$11 million EPA grant will restore Humboldt Bay shoreline, fund land buy for Blue Lake Rancheria
The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday the Blue Lake Rancheria was awarded a $11,498,810 grant to buy and restore land around Humboldt Bay in the name of fighting climate change. The project will both multiply the tribe’s land holdings many times over and restore wetlands around the bay.
Bill Matsubu, environmental director of the Blue Lake Rancheria, said this project is “using the oldest technology since time immemorial, nature and tending to by Indigenous people, to address the climate crisis,” when reached by phone Friday.
With the funds, the tribe will look to buy 250 acres of low lying lands that can host wetlands and over 400 acres of forest. The project aims to create 100 acres of wetland habitat out of now-artificial shorelines around Humboldt Bay, known as Wigi in the Wiyot language, with aims to build resilience to sea-level rise.
This restoration will capture carbon — according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “blue carbon” areas like salt marshes can bury many times more carbon per acre than even a tropical rainforest. The effort is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 2025-2050 through carbon sequestering, according to the grant application.
Alexandra Toyofuku, climate specialist for the Blue Lake Rancheria, said many low-lying areas around Humboldt Bay have artificial uses for human purposes like pasture.
“Restoring that back to coastal wetland habitats like salt marsh and mudflats would sequester a lot of carbon,” she said.
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By: Sage Alexander
Source: Eureka Times Standard
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