“Light pollution can actually impact wildlife's entire life cycles because it can disrupt hormonal balances. And that has this like cascading effect into their sleep cycles. Their reproduction cycles, etc.. And light pollution can impact a migratory birds ability to even undertake, migration along migration route,” said Sylvia van Royen GIS and Policy Analyst for Humboldt Waterkeeper.Humboldt Waterkeeper has been on the frontlines in the local movement to reduce light pollution. Lightbulb brightness and hue restrictions are important aspects of these policies.Van Royen says that an easy way to reduce light pollution on a personal level is to use motion detecting sensors and warm lighting 1100 lumens or less.Read more and watch the interview
It might be a little easier to see the stars over Humboldt Bay soon.The Arcata City Council voted last night to adopt a comprehensive update to the local coastal program, the policy framework for development and land use for properties that lay within the coastal zone. The last comprehensive update was completed in 1994.Many of the changes reflect an increased understanding of how sea level rise will affect Arcata in the coming decades. City staff organized all of the land in the coastal zone into different areas, based on the important infrastructure located in each one and how likely they are to be underwater in the coming decades.One of the most interesting additions to the program is the adoption of Dark Sky guidelines that will regulate electric lighting in the coastal zone. The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors passed its own Dark Sky program last year. The rules prohibit using light fixtures that bleed excessive amounts of ambient light into the sky, which increases light pollution and makes it harder to see the stars.All outdoor lighting fixtures in the coastal zone must be shielded or recessed; the light it emits has to be restricted to the property it’s located on.Director of Community Development David Loya said at last night’s meeting it was the influence of Humboldt Waterkeeper, a local advocacy group dedicated to environmental preservation, that made the city decide to add the Dark Sky guidelines to the program.Humboldt Waterkeeper’s Policy Analyst Sylvia van Royen told the Outpost that they had been keeping an eye out for other opportunities to implement Dark Sky policies since they’d convinced the county to adopt one. Codifying these rules ensures that it’s not just up to individuals to keep the view nice, van Royen said.“It will make our night skies a little more visible, and reduce the ‘sky glow’ from the city of Arcata,” van Royen said. “[Humboldt Waterkeeper executive director] Jen [Kalt] just sent me a picture last night of the Arcata Bottoms from McKinleyville at, like, 8 p.m., and you can see the sky glow of the whole city from that far away, and that impacts wildlife, and our ability to see the night sky and stargaze, things like that.”Large amounts of light pollution also can mess with migratory birds’ homing instincts, she said; Arcata’s coastal zone, which includes the marsh, is home to many of them.Keep Reading
The California Coastal Commission is set to hear the City of Eureka’s request to formally toss an abandoned plan to rezone the Balloon Track — the plan that once aimed for the property to become the Home Depot-anchored Marina Center development.In a report, Commission staff recommended the body that regulates land use along the coast finally deny the 2011-era application that would have amended the city’s local coastal plan.The effort, which Eureka voters supported in a 2010 ballot measure, would have rezoned the 43-acre property to support commercial, office, residential and open space uses.But it sat lingering at the Commission, which must approve zoning changes in the coastal area before they can take effect, for nearly 13 years, with the official status sitting at “incomplete and inactive.”The city hopes that if the application is officially denied next week, the path would clear for future planning of the site which hasn’t been in use since the 1980s.The Eureka City Council, with support from property owner Security National, voted to withdraw the Coastal Commission application back in November. Commission staff instead are recommending that it be officially denied, for procedural purposes. The Commission says the proposed changes don’t meet requirements in the Coastal Act.Keep Reading
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced a step toward leasing areas for offshore oil and gas drilling in California this week, by launching an associated environmental process.BOEM announced Thursday the department would prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement for lease sales in northern, central and southern California.A soon-to-be-released statement will primarily concern sales planned for 2027 in central and southern California, according to BOEM.A Northern California lease sale is proposed for 2029, according to a BOEM document.This is a California-specific part of a broader effort by the Trump Administration to open lease areas in federal waters across the country for sale to oil and gas companies, with an aim to restore domestic energy production.The notice for leases in southern and central California will be published Friday in the Federal Register, which opens a 30-day public scoping period, according to BOEM.During this period, “BOEM invites input from tribal, state, and local governments, stakeholders, and the public. Comments will help identify key issues, reasonable alternatives, and potential mitigation measures for consideration in the programmatic environmental impact statement,” the BOEM press release said.Matt Simmons, attorney for the Arcata-based Environmental Protection Information Center, which is opposed to offshore drilling, argued any environmental considerations by the federal government on drilling will be “sorely lacking.”“The Trump EPA has very partisanly and very openly talked about how they want to deregulate,” he said.Despite EPIC’s skepticism the feds will undertake a robust environmental review, the organization is urging the public to comment on the environmental effects of offshore drilling in California.“This is the part of the process where you tell the EPA what they need to consider in their draft, before they write the draft,” explained Simmons.Public comment information can be found at: www.boem.gov/CA-OGPEISRead More
Seven years after publicly announcing plans for a huge land-based fish production facility on the Samoa Peninsula, Nordic Aquafarms quietly abandoned the project altogether.Last month, Nordic CEO Charles Hostlund submitted paperwork to formally dissolve the company’s California-based affiliate. The move came almost exactly a year after Nordic Aquafarms dropped plans for a similar fish factory in Belfast, Maine.Reached via email, Humboldt Bay Harbor District Executive Director Chris Mikkelsen confirmed that the company has bailed on Humboldt County.“We are aware that Nordic no longer intends to pursue a project on the Samoa Peninsula and are working with Nordic and the County for the orderly wind-down of the project,” Mikkelsen wrote in a reply email.Keep Reading
