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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.

Meeting planned to oppose Trump offshore drilling proposal; Public comments due January 23

Environmental groups and elected officials are hosting a meeting Sunday in Eureka that aims to collect public opposition to a Trump administration plan to expand oil and gas drilling off the coast of California.

Advocates say that with the plan’s public comment period open, someone needed to host a local event to garner opposition.

“The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is not holding any public meetings regarding this plan. Because BOEM is not doing this, we are stepping in, kind of filling its place. Public comment is an important part of the consideration of whether or not to lease offshore drilling areas, at least according to the law,” said Tom Wheeler, executive director of Arcata’s Environmental Protection Information Center.

The five-year draft plan proposal released in November includes one lease in federal waters off the coast of Northern California to be sold in 2029, along with five other sales in the state.

The proposal includes opening up to 1.27 billion acres along the coast of Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific coast. Cities, counties and elected officials have broadly expressed opposition to drilling in California.

In anticipation of the proposal, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors narrowly passed a resolution opposing offshore drilling in October.

The event Sunday will include North Coast representative Jared Huffman (D- San Rafael), state Assemblymember Chris Rogers (D-Santa Rosa), local officials and Assemblymember Damon Connolly (D-San Rafael).

Politicians and environmental groups will detail what they’re working on to stop the plan, hear comments and rally in opposition to the plan. Environmental advocacy groups have hosted similar events along California’s coast.

Wheeler hopes the event, which saw over 100 RSVP by Friday, prompts hundreds of people to sign public comments to fight back against the Trump administration’s effort.

“I hope that this is part of a larger collective of resistance to this plan that ultimately results in its demise,” he said.

Humboldt Waterkeeper and the Surfrider Foundation will join EPIC at the meeting.

Jennifer Kalt, executive director of Humboldt Waterkeeper, remembers volunteering to clean birds after an oil spill in Humboldt Bay in the 1990s.

“There’s money to rescue individual animals that have been oiled and wash them and rehabilitate them and release them, but the majority of them don’t survive the trauma of that,” she said.

She said more oil and gas wells could mean spills reaching Humboldt Bay, if the Trump administration’s plan is successful.

Public comments are just a piece of a puzzle as part of the pushback against offshore drilling in California. Advocates hope local and state regulations will mean hurdles in the effort they called broadly unpopular.

“Whether they listen to public sentiment and elected officials in the state of California or not, there are still regulations in place,” said Kalt.

If you go

What: Town hall

When: Sunday from 10 a.m. to noon

Where: Wharfinger building, 1 Marina Way, Eurela

The event is planned to be recorded and broadcast over Access Humboldt at a later date. RSVP at tinyurl.com/ywz3dp37

The comment period ends January 23 at 8:59 p.m. PST.

You can review the plan and submit comments online, or via U.S. mail by sending an envelope labeled “Comments for the 11th National OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program” to Ms. Kelly Hammerle, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (VAM-LD), 45600 Woodland Road, Sterling, VA 20166-9216.

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