ERRP monitors ecological conditions of Eel River
“Know Your Nonprofits” is a weekly column in the TimesStandard that takes an in-depth look at nonprofit organizations throughout Humboldt County. This week’s featured nonprofit is the Eel River Recovery Project. Patrick Higgins, managing director, answered the following questions.
BRIEFLY DESCRIBE YOUR ORGANIZATION AND ITS MISSION »
The Eel River Recovery Project scopes communities throughout the Eel River watershed to understand what they see as problems and opportunities, then we try to get resources to apply to those problems or take advantage of opportunities. We assist citizen monitoring to help local folks take the pulse of the river and work together with us to help devise a strategy for ecological restoration and then work together to implement it.
WHEN AND WHY WAS THIS NONPROFIT FOUNDED? »
This nonprofit was formed in 2011 as a sponsored group of the Trees Foundation after a convening meeting at Emandal on the upper Eel River in Mendocino County. Twenty-four committed people from all over the watershed crafted an agenda for action derived from previous community scoping meetings and work began, with basinwide temperature monitoring, fall Chinook assessment and public education related to water conservation. We became our own 501c3 in 2016 to be better able to deliver resources to the community.
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WISH MORE PEOPLE KNEW ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION OR THE ISSUES THIS NONPROFIT IS TRYING TO SOLVE? »
We hope that people realize, if we work together and in harmony with nature, that we can restore the amazing Eel River ecosystem and in part buffer ourselves from climate change. A key issue of our time is forest health, and we need to change our mode of extraction to helping the forest recover from past impacts so that we get associated ecosystem services like more clean water, fish, improved biodiversity, reduced flood risk and also risk of catastrophic fire. In the lower Eel River, there is a habitat crisis that could cause a fall Chinook fish kill and we need to organize (to) fix it.
Where does most of the nonprofit’s funding come from? We have about 800 members and also some benefactors that support the Eel River Recovery Project, but we are also recipients of several large grants. These include the State Coastal Conservancy Prop 1 fund that is aimed at water conserva
tion and erosion control in the Tenmile Creek watershed near Laytonville. The State Water Resources Control Board 319h grant fund is geared towards reducing water pollution and they are supporting restoring 620 feet of eroding stream bank. The California Climate Investments funds granted by the California Natural Resources Agency, Department of Conservation through the North Coast Resource Partnership support our forest health work in the Tenmile Creek watershed. Over in Covelo in eastern Mendocino County, we have won a Department of Water Resources grant to fix the banks of Town Creek with bioengineering.
How can people get involved with your organization? People can check out our website at www.eelriverrecovery.org and learn more about us and maybe join. We love holding community events where we can connect with people and volunteer energy really makes them happen, but right now the pandemic has limited those opportunities. If people want to get involved in monitoring their creeks or section of river, they can call me at 707-223-7200 to volunteer or request assistance. A fun way to stay in touch is our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/EelRiverRecovery/) and now we also have a Zoom series where people can connect. If you have ideas for organizing and getting involved, reach out. We are an open, collaborative circle.
TELL ME ABOUT A FEW OF YOUR ORGANIZATION’S RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS »
We have recruited volunteers from throughout the watershed and monitored fall Chinook salmon from 2012 to 2020 and published reports and even made a movie available from our website entitled “Signs of Resilience.” We have documented temperature and flow conditions deploying hundreds of automated temperature sensors throughout the watershed and reporting results.
Since our inception, we have promoted agricultural best practices to try and get cannabis farmers to pollute less and to conserve water and held five Water Day events in Southern Humboldt. We are now working actively in the Tenmile Creek watershed to work with people to obtain grants for additional water storage so that they can forbear from withdrawal of water from creeks in summer and fall.
Maybe most importantly, we are helping develop a forest health management plan template that could be adopted in all North Coast watersheds to speed implementation of forest and grassland health restoration. Although our plans are only conceptual, we are working towards salmon parks that would be reaches of the river where habitat was improved and recreational opportunities developed.
WHAT CHALLENGES HAS THE PANDEMIC CREATED FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION AND HOW HAS THE NONPROFIT DEALT WITH THOSE CHALLENGES? »
Not being able to meet in public makes organizing more challenging and we really miss the person to person contact with our members and the community. But not traveling and having fewer obligations allowed more focus on obtaining grants and we have been successful in that regard during the pandemic.
WHAT’S THE BEST WAY FOR PEOPLE TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT YOUR NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION? » Website, Facebook and our Vimeo channel (https://vimeo.com/eelriverrecoveryproject) or call me at 707-223-7200.