Sign up for our Arcata1.com Newsletter

Arcata1.com on your desktop for a bigger view. Learn more about our city.

No menu items!
type here...
Search Arcata1.com


Arcata and The Environment
Local, Regional, National, Global

 

Arcata

The draft Environmental Impact Report

The 3D images in the draft Environmental Impact Report

A series of 3D images that show the potential construction of four buildings in the Gateway Area. Rare views of a partial look of potential 7-story buildings. ******** MUST SEE ********

An annotated Table of Contents for the Draft Environmental Impact Report

Here is an extended and annotated Table of Contents for the 1,990 page Draft Environmental Impact Report. The Contents that came with this 1,990 page report consisted of 32 lines. This annotated contents has over 600 entries, to enable the reader to scan and find items within this document.

The Documents of the General Plan Draft Environmental Impact Report

The General Plan 2045 draft Environmental Impact Report was released to the public on January 29, 2024. These are the sections of the full document, in smaller PDF files for easier reading and downloading.

The General Plan Draft Environmental Impact Report is here — 1,990 pages

The General Plan 2045 draft Environmental Impact Report was released to the public on January 29, 2024. The public comment period runs until March 18, 2024, 5 p.m. At 1,990 pages, this draft EIR is another example of the Gish Gallop -- lots of information, but not easy to find what is pertinent.

Arcata General Plan 2045 Environmental Impact Report – Notice of Preparation

The "Notice of Preparation" for the EIR for the Arcata General Plan 2045, including includes analysis of the Draft Gateway Area Plan as a new  element of the General Plan. Dated:  February 2, 2022.

The Environment - Local issues

Dr. Wendy Ring: The Scotia Biomass power plant operation needs to be shut down

Presentation from Dr. Wendy Ring on the carbon emissions, pollution, and health hazards of the Scotia biomass-burning electrical power plant. 21 minute video plus 15-minutes reading material.

Environmental Planner Aldaron Laird: Local sea level rise consequences are going to be ‘mind boggling’

Reading time: 10 minutes -- Question: On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is the issue of sea level rise in this area? Answer: I would say it’s a 10. The significance of the change that we’re going to see over the next 40 years is going to be mind boggling.

California Coastal Commission hears about the Gateway Area Plan

Reading time: 4 minutes -- At some point in the approval process of the Gateway Area Plan, State law requires that the plan come to the California Coastal Commission for review. This is a short introduction of the Gateway Area Plan, as presented to the Coastal Commission on September 7, 2023.

Local Coastal Program – Scoping Meeting – December 18, 2023

On December 18, 2023, the Community Development Department hosted a public workshop to learn about, discuss, and contribute comments to Arcata's Local Coastal Program update. The workshop was held on a Monday from 4:30 - 6:00 PM, which prevented regular working folks from attending. The workshop was not recorded by the City. This is the presentation, in text and slides, from Amber Leavitt -- Coastal Resiliency Supervisor, North Coast District, California Coastal Commission. The comments from the participants will be assembled by City Staff and made available soon.

Local Coastal Program: “Because the public is super-confused.”

A conversation from the Local Coastal Plan workshop, December 18, 2023. "Who actually determines the ultimate scope of the EIR? And at what point do they determine that? You just need to clarify to the public -- because the public is super-confused."

HSU professor emeritus honored with environmental award

Bob Gearheart helped create the Arcata Marsh in 1985. Gearheart was honored with an environmental award on May 7, 2019 for his longtime work on natural treatment systems such as the Arcata Marsh. This artic;le originally appeared the Times-Standard.

Could Gateway’s Barrel District be 100% free of cars?

How about taking a big section of the Gateway area that could have housing for a thousand people -- and making it entire car-free from the start -- by designing it that way. Includes articles about the Culdesac car-free housing development in Tempe, Arizona. Reading and viewing time 7-15 minutes.

Could Gateway’s Barrel District be 100% free of cars? — Part 2

Culdesac became an urbanist darling in the US for its project in Tempe, a built-from-scratch zero-driving development that is transforming a vacant lot near a light rail stop into the kind of dense and walkable neighborhood that advocates say could be a model for other places trying to shun American-style car-centricity.

Linear Park and Woonerf examples for us to look at

What concepts for a full-width Linear Park in the L Street Corridor would work for Arcata? Here are some images from other cities to show what's worked for them.

The Environment - Global issues

In India, tumeric is processed with poisonous lead

The spice tumeric, used for curries and health benefits, is often contaminated with lead, which is used to enhance its yellow color. The FDA has no standards for the amount of lead allowed in spices. In Southeast Asia, where tumeric is grown and widely used, lead poisoning in children is a major issue. Bangladesh recently took steps to prohibit the use of lead additives. India, the world's largest producer and exporter of tumeric, should do the same, but at this time has not.

In India: Drug given to cattle killed 90% of the vultures. Result: 500,000 human deaths

Reading time: 3 minutes -- Nine species of vulture can be found living in India, but most are now in danger of extinction after a rapid and major population collapse in recent decades. The vulture population has dropped 99% -- from 40 million to 19,000. The result: Rotting cow carcasses, spreading disease, and over 500,000 human deaths.

Climate Change in the media — over 150 years ago

Reading time: 6 minutes -- Climate change and the effects of Carbon Dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels was all discussed in the press over 150 years ago. Here are some articles from 1867, 1896, 1912, and more.

What We Owe Our Trees – The New Yorker magazine

"Even if you haven’t been to the woods lately, you probably know that the forest is disappearing. In the past ten thousand years, the Earth has lost about a third of its forest, which wouldn’t be so worrying if it weren’t for the fact that almost all that loss has happened in the past three hundred years or so. As much forest has been lost in the past hundred years as in the nine thousand before"

A vision of sustainable housing for all of humanity – Vishaan Chakrabarti

Vishaan Chakrabarti in a 10-minute TED talk. I believe that the answer is hiding in plain sight, that there is what I call a “Goldilocks” scale that sits between the scale of housing and towers: two- to three-story housing that should actually look very familiar to most of you, because we built the most beloved parts of our cities with it.

Global Issues

“The Old Way” – A story of lions in the Kalahari Desert

"In the nineteen-fifties, when I was in my late teens and early twenties, I lived for some years among the Juwa and Gikme Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert. I went there with my parents, Laurence and Lorna Marshall, and my brother, John, to record the Bushmen's way of life. My own interest was in the lions (leopology, I liked to say), but I had little time to pursue that interest in those busy days. Under any circumstances, though, lions are hard to ignore, so I was able to glean some data on them."

With Spears from all Sides

The Huaorani are an ancient tribe whose survival is threatened by American oil development in the Ecuadorian Amazon. They endured missionary zeal, corporate encroachment, and American environmentalist campaigns claiming to represent their interests. Then the Huaorani tried to save themselves.

Moi comes to Washington, D.C.

In the Ecuadorian Amazon, indigenous Huaorani people waged an exhausting battle against the American petroleum interests that have begun drilling for two hundred million barrels of raw crude under their lands. Then Moi, a Huaorani leader, decided to try the diplomatic route and come to Washington DC. "There are so many cars," he said. "How long have they been here? A million years? What will you do in ten more years? In ten years, your world will be pure metal. Did your god do this?"

.

.

.

Menu

Popular Categories

Top Stories