Environment & Land Reporter
Tomas Reyes studied environmental science at Cal Poly Humboldt before spending three years working for the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, where he inspected cannabis cultivation sites for environmental compliance. The experience gave him a ground-level understanding of how grow operations affect watersheds, how remediation works, and why the regulatory framework frustrates nearly everyone involved. He transitioned to journalism because he believed the public deserved reporting that could hold both the environmental stakes and the economic reality in the same frame. At California Bud, Tomas covers water rights, wildfire, grow site remediation, timber, conservation, and the tribal land issues that intersect all of them. He kayaks the Eel and the Mad when he is not on deadline.
New state standards for cleaning up abandoned and legacy cannabis grow sites in Humboldt County have land trusts praising the requirements and growers calling them unrealistic and unfunded.
Flow gauges on the South Fork Eel are reading 142 cubic feet per second, just above the 130 cfs emergency threshold, and the growing season has barely started.
Cal Fire's updated fire hazard severity zone maps reclassify 14,200 acres along the Mattole corridor from moderate to high or very high risk, with significant implications for building permits and property insurance.
CDFW biologists have confirmed the presence of coho salmon in Prairie Creek near Orick for the first time since 2016, a milestone for North Coast watershed restoration efforts.
A State Water Resources Control Board hearing on Eel River water rights drew over 200 attendees to the Wharfinger Building, exposing deep divisions between cannabis cultivators, ranchers, and conservation groups.
Cal Fire's Humboldt-Del Norte unit will begin prescribed burns and mechanical fuel reduction two weeks ahead of schedule, citing below-average soil moisture and an early drying trend despite January's wet storms.
CDFW snorkel surveys on the South Fork Eel River recorded 847 adult winter steelhead between December and early February, the highest count at those monitoring stations since systematic surveys began in 2009.
Back-to-back January storms have pushed Eel River flows to 12,400 cubic feet per second at Scotia, double the 20-year January median and the best conditions for salmon migration in three years.
A category 3 atmospheric river dropped 6.2 inches of rain on Eureka over 36 hours, pushing the Eel River to 28.4 feet at Scotia and flooding low-lying areas near Fortuna.