Pacific Coast Regional
Representative
Pete is co-founder of Humboldt Baykeeper,
and has been Baykeeper and Executive Director
since its inception. Pete has a background in
Conservation Biology and has been involved in
conservation in northern California
for over fifteen years.
Originally inspired from the lakes and
coastal waters of his childhood home of
Maine, Pete
has always been an advocate for the
environment. Upon arriving in northern
California in
1992, Pete was deeply involved in the struggle
to protect the last remnants of the region's
ancient redwood forests. Prior to his arrival
at Humboldt Baykeeper, Pete acted as the
Project and Science Coordinator for the
California Wildlands Project, a habitat-based
conservation planning project of the California
Wilderness Coalition.
A successful effort to defeat a proposed
Liquefied Natural Gas proposal on Humboldt Bay
in 2003, led Pete and others to realize that
there was a need for a and strong advocate for
Humboldt Bay and coastal waters of the north
coast of California. In October of 2004,
Humboldt Baykeeper was formed, and has been a
strong voice for the Bay and coast ever since.
Located on California’s rugged north
coast, roughly 250 miles north of the
Golden
Gate Bridge, Humboldt Bay
is California’s
second largest natural bay. This picturesque
Bay exhibits the richness of an ecologically
diverse estuary, while offering a variety of
recreational activities such as kayaking,
sailing, sport fishing, bird watching, and
hiking. Humboldt
Bay also boasts a vibrant fishing
culture. Commercial fishing in and around the
Bay is a significant part of the local economy,
and emblematic of the region’s cultural
heritage. Humboldt Bay has a productive
commercial salmon, albacore, and Dungeness crab
fishing fleet, and also produces 90% of the
oysters harvested in California.
Unfortunately, these ecologically important
systems are being threatened by toxic
pollution, sedimentation from industrial
logging, and poorly planned development.
Despite clear evidence of water pollution
problems and habitat loss, very little has been
done to reverse the alarming trend of
degradation in Humboldt
Bay. Humboldt Baykeeper has been
successful in identifying severely contaminated
sites around Humboldt Bay and in late 2007
reached settlement with one of the largest
timber companies in the Pacific Northwest to
clean-up one of the most significant
contributors to Humboldt
Bay’s dioxin pollution problem.
In addition to serving on the Waterkeeper
Alliance Board of Directors, Pete is also the
Secretary of the Board of the California
Coastkeeper Alliance, and the President of the
Northcoast
Environmental
Center, a bioregional
conservation organization for northwest
California and
southern Oregon.
