Sierra Club Redwood Chapter

Happy Pride Y'all!

Episode 5 of The Climate Dispatch podcast is out and ready for you to enjoy!

https://www.sierraclub.org/angeles/climate-dispatch-podcast

Episode 5: One Too Many Lights

In this episode we sit down with Don Jolley, a middle school teacher in Point Reyes, CA, who leads community stargazing gatherings to discuss the importance of connecting to the night sky.

As light pollution from human developments increases, we learn about what could be lost as with every light that shines in the night, the starry sky above becomes ever more eclipsed.

We also sit down with Sierra Club National Conservation Campaign Strategist Mary Lunetta, and learn about the devastating possible rescinding of the Roadless Rule, which protects 59 million acres of National Forest Land from development. And finally, we speak with Dr. Joey Curti, a postdoctoral researcher at the UCLA La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science, who has studied the impact of the built environment on animals, specifically how light pollution is affecting the bat populations of Southern California.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5x-nWjYI84

One Too Many Lights In this episode we sit down with Don Jolley, a middle school teache...

ACTION ALERT: USFWS seeks public comment on a draft habitat conservation plan (HCP) and environmental assessment (EA) in association with proposed issuance of an incidental take permit to Green Diamond Resource Company LLC in Humboldt and Del Norte counties, California.

The HCP and associated permit, if approved, would authorize the injury or death of federally threatened marbled murrelet during timber harvest operations, but also provides specified protections. Under the draft HCP, the company would create 300-foot buffers around areas where murrelets are known to nest and take actions to reduce raven predation. The company also proposes setting aside about 1,000 acres of land to support murrelet conservation.

According to the USFWS notice, the goal of this plan is to allow sustainable timber harvest in Northern California while helping protect and restore healthy forest habitat for the marbled murrelet.

The public comment period is open through July 3, 2026.

The notice was published in the federal register at this link:
https://www.regulations.gov/docket/FWS-R8-ES-2026-2344 today, June 3, 2026, under docket number FWS- FWS-R8-ES-2026-2344, opening a 30-day public comment period that will extend through July 3, 2026. The draft HCP and EA will be posted for public review and comment on regulations.gov under the same docket number.

Background image sources: USFWS and NPS

Facing a logging plan in your neighborhood?Join u s on June 20 in Southern Humboldt to find out how to file public comments on Timber Harvest Plans. Co-hosted by EPIC and Forests Unlimited.

Timber Harvest Plan Public Comment Workshop Learn how to read, understand, and make comments on proposed logging plans!

Link to the Elsinore Water District's bi-monthly meeting TODAY May 14 at 4pm HERE: https://onbase.evmwd.com/EVMWDAgendas/Meetings/ViewMeeting?id=3106&doctype=1

Stop the Southern California water grab!

ACTION ALERT: Show up at tomorrow's virtual Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District board meeting to support a free flowing Eel River. Click here for instructions on how to join the meeting and participate in public comment: https://mailchi.mp/caltrout/eel-action-may2026

Eel River dam removal is under threat, and we need your help. By now you may have seen the news that Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District (EVMWD), a water district in Riverside County, roughly 600 miles south of the Eel River, is exploring options to purchase the Potter Valley Project, the system of dams on the Eel River. If successful, this action could delay, or potentially derail, the restoration of one of California's most important salmon and steelhead rivers.

CalTrout has spent years working alongside the Round Valley Indian Tribes, Sonoma Water, Humboldt County, the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission, and our conservation partners to build the Two-Basin Solution. This community crafted solution removes the Eel River dams, restores salmon habitat blocked for over a century, and maintains water supply stability for the Russian River basin. The EVMWD proposal threatens all of it.

Let's be clear about what the Potter Valley Project actually is today: a failed hydroelectric project that hasn't generated power since 2021. No serious entity has volunteered to take this on because the liability is enormous and the economics don't work.

So why would a water district 600 miles away be interested? That's exactly the question we want YOU to ask at the Elsinore Water District Board Meeting tomorrow. Attend the virtual EVMWD board meeting TOMORROW, May 14 at 4pm on Zoom.

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The Redwood Chapter's Forest Committee is co-hosting an important educational workshop on Mediterranean Oak Borer June 11th at the Ukiah Civic Center. Mark your calendars!

Register Here: [email protected],-123.210274" rel="ugc" target="_blank">https://act.sierraclub.org/events/details?formcampaignid=701Po00001l4JOjIAM&mapLinkHref=https://maps.google.com/maps&daddr=Protect%20Our%20Historic%20Oaks%20MOB%[email protected],-123.210274

Send a comment to support AB 2494, every voice counts!

AB 2494 Needs Your Support to Pass! - Coalition to Save Jackson Demonstration State Forest A Needed New Paradigm for State Demonstration Forests You can help get this very important bill to the finish line! It is now making its way through the California State […]

Has your ballot arrived? Here are our Redwood Chapter political endorsements! There are some very significant local races that will have a big impact on our rivers, forests, and climate. The environment needs you, please remember to vote on June 2!

Endorsements 2026 EndorsementsOther important links:

California's "State forests: forest management" (AB 2494), sponsored by the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), aims to modernize the management principles that have been governing California’s 14 demonstration state forests that have not been revised for decades. According to the Save Jackson State Forest Coalition, this current framework allows demonstration forests, such as the Jackson Demonstration State Forest (JDSF), to be managed as “industrial timberland(s), routinely cutting large, old redwoods.”

For decades, advocates have sought out a shift for California’s demonstration state forests from a primary focus on industrial logging toward Indigenous co-stewardship, recreation, biodiversity, and climate resiliency. Early reform efforts such as SB 1648 in the early 2000s set the stage for later action, including the creation of the JDSF Advisory Group in 2008 and grassroots organizing through the Save Jackson State Forest Coalition in 2020. By 2023, calls for co-management and climate-aligned forest goals by leadership from Tribal advocacy and growing public advocacy, led to the creation of AB 2494.

Dating back to 1947, state demonstration forest management has prioritized a commercial logging mandate. AB 2494 would put an end to this mandate and shift management efforts towards “biodiversity conservation, fire resilience, outdoor access and recreation, and co-governance with Indigenous and Tribal people,” as stated by the Save Jackson State Forest Coalition. It also hopes to “influence the timber industry by demonstrating restoration logging practices,” per EPIC.

On March 23rd, AB 2494 was heard by the California Assembly Natural Resources Committee; it now will head to the Assembly Appropriations Committee before a Senate Natural Resources hearing.

In the meantime, here are some ways you can support this bill:
1. Sign EPIC’s petition in the comments section.
2. Run or cheer on runners at the AIM 500 Mile Spirit Runners Prayer run Sunday April 12! Go to Coalition to Save Jackson Demonstration State Forest's website in the comments to learn more!
3. Share this post with your community

Sources in the comments!
Photo: Alicia Bales

The Redwood Chapter stands with the community of Jenner and the Russian River. Protect Sheephouse Creek!

Sonoma County family’s logging plan for Jenner forestland riles coastal community, environmentalists A plan to log across much of the 1,099-acre private forest near the outlet of the Russian River has riled the small community, raising concerns about impacts on drinking water and imperiled salmon runs.