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9/6/11

Nine pelicans and one western gull that were exposed to fish-oil in Crescent City were released today after being washed by dedicated staff and volunteers at the Humboldt Wildlife Care Center.

On August 24 Arcata-based Bird Ally X, a non-profit advocate for wildlife and wildlife rehabilitation, received word of Brown Pelicans in trouble in Crescent City Harbor. Young
pelicans were contaminated with "fish oil." coming from the cleaning stations at the public dock.

The next morning, Bird Ally staff, in partnership with Humboldt Wildlife Care Center went to Crescent City and discovered at least 2 dozen juvenile Brown Pelicans heavily contaminated. Large bins of fish-waste at a local cleaning station were open to the young, inexperienced birds, eager for an easily gotten meal. It takes experience and maturity to get your living from the cold waters of the North Pacific and these birds, fresh from the nest, rely on bays and sheltered coves as training ground for a life at sea. Use to being fed by their parents, it is an easy switch to scavenging and begging. Securing the fish-waste bins was the first step toward solving the problem. An easy fix, HWCC, working with the Crescent City Harbor District, added hinged lids to the bins. Less easy is the rescue and rehabilitation of the impacted wildlife.

"Fish-oiled" birds require treatment almost exactly as if they had been caught in an oil spill. They need first and foremost to be washed, but they also require medical attention, food and medicine. Housing before being washed is needed, as well as housing that provides room to recover and regain strength so that they may be released back into the wild.

Humboldt Wildlife Care Center is committed to providing that care. Had this been a petroleum oil spill, the State of California has in place a response network to care for impacted wildlife. Fish oil however is beyond the legal mandate of this network. While HWCC has the support of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network and California Department of Fish and Game in tackling this problem, the financial cost of the level of care these birds need is high. Each pelican can eat up to 10 pounds of fish every day. We are relying on the North Coast community, and beyond, to help us give these birds another chance.

So far, the HWCC has spent over $4000 responding to this event, not including food - 110 pounds of night smelt every day. 

To donate or volunteer, contact them at

Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, PO Box 4141, Arcata Ca 95518

822-8839

or visit their Oiled Pelican site for updates and more info.

9/6/11

Three forums will be held this week to discuss the health of the Eel River, covering public health danger posed by toxic algae, the potential for salmon recovery and opportunities for people to get involved in helping restore water quality.

While Chinook salmon and winter steelhead populations are rebounding due to wet weather cycles and productive ocean conditions, Eel River water quality is decreasing, and toxic algae is now pervasive during late summer in the Van Duzen, South Fork and lower Eel rivers.

Harriet Hill of the Humboldt County Public Health Department will present information on Wednesday and Thursday evenings in Fortuna and Redway on toxic algae problems in the Eel River. She will describe what blue-green algae is, what causes it to bloom, what the health hazards are and what people can do to help prevent this condition.

Fisheries biologist Patrick Higgins will present information from a 2010 fall Chinook survey wherein he estimated that 10,000 to 30,000 fish returned to the Eel River watershed, the most since 1985-88 and possibly since 1955-58.

Larry Desmond, owner of Mendocino Waterworks, will make a presentation at a Saturday morning meeting in Willits. He has been involved in all aspects of water development and purification for more than 25 years.

Times and locations of forums are: Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. at the Monday Club, 610 Main St. in Fortuna; Thursday, 6:30 p.m. in Redway at the Healy Center conference room, 456 Briceland Road; and Saturday, 10 a.m. at the Little Lake Grange, 291 School St. in Willits.

There is no charge for admission, and refreshments will be served. For more information, call 707-923-4377.

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8/26/11

In the wake of the retirement of Peter Douglas after 26 years as executive director of the California Coastal Commission, it's hard to improve on the Associated Press report that broke the news: "They might not know his name but the millions of visitors annually lured to California's 1,100 miles of coastline are no doubt familiar with his work."

Meaning Douglas is largely the reason why long stretches of unspoiled coast have stayed that way, despite enormous pressure to render them otherwise.

The notion now being eagerly lobbied by the Pacific Legal Foundation, longtime foe of the Coastal Commission and the Coastal Act, is that his replacement should be chosen with an eye toward the selection of someone more moderate, more pragmatic, more balanced in his approach; specifically, someone more inclined to give additional weight to the wishes of developers so that the scales might be allowed to tip less often toward the mandates of public access and resource protection.

The only thing one need consider about this proposal is its source. It is a roadmap to the realization of an ill-concealed agenda, but it has nothing to do with the reality of California coastal politics.

It assumes the tilt in the playing field between the public and private sectors is the opposite of reality. When it comes to coastal development, regulators and public interest advocates are as outgunned, out-funded, out-lobbied and outmuscled by private interests as routinely as they are in every other arena of our society. That is the reality. The public interest is served only by people who are willing to fight for it.

That's why what the commission needs is another tough, passionate, full-throated advocate who knows coastal law and coastal politics backward and forward and who sees our relationship to the natural world as Aldo Leopold saw it, not as the Irvine Company sees it.

We need someone who knows how Leopold felt one afternoon in New Mexico in 1909, when, in the course of seeking to assure sufficient supplies of deer for hunters, he shot a wolf. He approached her body just in time to see "a fierce green fire dying in her eyes." He came to realize the value of wolves and wildness.

The testament and summation of Aldo Leopold's land ethic is "A Sand County Almanac."

For Peter Douglas, the testament and summation of his land ethic is the California Coastal Act.

The replacement for the commission's first executive director needs to embody those qualities to the maximum extent practicable. If we get anything less than that - which is to say, more moderate and pragmatic than that - we will live to see the end of California's wild coast.

Andrew Christie is the director of the Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club in San Luis Obispo.

8/21/11

With 37 million people, it's remarkable that California has one of the most pristine coastlines in the United States. One man and the organization he's built are responsible for protecting it.

Highway 1 hugs the coast from Mexico to Leggett in Northern California, connecting you to the Pacific Ocean in a way no other road in the country does. In some stretches it's breathtaking and hair-raising; in others it's the most tranquil drive you'll ever take.

It goes through quintessential 1950s California beach towns. It has hairpin turns, open farm fields and hundreds of miles of unspoiled farmland. It's the kind of road built to be driven in a Porsche with the top down. The almost 400-mile coast drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco should be on everyone's "do it before you die" list.

Along the 45-mile stretch from Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz there are no stoplights and less than 5,000 people.

Yet there's no rational reason most of the 1,100 miles of the California coast should look like this. Thirty-three million Californians live less than an hour from the coast. It's some of the most expensive land in the country.

Here's why most of the coast looks like this: Almost 40 years ago the people of California passed Proposition 20 -- the Coastal Initiative -- and in 1976 the state legislature passed the Coastal Act, which created the California Coastal Commission. The Commission acts as California's planning commission for all 1,100 miles of the coast. Its staff of 120 recommend actions to the 12 commissioners all political appointees who make the final decisions.

Among the Commission's charges are: 1 maximize public access to the coast and maximize public recreational opportunities in the coastal zone consistent with sound resources conservation principles and constitutionally protected rights of private property owners. 2 assure priority for coastal-dependent and coastal-related development over other development on the coast.

Last week, the single individual responsible for running the Commission staff, Executive Director Peter Douglas, announced his retirement after 26 years on the job.

Unlike Robert Moses who built modern New York City or Baron Haussmann who built 19th-century Paris in concrete and steel, the legacy of Peter Douglas is in what you don't see along California's coast: wetlands that haven't been filled, public access that hasn't been lost, scenic areas that haven't been destroyed.

An old political science rule of thumb says regulatory agencies become captured by the industries that they regulate within seven years. Yet Peter has managed to keep the Commission independent despite enormous pressure.

The Commission has been able to stave off the tragedy of the commons for the California coast. Upholding the Coastal Act had it taking unpopular positions, upsetting developers of seaside projects, homeowners who feel that private property rights unconditionally trump public access, and local governments that believe they should have the final say in what's right for their community.

Peter opened the Commission to public participation and promoted citizen activism. He built a world-class staff that understands what public service truly means.

The coast is never saved; it is always being saved. The work is never finished. The pressure to develop it is relentless, and it can be paved over with a thousand small decisions. I hope our children don't look back at pictures of the California coast and wistfully say, "look what our parents lost."

We commissioners must choose Peter's replacement. Hopefully we'll have the wisdom in finding a worthy successor. The people of California and their children deserve as much.

Steve Blank is a member of the California Coastal Commission.

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