Roberts, alongside 30 student volunteers from Hoover High School’s Science Enrichment club, celebrated Earth Day by planting trees.

The students worked together from 12:30p.m. to 3p.m., placing five trees on Hoover’s campus.

“It’s pretty awesome that we all got to work as a team to do something that will benefit us for a long time,” said John Banuelos, a member of the Science Enrichment club.

The club also celebrated Earth Day by guiding students through planting wildflowers to take home.

Five valley oaks, a species endemic to California, were planted on Wednesday, a number the group hopes will grow.

How the Effort Came Together

Robert worked with Fresno Unified for close to a year to get the project underway.

The University High student pitched presentations to trustees, the site principal, and maintenance managers.

His presentation detailed the benefits of planting valley oaks and spreading environmental education.

“Over 90% of these trees (valley oaks) have been chopped down since the city’s founding, and I believe that we shouldn’t accept that for what it is,” Roberts said.

Roberts is working to restore planting sites and integrate valley oaks back into the community, aiming to plant trees at Free State next, he said.

He hopes that students will take pride in their campus and their contribution, while also cultivating an understanding of the importance of trees.

This project is an opportunity to begin doing just that.

“I think today went really smoothly,” said Favour Amobi, a senior at Hoover. “Everybody was working very hard. It was nice to see everything come together”

Why Plant Valley Oaks?

Valley oaks are native and exclusive to California making them best suited for its ecosystem.

The trees’ size and lifespan allow for a massive intake of carbon, efficiently converting CO2 into oxygen, while needing less water than grass.

Additionally, these trees house native species, so their removal caused “native ecosystems to start to vanish,” Roberts said.

Roberts hopes that bringing valley oaks back into the community will prompt more native species to return.

Two weeks prior to planting, a drilling company pierced through the site’s hardpan.

Drilling through the hardpan, a dense layer that water and roots cannot permeate, allows the tree to reach subsoil. This provides crucial water retention and essential resources for the plant.

Also, the tree’s roots will be able to grow down instead of out, ensuring that roots will not interfere with infrastructure or cause tripping hazards.

Environmental Education

Climate anxiety is rising amongst youth, but a lack of knowledge and education regarding the environment is prevalent.

That fear was shared by the students, who also reiterated a sense of responsibility.

“I think us, as a generation, need to make sure that we care about it (the climate),” Amobi said. “If we don’t care about it more then we’re going to lose our chance of being able to solve this. And that’s what I’m scared about.”

Despite widespread worries about climate change, a 2021 survey indicated that students ages 14 to 18 had large gaps between their conceptualization of Earth’s systems and reality.

“Here at school is one way to learn it and get the correct education about climate change, because it’s real,” said Aaliyah Miles, a junior at Hoover.

There are environmental science courses offered at Fresno Unified high schools, but the classes are not mandatory, the Hoover students said.

“I think it’s very important to emphasize how climate change is going to affect us. And how we can prevent that, even little steps within the community we can take to help,” Roberts said.

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The event is 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the River Center Barn, 11605 Old Friant Rd. in Fresno.

Arambula, D-Fresno, will lead an in-depth discussion of AB 1425, which is the legislation he authored to protect sensitive river habitat, public health, and access to open space.

“I believe AB 1425 will protect and preserve the San Joaquin River’s unique wildlife and natural habitat, which many people in our community are concerned could be greatly harmed and damaged by the mining proposal,” Arambula said in a statement to GV Wire.

Related Story: Can CEMEX Dig a 600-Foot Hole and Not Harm the River? Arambula Says No and ...

There also will be an overview of the CEMEX expansion plan and its environmental impacts. A question-and-answer session with Arambula will follow.

Admission is free. There will be a food truck and bar service.

The San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust is the host.

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Where you live, what you’re allergic to and your lifestyle can make a big difference when it comes to the severity of your allergies. Experts say climate change is leading to longer and more intense allergy seasons, but also point out that treatments for seasonal allergies have become more effective over the last decade.

Here are some tips from experts to keep allergy symptoms at bay — maybe even enough to allow you to enjoy the outdoors.

Where Are Pollen Levels the Worst This Year?

The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America issues an annual ranking of the most challenging cities to live in if you have allergies, based on over-the-counter medicine use, pollen counts and the number of available allergy specialists.

This year, the top five cities are: Wichita, Kansas; New Orleans; Oklahoma City; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Memphis.

Which Pollens Cause Allergies?

There are three main types of pollen. Earlier in the spring, tree pollen is the main culprit. After that grasses pollinate, followed by weeds in the late summer and early fall.

Some of the most common tree pollens that cause allergies include birch, cedar, cottonwood, maple, elm, oak and walnut, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. Grasses that cause symptoms include Bermuda, Johnson, rye and Kentucky bluegrass.

How Do I Track Pollen Levels?

Pollen trackers can help you decide when to go outside. The American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology tracks levels through a network of counting stations across the U.S. Counts are available at its website and via email.

Limit Your Exposure to Pollens

The best and first step to controlling allergies is avoiding exposure. Keep the windows in your car and your home closed, even when it’s nice outside.

If you go outside, wearing long sleeves can keep pollen off your skin to help ward off allergic reactions, said Dr. James Baker, an allergist at the University of Michigan. It also provides some sun protection, he added.

When you get home, change your clothes and shower daily to ensure all the pollen is off of you — including your hair. If you can’t wash your hair every day, try covering it when you go outside with a hat or scarf. Don’t get in the bed with your outside clothes on, because the pollen will follow.

It’s also useful to rinse your eyes and nose with saline to remove any pollen, experts said. And the same masks that got us through the pandemic can protect you from allergies — though they won’t help with eye symptoms.

How to Relieve Allergy Symptoms

Over-the-counter nasal sprays are among the most effective treatments for seasonal allergies, experts said.

But the vast majority of patients use them incorrectly, irritating parts of the nose, said Dr. Kathleen Mays, an allergist at Augusta University in Georgia. She suggested angling the nozzle outward toward your ear rather than sticking it straight up your nose.

Over-the-counter allergy pills like Claritin, Allegra and Zyrtec are helpful, but may not be as effective as quickly since they’re taken by mouth, experts said.

Experts also said that if your allergy symptoms are impacting your quality of life, like causing you to lose sleep or a lack focus at work or school, it might be time to consider an allergist appointment for immunotherapies.

Some remedies for allergy relief that have been circulating on social media or suggested by celebrities — like incorporating local honey into your diet to expose yourself to pollen — have been debunked.

Dr. Shayam Joshi, an allergist at Oregon Health and Science University, said that’s because the flowers that bees pollinate typically don’t contain the airborne pollen that causes allergy symptoms.

Is Allergy Season Changing?

With climate change, winters are milder and growing seasons are longer, meaning there’s more opportunity for pollen to stay in the air, resulting in longer and more severe allergy seasons.

In many areas across the country, pollen counts have broken decades of records. In late March, the Atlanta Allergy and Asthma Center measured a pollen count of over 14,000 grains per cubic meter, which is considered extremely high.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Fresno partnered with Forefront Power, a private San Francisco-based company on the 34 megawatt project.

The facility helps to control operational energy costs including the regional wastewater treatment plant at the Cornelia address and two other city water treatment plants.

It was built using federal tax credits and through agreements with power purchase agreements or PPAs. Funding of the facility was at no cost to taxpayers.

“What really makes this project special is that, we’re able to, pull off or, separate ourselves from the electrical grid,” says Brock Buche, the city’s director of public utilities. “We are using the power generated by these solar panels to operate our large wastewater treatment plant. We don’t have to pull that from PG&E. It’s just all from these panels.”

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Picture a 6,500-acre stretch of land that has thousands of vernal pools in the winter, blankets of vibrant flowers in the spring, the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the distance, and countless animals to watch, including the famously-elusive “fairy shrimp.”

Established in 2001 and located just north of Merced, the reserve protects the sensitive vernal pool habitats and grasslands. It was originally part of the Virginia Smith Trust, a 7,030-acre portion of land, part of which was used to build the University of California, Merced campus.

During a recent tour, a group of at least 20 community members hiked along a dirt road surrounded by the high grasslands and patches of yellow and white flowers.

“It’s a biodiversity hotspot,” said Joy Baccei, the director of the Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve. “We have over 400 species of plants and animals out here on this reserve, and that list is growing all the time – every time we have researchers or educators out here.”

A Consistent Admiration of Fairy Shrimp

Vernal pools are small pond-like dips in the ground that fill up during the rainy season. They only appear in Mediterranean climates.

Jasmine Salazar, a graduate student assistant and tour guide for the reserve, told community members on the recent tour that vernal pools are very rare to California now, but they’ve been around for centuries.

“In the Central Valley, we used to have a ton, a ton of vernal pools. But because of infrastructure and urbanization, we’ve lost 99% of them,” Salazar, 20, said.

Merced’s Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve has over 6,000 vernal pools. It is now used as a place for preservation, education and research. But the presence of the pools also means they are home to an ecosystem and animals that are imperiled.

Most notably are the threatened crustaceans called “fairy shrimp,” which hatch in the vernal pools shortly after the first rainfall on the reserve.

Fairy shrimp are about the size of a pen cap, with elongated bodies and swimming legs. They are prey to a lot of other wildlife seen on the reserve, including birds and tiger salamanders.

Female fairy shrimp leave behind a sack full of eggs, called a cyst. The cyst will burrow itself down into the soil and wait for the next rainfall to come. The eggs can stay in the cyst for thousands of years.

The shrimp have become fan favorites to many locals in the Merced area and to students on campus.

Alex Hernandez, who works in the IT department at UC Merced, was among the guests on the recent tour. He brought his 10-year-old son, Noah, and 8-year-old daughter, Hailey, to give them a chance to explore the reserve.

“[I want to] give them a different perspective on life,” Hernandez told KVPR. “[Noah] loves to study, and he loves animals. He actually read about the vernal pools, so now for him to actually see it, it’s a great thing.”

Noah and Hailey were hoping to spot some fairy shrimp swimming around in the vernal pools, but it was already too late in the season, Salazar said.

Moving From Spring to a Dry Summer

Vernal pools follow a series of phases.

When it rains, they enter the wet phase. Shortly after rainfall, if the fairy shrimp don’t get eaten, they dry up and die during the “flowering” phase – when flowers start to bloom around the vernal pools – and into the “dry” phase during summer, when the pools evaporate.

Hernandez’s family visited the reserve during the flowering phase. The shrinking vernal pools were decorated by white and yellow flowers, leaving flourishing patches among the high grass. Surrounding scenery showed snowy mountains in the distance and cows grazing on the land.

An Up-Close Research Opportunity for UC Merced

What’s occurring now will likely only last until the end of April. During the dry phase, the pools fully dry up and adapt to the San Joaquin Valley’s hot climate.

Sarah Boyle, another UC Merced employee and a Merced City Council member, came to the tour to take photos of the blooms.

“UC Merced might have that [reputation] of it’s in the middle of nowhere …but this is where our students get to do research,” Boyle said. “I think it’s pretty neat and very unique for them to have the opportunities to come out here and work in this environment.

“I think it’s beautiful,” Boyle said.

The University of California system has 41 reserve sites belonging to its nine campuses, and it’s considered the largest university-administered reserve system in the world. The wetlands reserve is much closer to a physical campus than any other site — it’s a short walk away.

The adaptability of the Merced reserve, with an ever-changing climate, is good for a growing education.

Baccei told KVPR there are several research projects in the works that study vernal pool plant phenology, specifically the “timing of plant flowering in the vernal pools in relation to climate change.” There’s also research being done on plant pollinator interactions and cattle behavior, she said.

President Donald Trump recently cut federal funding from research involving climate change at some universities, but the reserve has not been affected, Baccei said.

“There has been some talk of federal funding that’s been pulled and the campus is trying to navigate the impacts of that,” Baccei told KVPR. “But here our research continues strong.”

To that end, the university is building a $4.8 million field education and research center for the reserve. Construction is expected to wrap up by summer.

Even with the new building and research, locals and students like to go out just to witness the beauty and fascinating way nature works for the vernal pools.

Salazar also thinks preservation is important so students and educators can discover how nature will evolve with climate change.

“Humans love beautiful things, and the vernal pools are beautiful,” Salazar said. “They’re not only brimming with life, but they bring peace, and I think it’s always good to protect our peace.”

About the Author

Rachel Livinal is the Higher Education Reporter for The Merced Focus.

The post Merced’s Own Super Bloom Is Here. How This Grassland Reserve Protects Endangered Species appeared first on GV Wire.

Facing the continued collapse of Chinook salmon, officials today shut down California’s commercial salmon fishing season for an unprecedented third year in a row.

Under the decision by an interstate fisheries agency, recreational salmon fishing will be allowed in California for only brief windows of time this spring. This will be the first year that any sportfishing of Chinook has been allowed since 2022.

Tuesday’s decision by the Pacific Fishery Management Council means that no salmon caught off California can be sold to retail consumers and restaurants for at least another year. In Oregon and Washington, commercial salmon fishing will remain open, although limited.

“From a salmon standpoint, it’s an environmental disaster. For the fishing industry, it’s a human tragedy, and it’s also an economic disaster,” said Scott Artis, executive director of the Golden State Salmon Association, an industry organization that has lobbied for river restoration and improved hatchery programs.

The decline of California’s salmon follows decades of deteriorating conditions in the waterways where the fish spawn each year, including the Sacramento and Klamath rivers.

California’s salmon are an ecological icon and a valued source of food for Native American tribes. The shutdown also has an economic toll: It has already put hundreds of commercial fishers and sportfishing boat operators out of work and affected thousands of people in communities and industries reliant on processing, selling and serving locally caught salmon.

California’s commercial fishery has never been closed for three years in a row before.

Some experts fear the conditions in California have been so poor for so long that Chinook may never rebound to fishable levels. Others remain hopeful for major recovery if the amounts of water diverted to farms and cities are reduced and wetlands kept dry by flood-control levees are restored.

This year’s recreational season includes several brief windows for fishing, including a weekend in June and another in July, or a quota of 7,000 fish.

Jared Davis, owner and operator of the Salty Lady in Sausalito, one of dozens of party boats that take paying customers fishing, thinks it’s likely that this quota will be met on the first open weekend for recreational fishing, scheduled for June 7-8.

“Obviously, the pressure is going to be intense, so everybody and their mother is going to be out on the water on those days,” he said. “When they hit that quota, it’s done.”

One member of the fishery council, Corey Ridings, voted against the proposed regulations after saying she was concerned that the first weekend would overshoot the 7,000-fish quota.

Davis said such a miniscule recreational season won’t help boat owners like him recover from past closures, though it will carry symbolic meaning.

“It might give California anglers a glimmer of hope and keep them from selling all their rods and buying golf clubs,” he said.

Sarah Bates, a commercial fisher based at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, said the ongoing closure has stripped many boat owners of most of their income.

“It continues to be devastating,” she said. “Salmon has been the cornerstone of many of our ports for a long time.”

She said the shutdown also has trickle-down effects on a range of businesses that support the salmon fishery, such as fuel services, grocery stores and dockside ice machines.

“We’re also seeing a sort of a third wave … the general seafood market for local products has tanked,” such as rockfish and halibut. She said that many buyers are turning to farmed and wild salmon delivered from other regions instead.

Davis noted that federal emergency relief funds promised for the 2023 closure still have not arrived. “Nobody has seen a dime,” he said.

Fewer returning salmon

Before the Gold Rush, several million Chinook spawned annually in the river systems of the Central Valley and the state’s northern coast. Through much of the 20th century, California’s salmon fishery formed the economic backbone of coastal fishing ports, with fishers using hook and line pulling in millions of pounds in good years.

But in 2024, just 99,274 fall-run Chinook — the most commercially viable of the Central Valley’s four subpopulations — returned to the Sacramento River and its tributaries, substantially lower than the numbers in 2023. In 2022, fewer than 70,000 returned, one of the lowest estimates ever.

About 40,000 returned to the San Joaquin River. Fewer than 30,000 Chinook reached their spawning grounds in the Klamath River system, where the Hoopa, Yurok and Karuk tribes rely on the fish in years of abundance.

The decline of California’s salmon stems from nearly two centuries of damage inflicted on the rivers where salmon spend the first and final stages of their lives. Gold mining, logging and dam construction devastated watersheds. Levees constrained rivers, turning them into relatively sterile channels of fast-moving water while converting floodplains and wetlands into irrigated farmland.

Today, many of these impacts persist, along with water diversions, reduced flows and elevated river temperatures that frequently spell death for fertilized eggs and juvenile fish.

The future of California salmon is murky

Peter Moyle, a UC Davis fish biologist and professor emeritus, said recovery of self-sustaining populations may be possible in some tributaries of the Sacramento River.

“There are some opportunities for at least keeping runs going in parts of the Central Valley, but getting naturally spawning fish back in large numbers, I just can’t see it happening,” he said.

Jacob Katz, a biologist with the group California Trout, holds out hope for a future of flourishing Sacramento River Chinook. “We could have vibrant fall-run populations in a decade,” he said.

That will require major habitat restoration involving dam removals, reconstruction of levee systems to revive wetlands and floodplains, and reduced water diversions for agriculture — all measures fraught with cost, regulatory constraints, and controversy.

State recovery efforts

State officials, recognizing the risk of extinction, have promoted salmon recovery as a policy goal for years. In early 2024, the Newsom administration released its California Salmon Strategy for a Hotter, Drier Future, a 37-page catalogue of proposed actions to mitigate environmental impacts and restore flows and habitat, all in the face of climate change.

California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Charlton H. Bonham said the decision to allow limited recreational fishing “brings hope. We know, however, that this news brings little relief” to the industry.

He said salmon “are still recovering from severe drought and other climate challenges and have not yet benefitted from our consecutive years of wet winters and other actions taken to boost populations.”

However, Artis of Golden State Salmon Association said while the state’s salmon strategy includes some important items, it leaves out equally critical steps, such as protecting minimum flows for fish. He said salmon are threatened by proposed water projects endorsed by the Newsom administration.

“It fails to include some of the upcoming salmon-killing projects that the governor is pushing like Sites Reservoir and the Delta tunnel, and it ignores the fact that the Voluntary Agreements are designed to allow massive diversions of water,” he said.

Experts agree that an important key to rebuilding salmon runs is increasing the frequency and duration of shallow flooding in riverside riparian areas, or even fallow rice paddies — a program Katz has helped develop through his career.

On such seasonal floodplains, a shallow layer of water can help trigger an explosion of photosynthesis and food production, ultimately providing nutrition for juvenile salmon as they migrate out of the river system each spring.

Through meetings with farmers, urban water agencies and government officials, Rene Henery, California science director with Trout Unlimited, has helped draft an ambitious salmon recovery plan dubbed “Reorienting to Recovery.” Featuring habitat restoration, carefully managed harvests and generously enhanced river flows — especially in dry years — this framework, Henery said, could rebuild diminished Central Valley Chinook runs to more than 1.6 million adult fish per year over a 20-year period.

He said adversaries — often farmers and environmentalists — must shift from traditional feuds over water to more collaborative programs of restoring productive watersheds while maintaining productive agriculture.

As the recovery needle for Chinook moves in the wrong direction, Katz said deliberate action is urgent.

“We’re balanced on the edge of losing these populations,” he said. “We have to go big now. We have no other option.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

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The order late Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan “gives us a chance to breathe after the EPA unlawfully — and without due process — terminated our awards and blocked access to funds that were appropriated by Congress and legally obligated,” said Climate United CEO Beth Bafford.

Legal Challenge Launched Over Frozen Funds

The lawsuit by Climate United Fund and other groups contends that the EPA, Administrator Lee Zeldin and Citibank, which held the grant money, illegally blocked the funds awarded last year and had jeopardized the organizations’ operations.

Chutkan said Citibank must provide the money that was due to the nonprofits before the EPA had frozen their accounts in mid-February. The EPA immediately appealed.

Green Bank Program Faces Political Opposition

The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, commonly referred to as a “green bank,” was authorized by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act under Democratic President Joe Biden. Its goals run counter to the Trump administration’s opposition to climate-friendly policies and its embrace of fossil fuels. Zeldin quickly made the bank a target, characterizing the $20 billion in grants as a “gold bar” scheme marred by conflicts of interest and potential fraud.

A federal prosecutor resigned after being asked to open a criminal investigation, saying there was not enough evidence to move ahead. The FBI and Treasury Department, in coordination with the EPA, pressured Citibank to freeze the grants, which it did, according to the nonprofits.

Administration Cites Misconduct Concerns

Last month, Zeldin announced the termination of the grants, saying “well documented incidents of misconduct, conflicts of interest, and potential fraud raise significant concerns and pose unacceptable risk.”

Chutkan paused that move, saying the government provided no significant evidence of wrongdoing. But the Republican administration, in a recent filing, asserted it was allowed to end the contracts based on oversight concerns and shifting priorities.

“EPA’s new admission that it ‘did not terminate for Plaintiffs’ noncompliance’ … confirms that EPA’s invocation of ‘waste, fraud, and abuse’ was arbitrary and pretextual” the nonprofits said in a court filing.

To the government, the case is “just a run-of-the-mill (albeit large) contract dispute.”

That argument is important because it could move the case to a different court that can only award a lump sum and not force the government to keep the grants in place.

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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The California Coastal Commission fined an oil company a record $18 million last week for repeatedly defying orders to stop work on a corroded pipeline in Santa Barbara County that caused a major oil spill nearly a decade ago.

The vote sets the stage for a potentially high-stakes test of the state’s power to police oil development along the coast. The onshore pipeline in Gaviota gushed more than 100,000 gallons of crude oil onto coastal land and ocean waters, shutting down fisheries, closing beaches and harming marine life and coastal habitats in 2015.

Sable Offshore Corp., a Houston-based company, purchased the pipeline from the previous owners, Exxon Mobil, last year, and is seeking to restart the Santa Ynez offshore oil operation.

The Coastal Commission said Sable has done something no alleged violator has ever done before: ignore the agency’s multiple cease-and-desist orders and continue its work.

“Our orders were valid and legally issued, and Sable’s refusal to comply is a refusal to follow the law,” said Commissioner Meagan Harmon, who also is a member of the Santa Barbara City Council. “Their refusal, in a very real sense, is a subversion of the will of the people of the state of California.”

Company Defies Orders

The company argued it can proceed using the pipeline’s original county permit issued in the 1980s. In February, Sable sued the Coastal Commission saying the state is unlawfully halting the company’s repair and maintenance work.

Public Outcry

At a 5-hour public hearing in Santa Barbara today, more than 100 speakers lined up, many of them urging the commission to penalize Sable and stop its work. Some invoked memories of the 2015 Refugio Oil Spill as well as the massive 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill caused by a blowout on a Union Oil drilling rig. Public outrage over that spill helped shape the environmental movement, led to the first Earth Day and contributed to the enactment of many national environmental laws.

“I’ve never taken how special this area is for granted,” said Santa Barbara County resident Carol Millar. “As a kid, I was traumatized by the ’69 oil spill, and in 2015, I had to watch my own kids go through the same trauma.”

Steve Rusch, Sable’s vice president of environmental and governmental affairs, said the commission was overreaching because of the spill caused by the previous owners.

“We are proud of our good-paying, skilled jobs that our project has brought to the region,” he told commissioners. “It’s not about the 2015 Refugio oil spill. It’s not about the restart of the pipeline …it’s not about the future of oil production or fossil fuel in California.”

In repairing the former, corroded pipelines, the company is seeking to restart production of the Santa Ynez oil operation, which includes three offshore rigs, according to an investor presentation by the company. Operations stopped after the 2015 spill.

Sable had been excavating around the former pipelines and placing cement bags on the seafloor below its oil and water pipelines.

The Coastal Commission’s fine levied against Sable is the highest ever levied against a company, according to a commission spokesperson. The commission voted to lower the $18 million fine to potentially just under $15 million if Sable complies with the state’s orders and applies for a coastal development permit.

In addition to the penalty, the commissioners voted to order Sable to cease its work and restore land and offshore areas, including replanting vegetation and erosion control, where the unauthorized work occurred.

Commission Details Violations

Beginning last year, commission staff charged the company with multiple violations of coastal laws, including unpermitted construction and excavation using heavy equipment along the 14-mile oil pipeline on the Gaviota Coast, including in waters offshore.

The enforcement division of the commission said Sable undertook major work at multiple locations without securing the required coastal development permits.

The company dug large pits, cleared vegetation, graded and widened roads, placed cement and sandbags in ocean waters and drained water sources, among other damage, according to a staff presentation. Commission staff said these actions went beyond routine maintenance and amounted to a full rebuild of the pipeline.

Coastal Commission officials emphasized that the work posed serious risks to the environment, including wetlands and other sensitive habitats, potentially harming protected species, including western pond turtles and steelhead.

“The timing of the implemented development is particularly problematic, as much of this development has been during bird nesting season, as well as red-legged frog breeding season and Southern Steelhead migratory spawning season,” said Stephanie Cook, an attorney with the commission. “This work has a high potential to adversely impact these habitat areas.”

The staff said it spent months trying to get Sable to cooperate but the company provided incomplete or misleading information.

Rusch, in a statement issued after the hearing, said the company is conducting routine pipeline repair and maintenance, and said the actions were allowed under old permits issued by Santa Barbara County. The work is taking place in areas already affected by previous construction and use, and the company says the state cannot override the county’s interpretation of its permits.

“Sable is dedicated to restarting project operations in a safe and efficient manner,” Rusch said in the statement. “No California business should be forced to go through a protracted and arbitrary permitting process when it already has valid permits for the work it performed.”

However, the validity of the county permit for the pipeline is in dispute. The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors in a February vote did not approve transferring the county permit to Sable, the new owner. The vote was 2-2, with one member abstaining because the pipeline runs through her property. County officials are still trying to decide their next step.

One concern of county officials is whether Sable has the financial ability and adequate insurance to handle a major oil spill.

The pipeline dispute comes as the Trump administration moves to boost domestic oil and gas production while sidelining efforts to develop wind and solar.

Several workers who said they were affiliated with the company spoke out in support along with others who said the company would boost the local economy.

Evelyn Lynn, director of operations at Aspen Helicopters in Oxnard, said she supported Sable’s efforts because it would give her company a boost.

“If they’re not allowed to start their efforts again, this will have huge collateral damage to all of our local businesses, and also to our company in particular, and all of our local people who live here,” Lynn said. “All of our employees are required to live in California. They are all local, and they are all affected.”

The Coastal Commission’s permits are not the only step the company has to take to operate the pipeline. Multiple state agencies regulate pipelines, including the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Oil Spill and Prevention Response and the Office of the State Fire Marshal.

Environmental groups have called for a full environmental review of the pipeline under the California Environmental Quality Act.

National environmental organizations such as the Center for Biological Diversity have weighed in, along with local advocates, to support the Coastal Commission. A group born out of the original Santa Barbara oil spill — the Environmental Defense Center — opposes the project and efforts to restart drilling. The Surfrider Foundation also launched a “Don’t Enable Sable” campaign, and several beachgoers spoke out against the project.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

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Gov. Gavin Newsom today signed new legislation that will provide more than $170 million in state funding to help prevent wildfires while signing an order aimed at speeding up the work by easing environmental permitting.

The funding — which the Democratic governor said was part of a broader effort to better protect communities ahead of peak fire season — comes as the state is under extraordinary pressure after the January infernos that devastated Los Angeles communities.

California has already experienced its second most destructive fire year on record, with more than 16,000 homes and other buildings damaged or destroyed by the two major fires in the Los Angeles area. Most of the destruction occurred in neighborhoods where development meets wildland, a high-risk area known as the wildland-urban interface.

The money comes from a $10 billion bond measure for environmental projects approved by California voters last year.

Funding Distribution and Executive Order

Authorized as part of a fast-tracked, early action budget bill approved by the Legislature, the funds will be paid to six conservancies throughout California. The agencies, which operate under the governor’s Resources Agency, will manage the removal of vegetation and thinning of forests within their regions.

At least half, $85 million, will be directed to conservancies in Southern California, while $54 will focus on the Sierra Nevada. The approval of the funding comes after Newsom in March declared a state of emergency to clear flammable brush.

“With this latest round of funding, we’re continuing to increase the speed and size of forest and vegetation management essential to protecting communities,” Newsom said in a written statement. “We are leaving no stone unturned — including cutting red tape — in our mission to ensure our neighborhoods are protected from destructive wildfires.”

Political Context and Environmental Concerns

The challenge of fire prevention in California, which experts say has been worsened by climate change, has become increasingly political. During President Donald J. Trump’s first term, the president repeatedly blamed wildfires on California failing to manage vegetation growth, even though the majority of forestland in the state is under federal, not state, ownership.

“You gotta clean your floors, you gotta clean your forests,” Trump said during a campaign speech in 2020, according to Politico. “There are many, many years of leaves and broken trees and they’re like, like, so flammable, you touch them and it goes up.”

In the wake of the Los Angeles fires, Trump also inaccurately blamed the state’s water policies for the blazes and threatened to withhold federal aid unless the state addressed a variety of policies related and unrelated to wildfires.

Included is about $31 million each for the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, State Coastal Conservancy, and the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy. The California Tahoe Conservancy and the San Diego River Conservancy will receive about $23 million each.

In addition to the legislation, Newsom signed an executive order that allowed wildfire prevention projects to benefit from streamlining provisions outlined in his March emergency proclamation, which suspended certain environmental laws, including the California Environmental Quality Act and the California Coastal Act for projects deemed urgent.

“Unfortunately, this money will go toward logging projects that skirt environmental review and harm forests and the climate,” said Shaye Wolf, climate science director at the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity. “This funding doubles down on forest destruction rather than investing in real wildfire safety measures like home hardening in communities.”

State Strategy and Climate Change

Newsom earlier this year promised $2.5 billion for various wildfire resilience projects. Prescribed burns, a land management tool designed to reduce fuel loads, are a major part of the state’s strategy.

Wildfire season is starting earlier and lasting longer, exacerbated by climate change. Altered cycles of dry and wet years build up vegetation that is vulnerable to fire, and California’s wildfires are acting more erratically and burning longer.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

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The bill would have allowed victims of natural disasters, including fires, floods and hurricanes, to sue fossil fuel companies over harm to themselves or their property for damage totaling at least $10,000. Home insurers would also have been able to seek damages under the legislation. The proposal was announced weeks after the Los Angeles-area fires broke out in January, burning thousands of homes and killing at least 30 people.

Opposition Cites Gas Prices and Job Concerns

The Senate Judiciary Committee rejected the bill late Tuesday, with several Democrats abstaining, but left open the possibility for it to be reconsidered later this year. Opponents also said it would threaten jobs in the energy industry by dealing a blow to business, and that it would be difficult to prove a specific company’s responsibility for a particular natural disaster.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat representing San Francisco who authored the bill, rejected the argument that it would lead to higher gas prices. He said it was about holding the fossil fuel industry accountable for the impacts of climate change. The bill would have eased the burden on disaster survivors and insurance companies to cover damage costs, he said.

“Today’s vote is a setback for the victims of the Los Angeles wildfires and for the cost of living in California,” Wiener said in a statement. “Victims of the Eaton and Palisades Fire — and of all climate disasters — deserve accountability for the decades of Big Oil lies that devastated their communities.”

When fossil fuels such as oil and gas are burned for energy, carbon dioxide and other emissions enter the Earth’s atmosphere, causing the planet to warm. Climate change has made natural disasters more frequent and intense.

State Sen. Anna Caballero, a Democrat representing part of the Central Valley, said ahead of the vote that lawmakers’ decision not to support the bill shouldn’t be viewed as a move to deprioritize environmental policy. And she said it wouldn’t help people who lost their homes to recent fires rebuild.

“If this was going to actually result in building homes in the fire zones faster, better and with more efficiency, I would probably support it,” she said. “But from my view, this is more about lawyers. This is about litigation.”

Broader Context of Climate Policy Battles

Wiener said it was important for California to remain a climate leader, invoking President Donald Trump’s efforts to roll back environmental policies.

Trump signed an executive order Tuesday to identify state rules he said could hinder “America’s energy dominance.” He called out California’s cap-and-trade program, as well as other climate policies in New York and Vermont.

The California bill’s failure to advance comes after lawmakers in recent years blocked a proposal that would have made oil companies liable for the health problems of people who live close to oil wells.

California, a U.S. trendsetter on climate policies, has approved policies over the years to limit emissions from cars, lawn mowers, trucks and trains. But some of those measures have faced threats from the Trump administration. The state Air Resources Board pulled back its requests for federal approval to enforce rules curbing pollution from diesel-powered big rigs and trains ahead of Trump’s return to office.

Other major California rules are at risk. Congressional Republicans introduced proposals last week to block state policies approved by President Joe Biden’s administration that would ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, cut tailpipe emissions from medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, and curb smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution from trucks.

Austin is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on X: @sophieadanna

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