EcoNews Report
A weekly environmental news roundup produced in Arcata, California by Tom Wheeler (Environmental Protection Information Center), Alicia Hamann (Friends of the Eel River), Jen Kalt (Humboldt Waterkeeper) and Colin Fiske (Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities).
Episodes
301 episodes
Wildlife Crossings Help Wildlife and Motorists
Roads are a significant barrier to wildlife movement, whether you are a small salamander or a wandering wolf. Environmental activists like guest Steve Blackledge of Environment America have been advocating for the construction of wildlife cross...
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Season 2026
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Episode 265
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28:29
Fix Fourth and Fifth Streets in Eureka!
There is a traffic safety crisis on 4th and 5th Streets in Eureka. These streets are extremely dangerous for people walking, biking, and rolling. While Caltrans has made some improvements to crosswalks, there are currently no plans for major sa...
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Season 2026
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Episode 264
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28:51
Climate Action Theatre
On this week's EcoNews Report, we are doing something a little different: climate action theatre. Environmentalists drone about the climate crisis a lot, laden with statistics, science, and doom-and-gloom stories, hoping that with just a little...
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Season 2026
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Episode 263
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29:22
Dealing with Eco-Anxiety
Does thinking about the climate crisis get you down? Do you feel guilty about your consumption? Do you feel overwhelmed thinking about all that dooms our planet? Your emotional response to the state of the environment is understandable—good eve...
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Season 2026
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Episode 262
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29:24
Poems for a New Year
Local poets Jerry Martien and Katie Gurin join us for what has become a lovely annual tradition of reflection on the past and the new year ahead.
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Season 2025
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Episode 261
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28:59
The Temperate Rainforests of North America
The temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest, stretching from Alaska all the way down to the redwoods of California, are some of the most productive and biodiverse forests on the planet. In terms of total carbon sequestration and storage,...
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Season 2025
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Episode 260
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27:44
Local Governments to Finally Take Action on Climate Change?
The long-awaited Humboldt Regional Climate Action Plan—a multi-jurisdictional strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions—is finally up for approval before the Board of Supervisors. (We say finally because the document, which sets emis...
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Season 2025
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Episode 259
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26:32
Exploring the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, a Unique California Landscape Just a Few Hours From Humboldt
This week on the Econews Report, we’re joined by Marc Hoshovsky and Bob Schneider, two of the authors of the new book Exploring the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, which will be published early next year by Backcountry Press...
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Season 2025
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Episode 258
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28:18
What’s So Special About the Siskiyou Crest?
On this week’s EcoNews Report, we take an audio tour of the Siskiyou Crest with Luke Ruediger, chief evangelist for the rugged and wild mountain range that connects the Coast Range with the Cascade...
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Season 2025
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Episode 257
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29:10
Tell FERC That Eel River Dams Gotta Go!
This week on the EcoNews Report we're excited to share that the comment period for Eel River dam removal has finally opened! Tune in to hear co-hosts Tom Wheeler of EPIC and Alicia Bales of the Redwood Chapter of the Sierra Club talk with Alici...
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Season 2025
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Episode 256
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29:10
The Water Remembers with Amy Bowers Cordalis
The Yurok people are a fishing people. Since time immemorial, the Klamath River provided for the Yurok, with salmon, eels, eulachon, and other food. Colonization fundamentally upset the balance that existed. The Yurok faced genocide, and those ...
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Season 2025
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Episode 255
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29:33
Northern Humboldt Indians
On this week's EcoNews Report, historian Jerry Rohde joins the show to discuss his new book, Northern Humboldt Indians, which you can download as an e-versi...
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Season 2025
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Episode 254
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29:29
The Week Without Driving in the Rearview Mirror
Approximately a third of U.S. residents are non-drivers. Some by choice, but many are physically incapable of driving or financially cannot afford to. The Week Without Driving is an annual campaign that encourages people, especially those who d...
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Season 2025
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Episode 253
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29:26
Assemblymember Connolly Reflects on the Legislative Session
Assemblymember Damon Connolly joins the program to break down what was a historic legislative session. The legislature made major revisions to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) with the stated purpose of helping to build more hous...
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Season 2025
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Episode 252
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28:10
Are Your Easter Lilies Poisoning the Smith River?
For decades pesticide-intensive farming of Easter lily bulbs on the Smith River Plain has contaminated groundwater and surface waters of the Smith River estuary, threatening the health of wildlife and humans along one of California’s healthiest...
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Season 2025
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Episode 251
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28:48
Rethinking High-Severity Fires?
High-severity wildfires that burn communities are obviously bad. But what about high-severity fire that burns in the backcountry? Guest Dr. Dick Hutto, Emeritus Professor of biology and wildlife biology at...
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Season 2025
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Episode 250
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29:23
You Should Attend the Eel River Community Meeting
On this week's episode of the Econews Report we discuss restoration planning in the Eel River with a rockstar team of restoration experts. Your host Alicia Hamann of Friends of the Eel River is joined by Kaydee Boozel from the California Depart...
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Season 2025
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Episode 249
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25:17
What Will Humboldt County’s New ‘Dark Skies’ Ordinance Accomplish?
Humboldt County just took a big step towards protecting our night sky! In August, the Board of Supervisors approved the Inland Outdoor Lighting Ordinance, regulating outdoor lights to limit light pollution and light trespass. This is a signific...
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Season 2025
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Episode 248
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27:11
New Crosswalk, Who Dis?
Government often moves slowly. This is a problem when there are immediate safety concerns for a street. The solution: Quick-build projects, which employ cheap and quick materials, like paint or plastic bollards. You may have seen this strategy ...
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Season 2025
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Episode 247
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29:20
Talking CEQA Reforms
Hating on environmental laws is now a bipartisan activity. California Democrats have leaned into the “Abundance agenda” — a progressive case for weakening regulations to build more housing, renewable energy, and other public goods — to take swi...
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Season 2025
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Episode 246
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29:21
Electrifying Your Home is Cheaper Than You Think It Is, and You Can Find Out About It All at Tuesday’s Electrification Fair
Been thinking about that induction stove? Or maybe a nice new heat pump? Of course you have! It’s the 21st century.On Tuesday, 350 Humboldt and a bunch of allied organizations are hosting an ...
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Season 2025
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Episode 245
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27:46
The Next Big Step Toward Eel River Dam Removal
PG&E recently tendered its License Surrender Application and Decommissioning Plan for the Potter Valley Project to the Federal Energy...
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Season 2025
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Episode 244
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28:47
A Geological Perspective on Last Week’s Quake
We rarely post reruns, but this show from last December is quite relevant in light of the magnitude 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula last Tuesday. The subsequent tsunami watch along the West Coast soon became ...
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Season 2025
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Episode 243
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27:30
A New 353-Acre Reserve on Baduwa’t
Siskiyou Land Conservancy just finalized a new acquisition of 170 acres on Baduwa’t, joining a 183 acre property that the Conservancy acquired earlier in the year, to create a 353 acre reserve. Baduwa’t i...
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Season 2025
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Episode 242
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28:54
Batteries and Achieving 100 Percent Renewable Energy
To reach 100% renewable energy, we will need to store large amounts of energy generated from “intermittent” sources — things like solar or wind that only produce power sometimes. Large-scale industrial battery storage is one way to store this e...
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Season 2025
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Episode 241
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29:03