A few local environmental organizations have put together a new website, which was announced on Monday, with aims to answer questions about offshore wind and help people learn about the massive projects in development stages in Humboldt County.“I am currently reading through questions that people are submitting and writing up new answers. And so if you have a question about offshore wind that you want someone, who isn’t a developer, a representative of a local environmental nonprofit to research and try to answer, this is the place to do it,” said Matthew Simmons, climate attorney for the Environmental Protection Information Center in Arcata, reached by phone Tuesday.The website, www.northcoastoffshorewind.org, has contributions from EPIC, Humboldt Waterkeeper and the Redwood Region Climate and Community Resilience Hub (part of the Humboldt Area Foundation).With offshore wind development off the coast of Humboldt County likely at least a decade away, including a planned offshore marine terminal set to be built in Humboldt Bay and two lease areas with developers off the coast of Eureka, Simmons says this website is laying the groundwork for both keeping the community informed about the projects in development in Humboldt County and to preemptively dispel persistent myths about offshore wind. Simmons said that the organizations are putting out factual information, with citations and sources, in part to combat misinformation about offshore wind, such as wind turbines causing whale deaths.Keep reading
In the third episode of Humboldt Waterkeeper's special series on communities at risk from sea level rise, we hear from long-time residents and relative newcomers who share their thoughts and concerns about sea level rise. We are also joined by Laurie Richmond of the Cal Poly Humboldt Sea Level Rise Institute, which is a network of academics, tribes, government agencies, NGOs, private consultants, and civic and community groups working to envision the future of our region. How will we adapt to increased flooding and rising groundwater in low-lying areas? Whether we decide to protect certain areas, relocate critical facilities, or figure out how to live with rising water levels, major changes are on the horizon. The good news is that we have time to plan, and a lot of people are thinking deeply about these issues.Many thanks to Hilanea Wilkinson, Maurice Viand, Lia Stoffers, Weeramon Sudkrathok ("Cake"), Laurie Richmond, and to Jessie Eden, who produced this episode with funding provided by the California Coastal Commission Whale Tail Grant Program.For more info: Cal Poly Humboldt Sea Level Rise Institute's Digital Commons (reports and publications on sea level rise) California’s new Sea Level Rise Guidance Wiyot Tribe's Climate Adaptation Plan Episode 1: Is Humboldt Bay the Canary in the Coal Mine for Sea Level Rise? Episode 2: Can We Clean Up Humboldt Bay Before the Sea Rises?Tune in to listen to the show or download it wherever you get podcasts.
California adopted new sea-level-rise guidance for local and state planners today.TLDR: It won’t be apocalyptic in the short-term, but it’s bad, and you should pick your path now.By design, the Ocean Protection Council’s document is more diagnostic than prescriptive. It doesn’t really say what to do about existing infrastructure like Big Sur’s portion of Highway 1 that keeps falling into the ocean. Nor does it mention the most foolproof — and controversial — way to reduce risk: “managed retreat,” or simply moving inland.Rather, it updates sea-level-rise projections, ranks their likelihood and suggests deciding what to do with coastal projects based on their importance and life frame.Some experts and environmental groups are concerned it doesn’t go far enough in offering managed retreat as an option.“It feels like a little bit of a worrying trend,” Laurie Richmond, a professor at Cal Poly Humboldt and a co-chair of the university’s Sea Level Rise Institute, said in an interview. “I’m proud of our state, and I think we’re real leaders on a lot of this, and there’s a lot of support for sea-level-rise planning and innovative thinking, but I don’t want us to backslide.”Keep reading
Next week, the company that leased swaths of ocean space roughly 20 miles west of Eureka to build offshore wind turbines will begin gathering data on the site’s biological and geographic characteristics.RWE contracted with ocean surveying company Argeo to examine the ocean floor and identify its plants, animals and geographic specifications, data that could help determine where exactly the floating turbines are placed. The area off the coast of Samoa where the turbines would be built doesn’t have much high-quality data about it, said Rob Mastria, RWE’s project director for Canopy, their offshore wind project off the county’s coast.“We use them (Surveys) to figure out what our lease area looks like and several aspects related to that, like actually mapping the contours of the seafloor, getting an indication of what the soil looks like, below the seabed as well as learning more about are there any hazards or sensitive areas to avoid, what are the organisms and life on the seafloor and the habitats in the area,” Mastria said.Mastria estimated that turbine construction would likely begin in the early to mid-2030s, and his company’s work until then involves acquiring the necessary permits and conducting community outreach. He added his company hopes the heavy lift terminal – an infrastructural overhaul of the Samoa marine terminal meant to facilitate offshore wind construction and maintenance – succeeds, but it’s not completely essential for the project to proceed, noting RWE could use other ports to ship up materials.Keep reading
A new paper gives voice to the residents of King Salmon — California’s community hardest hit by rising seasDue to tectonic activity, the land around Humboldt Bay is sinking, amplifying the impacts of rising oceans. In King Salmon, the seas are rising three times faster than the national average. “It’s easy to think about climate change as something happening way in the future,” says Kristina Kunkel, who recently published a paper with Professor Laurie Richmond on her findings. “Like, ‘maybe we don't have to really think about it much yet.’ But King Salmon shows how it’s happening right now. That’s revelatory, for some people.”Given how few people had heard from King Salmon’s residents, Kunkel’s advisor Laurie Richmond wanted to ensure that the research wasn’t overlooked.
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