endangered species – Enviro Updates

‘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

State grant gives Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation chance to restore 175 acres of wetlands

March 10, 2026

Anna Armstrong, PRESS DEMOCRAT

A stretch of farmland along the Laguna de Santa Rosa floodplain could become a new home for steelhead, coho salmon and wading birds as part of a major wetland restoration effort now backed by more than $1 million in state funding.

The Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation was awarded a $1.05 million grant in late February from the California Wildlife Conservation Board to begin planning restoring 175 acres of farmland between Sebastopol and Forestville back into riparian and wetland habitats.

The grant marks a major turning point for the foundation, which will now be able to take on its largest singular project in the foundation’s 37-year history.

The site sits along the laguna just north of Gravenstein Highway on land owned by the Lafranchi family ranch, a property that has been farmed for multiple generations. In 2024, Sonoma County Ag + Open Space purchased a conservation easement on a portion of the ranch to ensure it would be permanently protected.

The state funding will cover the costs of the design work, which includes environmental and hydrology studies, engineering plans and habitat assessments.

Habitats, Water, Wildlifecoho salmon, endangered species, Laguna de Santa Rosa, native plants, Russian River, steelhead, streams, wetlands restoration

Round Valley Indian Tribes respond to Trump administration’s attempt to thwart Eel River dam removal

January 31, 2026

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

James Russ and Joseph Parker, the former and current presidents of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, are seeking to make their reservation healthy again.

That means helping their people, they say, and specifically tackling high rates of diabetes and obesity that affect their tribal nation and many other Indigenous communities.

It also means restoring their land and the river that has been intrinsically linked with their people for millennia.

“We are Native people tied to the resources and rhythms of the Eel River,” Parker said. “Our health is connected to the river.”

Now, the tribal nation is confronting the Trump administration over the river’s future and fighting some of its regional allies to reclaim water rights that have been overlooked for a century.

Water, WildlifeEel River, endangered species, Potter Valley Project, Russian River, salmon, salmon habitat, Scott Dam, water diversion

Trial begins in chemical runoff case against tire manufacturers

January 26, 2026

Margaret Attridge, COURTHOUSE NEWS SERVICE

A chemical additive in car tires is leaching into rivers and other waterways, killing protected fish species, lawyers for a conservation group and a fishing trade association told a federal judge during a bench trial in San Francisco, California, Monday.

After a three-day trial, the judge will determine whether tire manufacturers — including Bridgestone America, Goodyear Tires and Michelin North America — are violating the Endangered Species Act by harming protected and endangered fish species like coho salmon, steelhead trout and Chinook salmon.

The plaintiffs claim the tire manufacturers make or distribute products that contain an additive called 6PPD, a chemical that ultimately transforms into 6PPD-quinone when it reacts with ozone. As the tire interacts with the environment and roads, 6PPD-quinone leaches onto hard surfaces. When it rains, the chemical falls into rivers and other waterways, where it can kill fish in a matter of hours, they add.

After exposure, fish start displaying symptoms of urban runoff mortality syndrome, causing them to lose equilibrium and die within a few hours. Even if they’re transferred to non-polluted water before they die, they don’t recover from the syndrome, the plaintiffs say.

Water, Wildlife6PPD-quinone, coho salmon, Earthjustice, endangered species, Endangered Species Act, fisheries, PCFFA, urban runoff mortality syndrome, water pollution

Op-Ed: If feds want Potter Valley dams, they should buy them

December 28, 2025

PRESS DEMOCRAT EDITORIAL

President Donald Trump’s California derangement syndrome is back as his administration tries to prevent PG&E from removing aging dams in the Potter Valley Project.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has moved to intervene in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission process to determine whether PG&E may tear down two dams and a mothballed powerhouse. Rollins wants FERC to deny the application.

Agriculture secretaries often get involved in these sorts of proceedings. Major changes to watersheds can impact farmers, after all. What is unusual in this case is that in supporting irrigators, a supposedly pro-business administration undermines private enterprise.

PG&E wants to surrender its license for the hydropower system on the Eel River because it now costs more than it is worth. The dams and powerhouse are more than a century old and are nowhere close to meeting modern standards. They require costly repairs and upgrades to remain safe. PG&E absorbs those costs, and no doubt passes some onto ratepayers.

Water, Wildlifedams, Eel River, endangered species, Potter Valley Project, Russian River, salmon, salmon habitat

Trump administration intervenes in dispute over future of Potter Valley Project

December 20, 2025

Phil Barber, PRESS DEMOCRAT

See also the article by the Lost Coast Outpost

Opponents of a plan to remove two Pacific Gas & Electric-owned dams from the Eel River in Lake and Mendocino counties have officially won a huge ally: the Trump administration.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Friday filed a notice to intervene in the utility giant’s bid to decommission its waterworks in the rural area, which also include a century-old power plant that helps to shunt Eel River water into irrigation canals that support Mendocino County’s Potter Valley and dump into the upper Russian River, boosting supplies for farms and hundreds of thousands of urban dwellers in the North Bay.

PG&E’s application to decommission the so-called Potter Valley Project is being considered by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, which oversees licensing of the nation’s hydroelectric facilities.

Water, WildlifeEel River, endangered species, PG&E, Potter Valley Project, Russian River, salmon

Coho salmon found in Sonoma Coast creek for first time in 60 years

December 8, 2025

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The excitement started with a flash of silver followed by a hefty dose of disbelief.

A team of conservationists and biologists from The Wildlands Conservancy, the nonprofit that manages the 5,600-acre Jenner Headlands Preserve on the Sonoma Coast, couldn’t believe what they were seeing: the telltale color and shape of juvenile coho salmon, darting back and forth in the clear current of the East Branch Russian Gulch.

It had been decades since the endangered fish had made its way to that arm of the watershed.

And yet there they were, as Ryan Berger, Corby Hines and Luke Farmer of The Wildlands Conservancy looked on.

“I had never heard of coho being in the Russian Gulch in recent memory,” said Hines, a ranger with the group.

Coho salmon once thrived in the coastal watersheds of Sonoma County and the broader North Coast, where winter rain, summer fog and the protective canopy of towering redwood forest sustained young fish and spawning adults over millenia.

Habitats, Water, Wildlifecoho salmon, endangered species, redwoods, Russian Gulch