Northcoast Environmental Center (NEC) Collection Finding Aid

This collection consists primarily of paper documents including maps, testimonies, legal documents, surveys, petitions, business records, correspondence, and other ephemera. There are limited photographs and VHS’s. The materials demonstrate the breadth of work the NEC has done over the years and includes specific information in terms of local environmental conditions and NEC project management.

Access

Open for research by appointment.

Copyright

Copyright has not been assigned to Cal Poly Humboldt. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce in any format please contact the Special Collections Librarian.

Acquisition Information

NEC headquarters experienced a fire in 2001 which resulted in a loss of the majority of their archives from the previous three decades. At the time of the fire, certain materials were stored at Tim McKay’s home; those materials make up this collection. Initially donated by NEC in January 2009, additional donations were made in November 2009 and January and February 2011.

Biographical Information

The NEC was founded in 1971 by a group of passionate environmentalists in Humboldt County; amongst many other contributing activists and environmentalists, prominent names include Lucille Vineyard, Dan Sealy, Tim McKay and Larry Glass. Their mission was to promote an understanding of the relations between people and the biosphere and to conserve, protect, and celebrate terrestrial, aquatic, and marine ecosystems of northern California and southern Oregon. They are the oldest organization working on behalf of the environment behind the “redwood curtain”. They also provide monthly environmental journalism through their publication EcoNews.

Notable projects supported by NEC include the expansion of the Redwood National Park by 48,000 acres, allying with Indigenous tribes to stop the G-O road, launching the oldest rural recycling program in the U.S., starting the Coastal Cleanup Day project and much more.

Tim McKay was executive director of NEC in Arcata, California from 1976 until his death in 2006. Under his leadership, the NEC became an influential organization in regional campaigns for wilderness, ancient forests, and salmon, and locally as the umbrella for every grassroots, “friends of” group that took up the gauntlet as advocates for their home watersheds. He was a man of persistence and unswerving dedication to the ecological complexities and beauties of the natural world.

Scope and Content

The collection consists of the papers, maps and photographs related to NEC that were stored at Tim McKay’s home. Information in this collection include projects conducted by the NEC, legal documents related to environmental projects in the bioregion, or supplemental environmental research conducted by NEC or other environmental groups or government agencies.

There is an abundance of correspondence regarding projects, meetings, and miscellaneous environmental affairs and politics. Throughout the entire collection there are pamphlets, articles, newspaper clippings and other public opinion based sources regarding the projects or topics of the series.

Series were largely kept in original order with occasional additions and limited reordering to fit the established organization of the collection. All boxes contain a variety of materials (correspondence, maps, reports, etc.), except for boxes 27-33 which are exclusively legal documents and CD’s of testimony.

Arrangement of Collection

This collection was donated in pieces over time. Boxes were donated in various states of organization; some organized by topics or projects, and other boxes housed a variety of materials covering an abundance of topics. During processing, boxes were largely kept in original order with some boxes being rearranged in chunks to fit into topic groupings. All existing folder titles were transferred (with few exceptions for titles that were unrelated to materials inside) and titles created by the archivist are noted with brackets.

This collection is organized by general environmental topics. The Klamath Hydroelectric Project also has its own series. This collection is arranged in 14 series that reflect the general topic and includes multiple subseries throughout. Materials in each series range from personal notes to legal documents to general business operations and more.

Series List

Series: Administrative Files (Box 1-2)

This series consists of various types of paperwork related to NEC business operations from 2000-2003, with some undated material. There are financial documents such as grant proposals, taxes, and donations; board documents such as minutes, bookkeeping and correspondence; and other general business documents: insurance, agendas, employee lists, and leases.

Series: Tim McKay’s Subject Files (Boxes 3-9)

This series was originally organized by Tim McKay and donated in alphabetically arranged subject files; original order has been kept. Subject files are from C through Y. Subjects speak to a variety of local environmental topics such as Energy Alternatives, Klamath River Fish Kills, and Humboldt Bay Oil Spills. There is also quite a bit of material in his subject files that are dedicated to the surrounding rivers: the Eel, Elk, Mad, Mattole, Scott, Smith, Trinity, and Van Duzen rivers.

Subseries is Tim McKay’s Office Files (Box 9)

The material of this subseries includes Tim’s notes and notepad, his correspondences, various NEC related documents such as posters, brochures, NEC library information, a few EcoNews reports, and miscellaneous legal documents. This box appeared to be miscellaneous material from Tim McKay’s desk or office that were arbitrarily gathered together for donation.

Series: Ephemeral Material on Local Environmental Topics (10-11)

These two boxes originally contained manila packets of files on local environmental topics, specifically related to Arcata and general Forest Management. This original order has been kept. Box 10 contains files on Wildlife and City Planning in Arcata: The recycling center, the marsh, notes from the City Council regarding the freeway, and other Arcata city plans. Box 11 contains files on the United States Forest Service, divided into different regions, and files on The California Coastal Provincial Advisory Committee (CCPAC).

Series: Forest Management and Conservation (Box 12-13)

This series contains general files relating to the management and conservation of forests in the surrounding Humboldt area. These files were put into this series from throughout the collection so original order has not been kept, and folder titles created by the archivist are noted. Notable topics include Timber Harvest Plans, Wilderness Heritage bills, National Park Services management strategies, and forest service roads and Off-Highway Vehicles (OHV) management.

Subseries: Forest Fires

This subseries almost exclusively contains information about the Megram Fire in 1999, one of California’s largest wildfires. There are a few other folders included regarding general forest fire management and prevention.

Series: General Environmentalism (Box 13)

Original order of these folders were maintained. The topics address various general environmental topics, from “Climate Change” to “Urban Study Areas”. These folders were not reorganized to fit into other series because of their broad topics and potential relation to each other. It appears that the same person compiled these topics. The miscellaneous nature of these topics gives the impression it was an NEC employee’s personal office documents.

Series: Water Conservation and General Bioregion Information (13-15)

Given the broad subject matter of water conservation and information, this series is organized by location. Box 13 and 14 mainly regard rivers and lakes, while Box 15 also includes ocean conservation and information. Similar to the Forest Management Series, these files were compiled from various files throughout the collection, so original order has not been kept. This series contains a few folders that are a compilation of documents found throughout the collection, such as general information regarding Humboldt Bay or Lake Earl, but the majority of this series are environmental reports related to the conservation of lakes, rivers, or oceans.

Series: General Klamath Basin Files (Box 16-26)

This is the largest series, covering an array of topics related to the general Klamath basin. The “basin” is defined as the area where all the rivers originate and includes the surrounding environment: lakes, rivers, wetlands and diverse ecosystems. Other series and subseries in this collection more specifically address the Klamath River and the Klamath Dam whereas this series might briefly touch on the subject but primarily focuses on the bioregion as a whole: folder titles include, State of the Klamath Ecoregion Report, Klamath Basin Maps, Salmon Restoration, Watershed Management, and Water Quality. The one subseries in this section focuses on the Fish Kill Conflict (Box 26).

Series: Klamath Hydroelectric Project (Boxes 27-33)

Subseries: Reports (27-29)

The spiral bound reports were published by Pacificorp (the corporation in charge of building the Klamath Dam) and show the breadth of legal documents, permits, licenses and technical reports that were required for dam construction. The majority of reports were published in February 2004, however there are various documents that span from 1995 to 2006. Box 29 contains dam reports as well as binders of environmental reports related to the ecosystem of the Klamath River Basin.

Subseries: Legal Files (Box 30-32)

These legal files contain documents that represent reactions to the dams, such as lawsuits from surrounding tribes. Original order has been kept and minimal organization and processing has been completed for these boxes. Due to the complexity of the legal records and jargon, the documents were not further delineated. This series includes multiple CDs labeled “written testimonies” and are responses to the Klamath Hydroelectric Project proposal, as well as various exhibits used in the court case; these CDs are paperclipped to their corresponding documents.

SubSeries: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Files (Box 33)

The Klamath Hydroelectric Project is also known as FERC Project 2082. The FERC files are all from 2006 and are organized chronologically. The folders contain legal documents from tribes and other organizations, for example, the Fishermen’s Association documents suing the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and National Marine Fisheries Service.

Series: “No Liquid Natural Gas (LNG)” Activism (Box 34)

This series was originally housed in a box titled “No Liquid Natural Gas.” Folders from throughout the collection that were related to LNG were added to this series as well. The information covers the efforts of the NEC to stop the construction of the proposed LNG site in Humboldt Bay in 2003, as well as general information about LNG. The box contains research and activism spanning 1978-2003.

Series: Periodicals (Box 35)

This series came from one box of publications that were collected by the NEC or Tim McKay. Several additional publications were added from other parts of the collection. Pamphlets, newspapers, calendars, magazines, some reports, as well as miscellaneous paperwork and correspondences make up this series.

Series: Photographs (Box 36-39)

This series is in its original order as donated by NEC. The NEC photograph series includes both photos of NEC and its work, as well as historical environmental photos. There are two scrapbooks with photos of NEC events, protests, and staff. The 3x5” photographs are mainly of the 2001 All Species Parade, Fish Kill on the Klamath River, and the NEC building fire, with a few being of other NEC projects. There are negatives depicting aerials of various tree farms, national and state parks, rivers, lakes, and the surrounding nature, as well as group photos from the 1970s of some sort of camp labeled “JLC” (potentially a Junior Logging Camp). There are mounted photos from the 1920s of field work, as well as black and white logging photos from the 1950s. There are also old, undated mounted photos titled “Rare Views of California” depicting redwoods, logging sites, and other historical environmental places. Additionally, there are multiple rolls of film, some that correspond to the negatives and some that have not been developed.

Series: Audiovisual Material (40-41)

This series contains VHS tapes, CDs, and cassette tapes related to NEC or environmentalism in the Humboldt region. There are 49 VHS tapes, with 28 of them being a taping of the Lower Klamath Region Basin Science Conference (LKRBSC). The others are tapings of the 2002 Klamath River Lawsuit and various documentaries about salmon, forests, and other environmentalist concerns. The CDs are photo slideshows and documents covering various different topics: the NEC building fire, Klamath environmental impact reports, Yurok responses to the Klamath Hydroelectric Project, and more. Most of the cassette tapes correspond to the VHS tapes of the Lower Klamath Region Basin Science Conference (LKRBSC). The rest are labeled Fish Kill Hearing 10/28/02, one labeled Klamath River Aerial 9/25/02, and one is unlabeled.

Oversized (oversize box and map case)

This series has posters from various NEC events, mostly 1980s-1990s. There are maps, flyers and informational posters from the 1950s-1970s and 2000s.

Container List

coming soon

Bibliography

“The Northcoast Environmental Center.” The Northcoast Environmental Center. .https://www.yournec.org/.

Silvaggio, Tony. Grassroots Environmentalism: "The Significance of Ecological Identities Within Humboldt County Forest Activism." Master's thesis, Humboldt State University, 1997.

Stanton, Kathleen and Susie Van Kirk. Timber and Forests: Postwar to Present, 1946-1999. Report prepared for Congressman Mike Thompson and The Library of Congress, 2000. Includes transcript of interview done with Tim McKay. (call # HD9757 C2 S83).

Related Collections

California Revealed Audiovisual Collection
Becking (Rudolph W.) Collection
EcoNews
McKay (Tim) Collection
Humboldt County Pamphlet Collection - Northcoast Environmental Center

Subject Headings

Environmentalism--California, Northern
Forest reserves- California
Humboldt County (Calif.)-- History
Klamath River (Or. and Calif.)
Logging--California--Humboldt County
Old growth forest conservation
Redwoods--California--Humboldt County

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