It’s been a while since we’ve communicated with you, and you can likely guess the reasons. Everyone is overwhelmed dealing with our world in 2020, and the hits keep on coming. But the issues we care about are not only still there, but most campaigns and work have higher stakes, sooner deadlines, and greater needs for active involvement. Some news from the inspiring activists out there “doing the work” follows.
Redwoods, Frogs, Birds and Fish: They Need Each Other and We Need Them to Thrive.
You may remember previous news we have sent you about the many-years-long efforts to protect the floodplain area and its sensitive species at the mouth of the Gualala River on the Northcoast from aggressive logging. Recently, the Friends of Gualala River (FoGR) and the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) joined forces to file an endangered species lawsuit against the state forestry agency for failing to protect threatened and endangered species in the redwood forest faced with industrial logging, in violation of the Endangered Species Act. Those species include the Calif. Red-legged frog, Marbled Murrelet, Northern Spotted Owl, Coho Salmon and California Steelhead.
The Gualala River ecosystem suffers from decades of abuse by the Gualala Redwood Timber Co. and the acreage contains some of the last mature floodplain redwood forest in the area, and some of the last refuge for these species. The logging plan is called the Dogwood Timber Harvest Plan and was approved by the California Dept. of Forestry, or Cal Fire, in violation of the law, say CBD and FoGR.
For more info, see FoGR’s site and their Facebook page. They are raising funds to support the lawsuit, a formidable task given than they are a small volunteer grassroots group. Lend them your support.
(photo: California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii) lives and breeds in ponds, wetlands, and the Gualala River floodplain. Photo by Gary Nafis CaliforniaHerps.com)
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In the Bay Area there is action for other species in addition to Solidarity actions for Black Lives Matter, pipeline protests, and a lot else, as people get creative to stay safe and challenge what we must. Coming up this weekend:
Elk, Wildlife and National Park fans – – the time is NOW to stand up for the elk in Pt. Reyes 
Text below is from the activists—or elktivists—putting this event on:
Demonstration Sunday, Sept. 27, 11 am – 2 pm, Pt. Reyes National Seashore
The exact meeting place will be posted on the FB event page
You can hike and picnic afterwards. Most of the Park has reopened post-fire.
News from the National Park Service (NPS) just broke that the NPS is going to allow more cows and other livestock into Point Reyes National Seashore — and shoot the native Tule Elk!
Why? To prop up private, for-profit ranches and dairies that were paid millions of dollars to leave the park years ago. The NPS calls shooting elk “management.” The organizers call it killing wildlife in a National Park for private industries that have no business in Point Reyes since 1987.
Tragically, elk are already dying and are in trouble already because of California’s drought. By our own photographic documentation, 15 elk have died from the drought, prevented from foraging for food & water by an 8-ft tall, miles-long fence. See ABC coverage here.
We were 50-elktivists-strong last Sunday (9/13). Our goal for Sept 27th is 100 people. We invite you to be one of them!
Organizers say this will be a safe, legal and heart-centered action.
National parks are for live elk, not livestock!
Come save the Tule elk, save the park, and reduce the damage of polluting cattle operations to Point Reyes, and to humanity’s life support system, Mother Earth.
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Keep Genetically Engineered Trees Out of Native Forests!
The US Dept. of Agriculture is poised to decide whether to green-light the planting of genetically engineered American Chestnut trees in U.S. forests. This would be the first GE forest tree released in the US, opening the floodgates to others. These GE trees will spread their pollen and seeds freely.
It would also be the first-ever intentional release of a fertile genetically modified organism (GMO) into wild ecosystems, opening the door to other uncontrollable GMO releases.
Engineers think they can (re) create nature in the lab, but neither trees nor any species can be replaced by with GE facsimiles. Decades of progress to restore wild American chestnut trees would be lost. This is not restoration, but a dangerous open-air experiment.
There are no long-term risk assessments of this plan and scientists warn such assessments are not possible. American chestnuts can live hundreds of years and have deeply intertwined relationships with other trees, and with insects, songbirds, and other wildlife.
Join individuals and organizations across the world in demanding the rejection of genetically engineered trees. This kind of dangerous experimentation with our forests cannot be allowed.
Sign the petition here!
Get more info at the Global Justice Ecology Project’s Stop GE Trees Campaign.
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Please support BACH with a donation today. Donate online at http://HeadwatersPreserve.org by clicking on the donate button, or send a check made out to Ecology Center/BACH can be sent to Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters, P. O. Box 2072, Berkeley, CA. 94702.