Enviro Updates – An environmental newsfeed for Sonoma County

Crews start work on long-awaited Highway 101 bridge

April 10, 2026

Natalie Hanson, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Crews will break ground Saturday in Santa Rosa on a long-awaited bike and pedestrian bridge over Highway 101, beginning the process toward building a new corridor for people traveling by foot and bicycle.

Santa Rosa City Council unanimously approved a $37.6 million construction contract, awarded to Ghilotti Construction Co., to begin work on the bridge by summer 2027. The bridge, stretching across the six-lane highway, is planned to help link commercial, government, employment and health care hubs and connect to the SMART passenger rail line via a crossing at Jennings Avenue.

The Highway 101 project has long been identified as a critical link in Santa Rosa’s bicycle and pedestrian network spanning Edwards to Elliott Avenues, connecting the Coddingtown area to the Santa Rosa Junior College area.

The city says the project will improve safety while reducing travel times for students, commuters and residents.

Transportationbike/pedestrian bridge, Highway 101 bridge, pedestrians, traffic, walkable community

‘End of an era:’ Russian River watchdog stepping back

April 8, 2026

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The record heat that last month barreled into the final days of winter in California ushered in the sounds of summer along the lower Russian River. Beachgoers laughed and splashed as kayakers and paddleboarders paraded between the banks, all of them beckoned to the water weeks earlier than most years.

Still, the soundtrack was music to Brenda Adelman’s ears.

The 86-year-old activist has for more than half her life fought to clean and protect the Russian River, serving as a chief watchdog and champion for the 1,500-square mile watershed.

At the outset of her work in the early 1980s, the lower river was still used by Santa Rosa as the primary way to dispose of its wastewater. That is no longer the case in large part due to unrelenting pressure from Adelman and allies at that time, whose broader legacy over the ensuing decades would include greater public recognition and regulatory care given to the river — a lifeblood for residents, visitors and farms alike, and a sensitive refuge for wildlife.

The Russian River Watershed Protection Committee, the nonprofit Adelman launched and led through that era, made its mission in holding local and state government accountable for the river’s health and restoration.

Waterendangered species, Russian River, Russian River estuary, Russian River Watershed Protection Committee, wastewater overflow, water pollution, water quality

Santa Rosa cyclists enjoy new parking, rideshare opportunities

April 7, 2026

Natalie Hanson, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Santa Rosa cyclists are starting to see more bike facilities on some of the city’s busiest throughways, which city leaders credit to ongoing work to improve transportation opportunities.

Drivers and riders on Mendocino Avenue may have noticed new bike parking racks placed at different points along the throughway, particularly closer to downtown and near the heaviest trafficked part of the business corridor. The racks, built in an upside down “U” shape, are intended to offer cyclists new options in the public right-of-way. These are part of the city’s improvements between 4th Street and 10th Street, completed as part of the city’s Capital Improvement Program project which included pavement maintenance and new Class II bike lanes, along with similar work on several other downtown streets.

City spokesperson Misti Wood said the city obtained grant funding through the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s Transportation Fund for Clean Air program.

Transportationbicycle infrastructure, bicycle-friendly

Op-Ed: Never give up! Every ton of carbon we can cut still matters

April 6, 2026

Dan Farber, LEGAL PLANET

It’s easy to be disheartened when we miss climate targets. But climate change isn’t a yes/no thing. It’s a matter of degree.

It’s easy to lose heart about our prospects for limiting climate change. The US has pulled out of international climate negotiations. Most of the countries that joined the Paris Agreement have missed targets , targets that weren’t aggressive enough in the first place. The 1.5° target is already basically out of reach. Is it time to give up on slowing climate change and focus on adapting to it? The answer is no. Here’s why we need to continue the fight to reduce carbon emissions, even in the face of setbacks.

Climate change is a matter of degrees. That sounds like a truism or a pun, but it’s true in a deeper sense. There is no point past which further warming becomes irrelevant. The harm from 3.0°of warming is worse than 2.5°. which is worse than 2.2°, which is worse than 2.0°. And so forth. So even if we were to blow past every temperature target we’ve ever set, every ton of additional carbon dioxide would raise the temperature some fraction of a degree, and every fraction of a degree makes things worse.

Climate Change & Energyclimate action, ghg emissions, ghg reduction

Tracks blocked from trail takeover

April 3, 2026

Austin Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT

A minor legal defeat suffered by the Great Redwood Trail Agency is being hailed as a major cause for celebration among some North Bay railroad enthusiasts.

A February ruling by Surface Transportation Board, an obscure but powerful federal agency tasked with regulating the nation’s freight rail network, has, in an indirect way, breathed new life into train buffs’ hopes for a return, someday, of rail service to communities along the Highway 101 corridor from Cloverdale to Willits.

The ruling is the upshot of a legal move that began two years ago when the public agency spearheading the planning and construction of most of the 320-mile Great Redwood Trail between San Francisco and Humboldt bays filed a petition with the Surface Transportation Board. The filing related to a different section of North Coast railroad — the Mendocino Railway line, popularly known as the Skunk Train, which runs 40 miles west to east, from Fort Bragg to Willits.

The petition sought the board’s authorization for what is called a third-party, “adverse” abandonment, part of a formal step that’s been used to convert mothballed segments of the nation’s vast network of commercial rail lines into trails over the past several decades.

Land Use, TransportationGreat Redwood Trail, railroad, Skunk Train, trains

Neighbors voice concerns with planned senior housing development on Highway 12

March 25, 2026

Paulina Pineda, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The latest proposal for housing on a 69-acre expanse off Highway 12 in eastern Santa Rosa faced close scrutiny and even outright opposition from some neighbors who packed a Monday meeting to get a first look at the project.

For about an hour, the new developers and city staffers were hit with comments from concerned residents who worry adding hundreds of new residents there would worsen congestion on the narrow, two-lane highway, particularly during an emergency.

Critics also raised concerns about the project’s impact on wildlife and water resources.

The discussion held at the Oakmont Village East Recreation Center served as a first public test for affordable housing developer Burbank Housing, which purchased the property three years ago.

Burbank’s proposal calls for 275 apartments and single-family homes in a 55-and-older mixed-income neighborhood.

Land UseBurbank Housing, Elnoka/SESR, Highway 12, Oakmont, traffic, wildfire evacuation, wildlife corridor

Logging plan for Jenner forestland riles coastal community

March 23, 2026

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

For several generations, the Berry family has logged the forest on their sprawling coastal property near the mouth of the Russian River to feed a sawmill they continue to operate a few miles upstream.

But the family’s latest plan for 1,099 acres of forest they own overlooking the river near its outlet at Jenner has riled this small community, raising concerns about the long-term impacts on drinking water and imperiled salmon runs that have yet to recover from a century of destructive commercial logging.

Bruce Berry, proprietor of Berry’s Mill and Lumberyard in Cazadero, is seeking state approval to thin his family’s forestland, which borders the river’s north bank, with the protected Jenner Headlands Preserve to the west.

The proposal has sparked concerns among some local residents and with environmentalists, who have waged a larger fight in recent decades over the scope of modern commercial logging on the coast. Stretching back to the Gold Rush-era, the region was razed for its redwoods and fir trees, producing lumber that helped build San Francisco — and rebuild it after the 1906 earthquake and fire.

Forestscoho salmon, Douglas fir, redwoods, Russian River, salmon habitat, Sheephouse Creek