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TOM WHEELER:

Welcome to the Econews Report. I'm your host this week, Tom Wheeler, executive director of EPIC, the Environmental Protection Information Center. And joining me is my friend and co-host on this show, Jen Kalt of Humboldt Waterkeeper. All right. And we are talking about Friends of the Dunes today and we have two great guests, Mike Cipra, the outgoing executive director of Friends of the Dunes. Hey, Mike.

MIKE CIPRA:

Hey, thanks so much for having us on. We really appreciate it.

WHEELER:

And we also have the new incoming executive director, Suzie Fortner.

SUZIE FORTNER:

Hey, Tom. Hey, Jen. Excited to be here.

WHEELER:

All right, so there is a lot going on with Friends of the Dunes, so this is kind of a catch-up check-in episode where we get to learn all of the exciting haps that are happening and we get to talk about the Dunes, which is always terribly exciting. So the big internal news is, Mike, we are sad to see you go as the executive director because you've just been such a wonderful force for Friends of the Dunes, and I want to provide you kind of an opportunity to say goodbye to the Friends community, although you're still going to be around.

CIPRA:

Right, I'm not shipping out to other lands here, but I want to emphasize that this last five years at Friends of the Dunes, for me, has been a really amazing time in getting to know the Friends of the Dunes community. And I think it's important to emphasize, too, that we're all in this together. The Dunes really are a place that belong to all of us, and they inspire all of us, and the folks who have worked for this have worked in collaboration, including with you guys. I think it's safe to say that our community cares really deeply about these places, about conserving them, about restoring them, about making sure there's access for kids, for the next generation, too. So all of those things, to me, have been inspiring, and most of all, it's the people who are attracted to this. And I think you don't stop being a Friend of the Dunes. I think this is something that's for life. So yeah, I think those are the things that I've kind of reflected on in the last few weeks, that sense of community and that sense that it continues on, the path continues on.

WHEELER:

So I think that I have this kind of young executive directors clubs -- me, Caroline Griffith at the North Coast Environmental Center, Alicia Hamann at Friends of the Eel River, where we don't sometimes know what we're doing. And it was really nice and useful to work with you because it was like, here's somebody who has experience, who is a great natural fit at being an executive director. So I've, I feel like I've gained a lot as an executive director at EPIC from osmosis, being able to work with you. Things have rubbed off, I hope.

CIPRA:

That's really sweet to say, but I think that respect is mutual, that I've learned from the collaborations with different folks in the environmental community here. And I've noticed that people here in Humboldt stick together and help each other out, and want to collaborate. There's not really this sense of turf, and there aren't squabbles over that. It's very much a collaborative atmosphere, and that respect, Tom and Jen, is absolutely mutual.

KALT:

Thank heavens there is a younger generation of executive directors to lead these organizations into the future.

WHEELER:

And now we get to have Suzie join that illustrious club where we text each other, how the heck do you do this thing?

FORTNER:

Nice to have that support system.

WHEELER:

But it's really good, a lot of millennial love. So, Jen, we were talking before the show, I want you to ask the question that you were planning to ask to Mike.

KALT:

Oh well, I would like to ask you to just reflect on the highlights of the last five years of your time at Friends of the Dunes, the really major landmarks that you will look back on and be proud of.

CIPRA:

Well, I think one of the coolest things that Friends of the Dunes has stepped up to in the last five years is taking on the ownership of the Samoa Dunes and Wetlands Conservation Area. It's 357 acres of really amazing habitats that range from coastal dune forests to open dunes to forage dunes. The Humboldt Bay wallflowers are blooming out there right now. It's a really spectacular place. And to take on the interim land ownership on that and to clean it up a little bit. The previous ownership left a little bit of trash for us. We've cleaned more than 13,000 pounds of trash off of that property. It's in great shape. We've reintroduced the community to the space, made it a place where people can go and bring their families and study and learn and be inspired by the dunes.

So that's been a really amazing thing. And to watch the community embrace that, to have trail stewards who are volunteers who go out there who help take care of it, has been really inspiring for me. This also happened in the midst of the pandemic. So just on a personal level, having a new place around Humboldt Bay to explore, to go out there and see. And if folks have not been out there, Friends of the Dunes offers free tours of this site, generally the third Saturday of each month. You can go out there and see it and learn about this place. It's really extraordinary. And it's connected to the other dune areas that people have been working to conserve the last 40 years. So we're now looking at more than 1,700 acres of conserved dunes, which is pretty remarkable. And it's right here in our backyard.

WHEELER:

You know, it goes from BLM land on the North jetty all the way up to the mouth of the river. It's pretty remarkable how much we've been able to piece back together, get out of private ownership, and back into public access. It's fantastic. I think this has been kind of one of the somewhat unheralded conservation successes of the North Coast, that we still have this active dune ecosystem.

CIPRA:

And we've done it the hard way, right? You mentioned that. We've pieced it back together over time. And this is the work of lots of people over time. And Jen, you asked, what am I proud of? I'm proud of this collaboration. And I want to emphasize that for the last five years, I've been working in partnership with Suzie Fortner at Friends of the Dunes. Susie is easily the most qualified executive director Friends of the Dunes has ever had. And it's been this incredible pleasure to work with her, to learn about Friends of the Dunes from her, and to work together on projects like the conservation of these habitats or on restoration. We're currently doing the largest restoration project in our history. And that's been because we've been able to work together. And so I feel really positive about where Friends of the Dunes is at, and what we're working on with our partners, and especially about Susie stepping forward to take leadership.

KALT:

Yeah it's really fortunate to have somebody you've been working in partnership with for so long to take the helm because sometimes people don't want to do that and so I am really excited that you're stepping up to this role because it's really hard to bring in a new person and train them as the boss. It's not easy, so kudos to you for taking on the responsibility and look forward to working with you and continuing all these great things. When I first moved here Friends of the Dunes was an all-volunteer group and has gone from that to owning property and a nature center and all this stuff so.

FORTNER:

Yeah, thank you. I've been around for a lot of interesting transitions with Friends of the Dunes and transitions are always rough but we're at we are where we're at today because of Mike's leadership and over the past five years so I just want to acknowledge that that when Mike came on board it was not an easy job. We were having a challenging couple of years after lots of transitions in leadership, a few executive directors who didn't quite work out as we had planned. I had been serving as interim director for a year and I was getting to a point where I was pretty burnt out myself and also dealing with some family health care issues down in San Diego, traveling back and forth. So it was a really challenging time for me and for the organization and five years later even through a pandemic we're in such a better place than we were five years ago and a lot of that is due to Mike's leadership. So just want to acknowledge that and thank Mike for that but yeah we could not have taken on the management of Samoa Dunes and Wetlands without Mike being at the helm.

WHEELER:

Well, it's a great place. So maybe this is the time to do that. Let's get to know Susie a section of the show All right. So Susie let's get to know you. Where are you from? And how did you end up originally at Friends of the Dunes?

FORTNER:

Yeah, that's a, that's a good question. So I'm, I'm originally from San Diego though. I, I was only there until I was 18 years old and then I was very lucky to grow up spending lots of time at the beach, getting to know nature cause my family was really into camping. And I left at the age of 18 to go study marine biology at UC Santa Cruz. While I was at UC Santa Cruz getting my bachelor's degree in science and marine biology, a good friend of mine from high school was up here at Humboldt State.

So I would come up here for spring breaks for three day weekends to visit her. And I fell in love with Humboldt just from coming to visit her up here. So when I applied to grad school, Humboldt State was one of my top choices. So I ended up here in 2007 to study basically environmental education through the environment and community program at what was then Humboldt State University. So that's a interdisciplinary social science, really kind of an overlap of social science and biology and ecology. So yeah, it was a really great program. And I ended up working part-time with Friends of the Dunes starting in 2008, working on my thesis with Friends of the Dunes.

And really I was drawn to Friends of the Dunes because of the free environmental education programs. Before that I had worked as an environmental educator in San Diego at the Birch Aquarium at Scripps and in the Bay Area at a nonprofit called the Marine Science Institute in Redwood City. So various environmental ed positions, but all of those programs I found, especially like summer camp programs, there were a lot of barriers to entry. There was fees for schools to participate. There were pretty high fees for families to participate in summer camp programs.

And then what really turned me towards free programming was my AmeriCorps service. I worked at the San Jose Conservation Corps as a crew leader, and I had a crew of high school students that I worked with. And I really saw the barriers as high school students that were labeled as at risk students, the challenges that they had in accessing nature and accessing nature education programs. So that's really what kind of turned me on to being very committed to having accessible access to nature. That's really what I was passionate about and accessible nature education programs. So when I got to Humboldt, I worked at the Natural History Museum for a little while teaching programs there, but I met some staff at Friends of the Dunes at a volunteer fair at Humboldt State and learned about the Bay to Dunes education program, which is still a program that we offer today. And that it was a free program that they wrote grants and paid for the buses. And that just really drew me towards that program.

So that's where my heart has always been with the organization is environmental education side of things. But that was a long time ago. I was hired as a part-time employee in 2008. So I've come a long way and served in a lot of different roles since then from education assistant, I think was my original role. I became education manager, just happened to line up that the former education manager, Maggie Staudenauer, who was a great employee of Friends of the Dunes for a long time and really headed up all those environmental education programs. She happened to leave the organization and move back to the East coast at the same time that I was graduating and getting my master's degree and needed more work. So just kind of slipped into that full-time position of education manager from there. Yeah.

And then lots of different roles in between just leading up to becoming executive director this round. I was the programs and operations director. So a lot of my job has been just oversight of the various programs that Friends of the Dunes offers. And I do a lot of grant and contract management and grant writing and keeping an eye on the money that's flowing in and out for all our various projects.

WHEELER:

So environmental education, we have land acquisition and preservation restoration. Tell us more about the kind of active programs at Friends of the Dunes. And do you have any that you're most excited to engage with as the incoming executive director?

FORTNER:

Yeah, I mean, I think Friends of the Dunes, what's really kept me excited about this work for so long is that we are such a community supported organization. For one, as Mike was mentioning, this is really Friends of the Dunes is once you're a friend of the Dune, you're always a friend of the Dune. So we have a lot of people who support our cause and help with this work. I really see the work that we're doing as continuing the many generations that have been doing this for a very long time. There was just a great SFGATE article about Hortense Landfear and how she was protecting the dunes in her own way.

WHEELER:

On horseback with a gun.

FORTNER:

Yes, and her dogs, and yeah, in her own interesting way. So we're really continuing that work of educating people about the dunes, connecting people with nature. I really see Friends of the Dunes as being in the business of like providing connections to nature so that people can really fall in love with these places and care about them because you really have to love something before you'll protect it. So I'm really excited about all our various education programs, all our opportunities to get people outside and to get people connected with nature. And we have so many ways to do that from just educational programs, guided walks, school field trips, participating in our dune ecosystem restoration team, if you like to get your hands dirty and pull out those invasive plants. So, so many opportunities to get engaged.

WHEELER:

You are listening to the Econews Report and we are talking about Friends of the Dunes. We have two great guests, Mike Cipra, the outgoing executive director of Friends of the Dunes. We also have the new incoming executive director, Susie.

FORTNER:

Right now we have some great programs going on through a State Coastal Conservancy Explore the Coast grant that's really about providing access to nature for people who might not normally have access to nature. So we have a program called Nature Newbies where we do really accessible walks and really intro type programs so you don't need to know anything. You don't need to have ever gone on a hike to come out and do these programs. So we're really trying to reach as many people as we can.

KALT:

Those are some of the best experiences for me at Humboldt Waterkeeper where we we also have Explore the Coast grants and Whale Tail grant and we take people out on kayak tours or the Madaket or hikes and just to hear someone say I've lived by the bay for my entire 70 years and I've never been on the water before because I could never afford to rent a kayak or I didn't think I could do it or you know get kids out to the dunes that have never been there even though they grew up here because no one ever took them there it's really really it's great work it's really amazing to see that light in people's eyes when they see it up close.

WHEELER:

Something about the dunes that I think is really special is that I feel like they're kind of like the insider local's knowledge about this like cool area go to, right? Like we're, we're known globally for our redwoods, which are fantastic, right? Old growth redwoods are exceptional. There's no comparison like, so, but, but the dunes, this is like the accessible wild place, five minutes from my house where I can go out into the coastal dunes and wetlands and see a parabolic dune or, or see an old growth Doug for tree somehow within less than a mile from the coast, there's just some wild extravagant ecosystems that are just so close to home and they're, they're so accessible. And I also understand that, that they're exceedingly rare that our, our dune ecosystems are, are irreplaceable in the same way or even more so than our old growth redwoods. Can you talk about like, can you contextualize why our dunes are so important? Right.

FORTNER:

Well, this is, it's a very special type of habitat. And although there are dunes all throughout California, you really have to have, like, these right conditions of the alignment to the coast. You need a source of sand, you need the space for the dunes to form, and you need the wind, which I'm sure many people know that we have a good amount of wind in the drier months. But being from Southern California, I'm sure many people have the experience of a lot of those coastal areas are so developed that even Golden Gate Park used to be dunes, but it was intentionally stabilized to turn it into more of a grass and trees type of park. So, I think it was just not an environment that was really, there wasn't a lot of value put on it. Giant moving sand dunes, which are themselves, in order to thrive, are slightly unstable and always changing in a way.

But I think a common misconception about dunes, too, I, again, being from Southern California, my brother is a off-road vehicle user. He goes out to the dunes in Gordon's Well and drives his vehicle around out there. That was my idea of dunes growing up. And then I come to Northern California and, or like, there are dunes by the ocean? What? I don't understand. And it's, a misconception is that it's just a bunch of sand, like you would see out in those desert dunes.

But that's not the case. There's so much plant life out there. We have such a variety of habitats within such a short space. You go from the beach strand to the foredune to like wetlands in the swale behind the foredune, to big open moving sand sheets to like established, pretty old forest, as you were saying, with Douglas fir and the main species are usually the shore pine and the Sitka spruce. So, it's just amazing to see that amount of diversity in such a short span. I think that's what's really so special about our dunes here. And we have this really interesting overlapping of species. Like, we get a lot of species which are more sort of Arctic species, like the reindeer lichen and the kinnikinnik or the bearberry, which were really more at the southern extent of the range of those species. But then we're also getting other species from further south. So, it's just an interesting mixture that you don't see anywhere else.

CIPRA:

I'd like to contextualize our dunes. What we have here is the most intact native coastal dunes on the US West Coast. And that's because people have been working for the last 40 years to, number one, conserve them, and number two, restore them. And by removing invasive plants, like European beach grass and ice plant, and now with a project to not just remove those plants, but to plant some natives in their place, we'll be doing some planting in 2025. Those plants are currently being grown out right now, thousands of dune plants, and the community will play a role in helping restore.

And to me, that's what makes this place special. It's not an accident of history. It's the history that people here in Humboldt Bay have created, have articulated this vision. If you went out to the dunes 45 years ago, there were people driving all over, and there were people out there using it as shooting ranges. And I think what's really remarkable here in the story of conservation here is that people have articulated this vision of the future that they want, and are willing to work for it, and are willing to work together. And that's what's made this happen. It's not magic, and it also, when people go out to it today, maybe they don't realize how much effort has gone into that. To me, it's not about the blood, sweat, and tears. It's about this inspiring story of a community saying, this is what we want, and then making that manifest.

And to me, that's part of what's so cool about the dunes. Another thing that's just on a personal level that's really special is Tom and Suzie, you alluded to it. You feel like you're entering different worlds in the same space. Whether you're at Mad River Slough, you pop over the hill, and you're looking at this massive dune field at Mal-El, you feel like you're on another planet. But no, that's just earth here. It's really, it inspires the imagination, I think. And it makes you feel like you're a world apart. Even though, again, you're five minutes away from the grocery store, you're a world apart. And you can really get lost in those places. And that, to me, is part of their allure.

KALT:

I just love how everything changes all the time. It's not just seasonal change, but everything at the dunes is always changing. The dunes are moving. Sometimes they engulf trees, the trees die, new trees grow somewhere else, and the wetlands form in the wintertime, and then the willows take over those ponds, and it's just really a remarkable place because it's never the same anytime you go there. I mean, old-growth redwoods are stunning in their own way, but they don't change very much.

WHEELER:

Well, so if there's any Zen Buddhist practitioners, you should come out to the dunes and meditate on impermanence and change. This is the perfect place to do that. Let's, let's talk about something that's coming up at the Friends of the Dunes, which is one of the favorites for our outdoor community, and that is the annual gear sale. Mike, tell them. Yeah, gear sale. Give us a 101 on the gear sale.

CIPRA:

Yeah, so it is a fundraiser for Friends of the Dunes, but more than that, it's an opportunity for people to maybe contribute that gear that you aren't using anymore. It gets a new life. It stays out of the landfill. And all of the proceeds from this go to free education programs for kids, bringing kids out to the dunes. Every year, Friends of the Dunes brings out thousands of school kids. And Susie mentioned this, but we reduced the barriers to access. We pay for the buses. We want to make sure that every child in Humboldt County has the opportunity to connect with these places. And sometimes, we have to get creative in how we pay for it.

The Get Outside gear sale is one of those ways. The proceeds go towards free education programs. And maybe, if you show up, you'll get a really good deal on some awesome gear. So it's win, win, win. It's for a good cause. And if you have that extra gear that you're not using anymore, give it a new life. You can donate it to Friends of the Dunes at our Humboldt Coastal Nature Center. We're open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 AM to 4 PM. You could drop it by. Or you could drop it by either of the Adventures Edge stores. They're one of our business partners. And they've graciously agreed to accept donations, either at their Arcata store or their Eureka store. So lots of different ways you could get involved. You could volunteer at the event. You could come and buy some sweet gear, score some deals. Or you could donate. You could do all of the above. And it's a fun community event. It's like a big old yard sale at the Humboldt Coastal Nature Center.

It's taking place on April 6. And yeah, reach out to us. Connect with us. Get involved. It's a great community building event.

KALT:

Would you take some old roller blades that have been hardly used?

CIPRA:

We might take rollerblades. There are a couple things we don't take, like gas canisters, weapons, used helmets. I mean, it could have dropped, and it's not safe necessarily to sell that. Moldy stuff, we don't like moldy stuff. Basically, just a rule of thumb is, if it's something that can have another life, and it's outdoor gear related or adjacent, even sports equipment, things like that, we get a really diverse crowd, and people are looking for all kinds of different things, and it's a fun way to meet other folks and get outside. But yeah, those rollerblades, we'll take them.

KALT:

Cool. I've heard people have scored some kayaks out there too.

CIPRA:

Kayaks, bikes, backpacks, tents, if you can imagine it being outdoors, we have it.

WHEELER:

Well, so pro tip, if you are a member of Friends of the Dunes, you get to shop early for all of the stuff. So if there's the kayaks, if there's the bicycles that you know are going to go fast, you want to get in there right when it opens at 11, but that's for members only. The first hour, 11, 12 p.m. is for members only. So folks, become a member of Friends of the Dunes. Susie, how does one become a member of Friends of the Dunes?

FORTNER:

Well, there are several ways you could become a member. It's really easy to visit our website and click that button that says donate and it'll take you to a form that you can fill out. Or you can come directly into the Nature Center. We're open Wednesday through Saturday from 10am to 4pm. You can become a member at the Nature Center. So those are the easiest ways.

WHEELER:

Super. All right. And so again, this is Saturday, April 6th from 11 to 3 p.m. And again, 11 to noon. That's only for Friends of the Dunes members. So if you want to get that sweet deal on a kayak or a bike or maybe Jen's old roller blades, become a member and come on out. I look forward to seeing y'all there. As we've said, you can get some really cool stuff for really good prices and it goes to a good cause. So I look forward to seeing all my friends at the Friends of the Dunes gear sale. All right. So, you know, Friends of the Dunes has all these other programs, lead hikes, and they're naturalist lead hikes. That is not like lead, like the stuff that made Nero insane. Where where can we find out more information about what's going on at the Friends? Let's get that URL one more.

FORTNER:

Friendsofthedunes.org is our website. There is a calendar on there, which has all our upcoming events on it. We also have a wonderful outreach manager who does a great job at social media. So check out our Instagram and our Facebook. We post things there pretty regularly. And we do also have an email list. We don't bombard your email account with lots of unnecessary emails, but we send about two a month usually with upcoming events and volunteer opportunities. Lots of ways to get outside and explore the Dunes.

WHEELER:

Awesome. Well, unfortunately we are out of time, but Mike, thank you for all of your service to Friends of the Dunes and for your work community. I I'm really glad that you are still going to be around Humboldt because I enjoy running into you at things. And Susie, welcome to being the executive director. I can, I can tell you as the executive director, and I think Jen can say this as well. It's a lot of work. It's also a lot of fun. And I'm excited to see how Friends of the Dunes evolves under your leadership.

FORTNER:

Yes, thank you, Tom. You can maybe expect some of those text messages from me.

WHEELER:

Well, I will see everybody on Saturday, April 6th at the Friends of the Dunes Gear Sale.

CIPRA:

At the Coastal Nature Center.

WHEELER:

And until then, be well. And thanks for listening to this episode of the Econews Report. And you can join us again next week for more environmental news from the North coast of California. Stay tuned to this radio station until then. Tata.