the oceans and river.”

Predicted dry conditions on land could be concerning for tribes and river fishermen — though the effects of drought won’t be felt for several years on ocean fishing, Klassen said.

National Weather Service meteorologist Kathleen Lewis said rainfall is already behind normal.

“It’s expected to be below normal for precipitation, for much of the Northwest,” Lewis said. “It was a drier start to the wintertime.”

Since January, the Eureka area has seen nearly 7 inches of rain, less than half the nor­mal value for the same period of time.

Last year’s banner salmon run coincided with higher than average rainfall — 22 inches from January through March, Lewis said.

“Last year was dry too, but it seemed like we had some good storms that caught us up to normal by the end of wintertime,” she said.

The NWS Climate Predic­tion Center website shows a probability of below-normal rainfall in its three-month outlook, but the weather serv­ice isn’t concerned yet.

“As far as rivers, there isn’t any alarm as far as them being too low on our end,” Lewis said.

Rainfall isn’t the only fac­tor in river levels, and the Hoopa Tribe has already raised concerns about the Bureau of Reclamation’s release of dammed water into the Klamath River.

In a press release, the Hoopa Tribe said the bureau is seek­ing approval “for a controver­sial water plan that reduces water for salmon, even though flows had to be supplemented with Trinity River flows last year to keep salmon alive.”

The tribe seeks to avoid a repeat of low releases in the early 2000s, which they say led to the death of 60,000 salmon.

“After the fish kill, millions were invested in the Klamath and Trinity Rivers to restore salmon,” tribal chairman Leonard Masten said in the release. “These efforts made last year’s record run of salmon possible.”

Newman recommended that people with a stake in the ocean fishing season voice their opinion at a pub­lic hearing Tuesday with the Pacific Fishery Management Council.

“That’s where fishermen can go and basically tell the council how they’d like the options changed or what option they favor,” he said. “Often times, whatever is accepted by the council is a combination of alternatives.”

Whatever is chosen, ocean fishing looks to thrive for the second year in a row.

“We’re all excited after a couple of bad years five years ago,” Klassen said. “It’s nice to see things rebounded so quickly and so strongly. It gives us hope for the future.”

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3/20/13

Concord, Massachusetts has become one of the first communities in the U.S. to ban the sale of single-serving plastic water bottles.

According to the Associated Press, the plastic bottle ban resulted from a three-year campaign by local activists. The activists pushed to reduce waste and fossil fuel use.

Octogenarian Jean Hill lead the charge, telling The New York Times in a 2010 interview, "The bottled water companies are draining our aquifers and selling it back to us." She declared, “I’m going to work until I drop on this."

The campaign Ban the Bottle claims that "It takes 17 million barrels of oil per year to make all the plastic water bottles used in the U.S. alone. That's enough oil to fuel 1.3 million cars for a year." Their website also states: "In 2007, Americans consumed over 50 billion single serve bottles of water. With a recycling rate of only 23%, over 38 billion bottles end up in landfills."

According to the EPA, in 2010, the U.S. generated 31 million tons of plastic waste.

The Town of Concord's website describes the bylaw, stating "It shall be unlawful to sell non-sparkling, unflavored drinking water in single-serving polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles of 1 liter (34 ounces) or less in the Town of Concord on or after January 1, 2013." There is an exemption for an "emergency adversely affecting the availability and/or quality of drinking water to Concord residents."

The first offense results in a warning, the second in a $25 fine, and the third (and each following offense) in a $50 fine. Concord's Health Division staff are in charge of enforcing the ban.

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From County Supervisor Mark Lovelace's Facebook page, 2/25/13

The County of Humboldt is working with Green Diamond Resource Company and the Trust for Public Lands on a proposal to establish a community forest on the property known as the McKay Tract, located southeast of Eureka near Cutten and Myrtletown. Depending on the amount of funding available, the community forest could range from approximately 775 acres up to 1,415 acres.

This proposal is part of a larger effort by Green Diamond to place a conservation easement over the remainder of their land within the McKay Tract. These remaining lands would continue to be owned by Green Diamond and managed for timber production, while preventing any future conversion to non-timber use. Combined, some 7,500 acres would be permanently protected from development.

The Trust for Public Land is working to raise $6.5 million from a variety of federal, state, and private funding sources for this acquisition, and has already been awarded $1 million from the California River Parkways Program and another $1 million from the National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program. If all goes well, acquisition could occur as soon as late 2013.

After purchase, the Trust for Public Lands would convey the land to the County of Humboldt, who would manage the community forest for sustainable timber, public access, recreation and watershed and habitat protection, in a manner similar to the Arcata Community Forest. The forest would become economically self-sustaining over time, with development and maintenance of trails financed through revenues from selective timber management.

The County plans to hold a public meeting in April to provide a project update and receive initial feedback from the community. This feedback will help guide the ongoing development of the management plan. Interested community members can send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to sign up for periodic e-mail updates.