Presentation to the Washington Department of Ecology: 6PPD-Q State of the Science Forum on December 9, 2025 Presented by Laura Baker, Friends of Gualala River, and Timmarie Hamill, CA Urban Streams Alliance-The Stream Team Abstract In 2022, CA Urban Streams Alliance-The Stream Team (The Stream Team) expanded its long-standing watershed monitoring program and began collaborating with Friends of Gualala River …

Gualala Redwood Timber’s 167-acre Card Timber Harvest Plan (THP 1-26-00021-SON) is located in the floodplain on the west side of the South Fork Gualala River, from confluence of the North and South Forks, down past Buckeye Creek. The plan was submitted to Cal Fire on February 20, 2026. This is essentially ‘Dogwood West‘ – the Dogwood THP was entirely in …

Press release from Save the Redwoods League [excerpt:] San Francisco, Calif. (January 27, 2026) — Save the Redwoods League announced today that it has secured an agreement with the Richardson family to acquire 200 acres in Sonoma County, including a nearly 35-acre old-growth coast redwood grove, directly adjacent to the Harold Richardson Redwoods Reserve property Save the Redwoods acquired from …

by Mandela Linder, The Mendocino Voice, January 24, 2026 [excerpt:] MENDOCINO CO., 1/24/26 — After decades of decline, endangered coho salmon have returned to the coast in numbers that more than double the targets set by habitat restoration projects. In 2008, just 5,000 coho were estimated across the entire state, one percent of their historic numbers; over the winter of …

by Eel River Recovery Project, Dec. 13, 2025 Chinook salmon were thought to have gone extinct in the Garcia River after the 1950s but they are showing up again as the river goes into its second decade of recovery. It has been protected by the Garcia River Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) constraints under the Clean Water Act that has …

by Sarah Stierch, The Mendocino Voice, December 11, 2025 [excerpt:] MENDOCINO CO., 12/11/25 – Juvenile coho salmon have been documented in a tributary of the Russian River in Mendocino County for the first time since 1991, state officials announced Thursday. A juvenile coho salmon found in Ackerman Creek near Ukiah, Calif. on Friday, June 20, 2025. Pinoleville Pomo Nation Water …

by Amie Windsor, The Press Democrat, December 8, 2025 [excerpt:] 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 …

Drone video of Gualala River estuary and mouth on Nov. 17, 2025. River mouth is open after heavy rain. Drone video courtesy of Bonny Dunn.

November 18, 2025For immediate release from Friends of Gualala RiverContact: Laura Baker, 510-684-4572, Lbake66@aol.com With the return of fall storms, Friends of Gualala River in partnership with The Stream Team and other volunteers have launched their second season of testing Gualala stormwater for a potent toxic chemical found in tire grit. The chemical is extremely hazardous to salmonids, especially coho …

Tires treated with 6PPD (which becomes 6PPD-Q) will be with us for a very long time before manufacturers find new alternatives and old tires are removed from the environment. These toxic compounds will continue to affect human health and the health of the environment for decades to come. But in the meantime, here are a few simple steps that you …

May, 2025by Timmarie Hamill, Director, The Stream Team Brief summary: “The results suggest runoff pollution primarily originates from gas stations, parking lots, and Highway 1. For instance, 6PPD-q levels ranged from 71 to 179 ng/L at the Gas Station, Parking Lot, and Footbridge sites, compared to 14 to 28 ng/L at the Above Trinks site. Zinc levels followed a similar …

May, 2025 by Greg Kamman, Professional Geologist & Certified Hydrogeologist Brief Summary: “Because the Project schedule is advancing quickly, we recommend that the Friends of Gualala River convene a meeting with Caltrans and cbec to discuss the findings and conceptual BMP recommendations presented herein. Given The Stream Team’s water quality monitoring expertise and experience in pollutant reduction BMP design, we …

Thursday, November 13, 2025 at noon: Gualala River lagoon is full to the brim after heavy rain and before the mouth opens. Thursday, November 13, 2025 at noon: Gualala River mouth is still closed after heavy rain. The river mouth started to breach around at 5 pm Thursday, on a rising high tide, which equalizes tide and lagoon water levels …

Join us for a community event celebrating the Gualala River and connect with those who are working to protect it. The event is organized by the Redwood Coast Land Conservancy. When: Saturday, October 11, 2025 from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. Where: Gualala Arts Center, 46501 Old State Highway, Gualala, CA 95445 Stop by educational booths to connect with state, federal, …

photo credit: Apple On September 23, 2025, Apple announced a new investment in the restoration and sustainable management of a working redwood forest in California, in collaboration with The Conservation Fund. The forest project is part of the company’s expanded Restore Fund initiative, which is now invested in two dozen conservation and regenerative agriculture projects that span six continents. With …

The 289-acre Lucas Point timber harvest plan (THP 1-25-00099-SON) is a revised version of the Bootleg THP (1-20-00293-SON), located in the Middle South Fork of the Gualala River watershed, south of Stewarts Point and adjacent to Tin Barn Road. The Bootleg THP was successfully challenged by Friends of the South Fork Gualala. Sonoma County Superior Court found that the Bootleg …

Gualala River barrier beach, September 12, 2025 (pelicans in the distance) Close-up of the pelicans Photos courtesy of Jeanne Jackson

Gualala Redwood Timber stated that they expect to submit a ~339-acre Salt Timber Harvest Plan, located on steep slopes above the south side of the Wheatfield Fork of the Gualala River, approximately one mile northeast of Valley Crossing (confluence of the South and Wheatfield Forks), adjacent to the recently approved Pepper THP. “The “Salt” THP is presently in project development. …

Gualala Redwood Timber’s 356-acre Pepper Timber Harvest Plan (THP 1-25-00093-SON) is located on steep slopes above the south side of the Wheatfield Fork of the Gualala River, approximately one mile northeast of Valley Crossing (confluence of the South and Wheatfield Forks). The plan was approved by Cal Fire on August 27, 2025. This plan is a partial successor to the …

July 15, 2025 by Dylan Freebairn-Smith Friends of Gualala River Introduction Next week, at long last, the public will have the opportunity to offer comment on preliminary steps being taken to reduce sediment pollution washing into the Gualala River, which has been harming endangered coho salmon and threatened steelhead. Nearly thirty years after the river was first listed as impaired, …