Pete Nichols

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.