Restoring Eelgrass to the Pacific Bays

When San Jose based Calpine corporation came to Humboldt Bay with their allowance (billions from ENRON) and promised to deliver cleaner, greener liquified natural gas (LNG) to Humboldt Bay, people knew something smelled bad. The CA energy crisis a few years ago was concocted by ENRON, and Calpine was the spawn of ENRON, coming to CA to offer "environmentally friendly" solutions..

Calpine was not welcome into Humboldt Bay, the people of Humboldt came to Eureka City Hall to let them know this. However, the same week Calpine decided not to continue with Humboldt Bay, they were given the go ahead by Judge David Levi (Bush SR. appointee) to continue with their other Nor-Cal project, the geothermal drilling of sacred Medicine Lake located in Modoc territory. Many Nor-Cal tribes consider Medicine Lake (volcanic caldera) as a sacred place for healing and are opposed to any geothermal drilling that would disrupt the geochemical balance of the lake's water. For more info on the Medicine Lake/Calpine issue, please visit;

Medicine Lake Video;
http://www.savemedicinelakehighlands.net/home.html

Mt. Shasta Bioregional Center;
http://www.mountshastaecology.org/12medicinelake.html

Calpine claims both Medicine Lake geothermal drilling and Humboldt Bay LNG are environmentally friendly, yet there is much damage that would result form both of their projects..

Drilling of Medicine Lake would bring hydrogen sulfide from below the ground to the surface in large amounts (18 tons /yr), enough to disrupt and toxify the waters of Medicine Lake, losing their healing quality..

Calpine's LNG terminal would have involved dredging Humboldt Bay, home to a diverse eelgrass ecosystem. Eelgrass (Zostera marina) is a flowering seaplant that lives in shallow sediments and provides habitat 4 diverse marine life..

Native people from Mexico (Seri) to British Columbia (Haida) relied on eelgrass for food, basketry, roofing material, etc. After pollinating, some eelgrass seeds would float and wash ashore, usually gathered for high protein/carb flour. The Haida people in BC are attempting to restore eelgrass habitat, called T'aanu in their language. The T'aanu telegram website below has more info on the benefits an eelgrass ecosystem provides both humans and animals..

We need protection of the eelgrass habitat in Humboldt Bay from the risk of another corporation similar to Calpine that attempts to buy their way into Humboldt. Dredging along the Bay destroys the eelgrass habitat, compounding the turbidity and sedimentation from erosion caused by MAXXAM/Pacific Lumber's clear cut logging. The irony of the current dredging operations resulting from excess sedimentation from MAXXAM/PL's clear cut logging/steep slope soil erosion is already disrupting the eelgrass ecosystem. We don't need another corporation coming to Humboldt Bay making the situation worse. Instead we need to think about how to restore eelgrass ecosystem in the polluted SF Bay/Sac river delta..

Learning to live with the ecosystem is important for human survival. Dead end jobs for another corporation will only worsen the environment for the next generations. Native wild edibles like eelgrass could provide humans with more than jobs. Free food and shelter could be a real possibility with healthy eelgrass ecosystem restored to full potential..

This doesn't mean that eelgrass would feed everyone in the Bay (either Humboldt or SF), though combined with healthy (Eel/Mad/Sacramento/San Joaquin) river delta's wild rice ecosystem, it would be a start. Community operated urban permaculture gardens could help fill the rest. People could work less and become independant from petroleum/agribusiness/etc corporations..

Only "problem" with that is corporations like Calpine won't be able to get rich off of the labor of workers, and biotech corporations like Sacramento's Ventria (genetically engineered rice) couldn't genetically alter/patent the DNA and claim "intellectual property rights" of the wild native plants..

Corporations would no longer be needed..

Ventria biotech rice info;
http://www.mindfully.org/GE/2004/CA-Bars-Ventria-Rice10apr04.htm


Eelgrass info;

Port Townsend Marine Science Center;
http://www.ptmsc.org/html/eelgrass.html

World Atlas of Seagrass;
http://www.unep-wcmc.org/marine/seagrassatlas/index.htm

http://www.unep-wcmc.org/marine/seagrassatlas/regional_chapters/chapter19.htm

Plants For a Future;
http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Zostera+marina&CAN=LATIND

T'aanu Telegram;
http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:VSPIqTeQ3swJ:http://www.shim.bc.ca/Eelgrass/Taanu_Telegram.pdf+eelgrass+haida&hl=en

EPIC Humboldt Bay initiative;