Community Outreach

Air Quality

Watershed Health

BLR TEPA seeks to protect and enhance the Mad River watershed through routine baseline data collection, watershed education, riparian planting and stream restoration projects, co-management of fisheries ,and outreach to the greater community.

Solid Waste Management

Climate Adaptation Planning

Food Sovereignty

Tribal EPA is dedicated to enhancing tribal food sovereignty in our region. At our Daluviwi’ Community Garden we grow fresh food that is distributed to elders and other community members. In an effort to reduce the Tribe’s overall carbon emissions, garden staff also operate a composting program through a USDA Community Composting and Food Waste Reduction grant. This program composts pre-consumer food scraps from the Tribe’s two commercial kitchens, from the Tribe’s Powers Creek Brewery, and from Honeycomb Coffee, a local coffee shop in the town of Blue Lake. When mature, this compost is used in the garden to build soil health and increase crop yields.

Additional Food Sovereignty Resources:

• Potawot Community Food Garden
• Food Sovereignty Lab
• Yurok Food Sovereignty Program
• Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation Good Food Makes Us All Healthy Project
• Instagram - Blue Lake Rancheria Environmental and Culture Office

Tribal Historic Preservation Office

The Blue Lake Rancheria’s Tribal Historic Preservation Officer (THPO) works to protect and manage Tribal Cultural Resources in ancestral Wiyot territory. The THPO is consulted by federal, state, and local government staff, as well as private businesses, to ensure that these cultural resources are kept safe and treated respectfully. The THPO also periodically confers with other THPOs to identify, address, and successfully manage important Native American cultural resources in California and across the country.

Wiyot Language Resource: http://www.wiyot.us/157/Language

Tribal Environmental
Protection Agency Staff

Bill Matsubu, Ph.D.
Director

Bill Matsubu has a Ph.D. in Aquatic and Fishery Sciences from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Science in Fisheries Biology from Cal Poly Humboldt. His career is focused on understanding and protecting aquatic ecosystems and the communities that rely on them. As the department Director, Bill provides leadership and oversight for all environmental programs at the Tribe: consultation and coordination on environmental topics, collaboration with community partners and natural resource agencies, protection and improvement of air and water quality, restoration of fish and wildlife habitat, reduction of solid waste and increasing composting and recycling programs, grant writing, and project and staff management. Bill is also a member of the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board and sits on the Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab and Traditional Ecological Knowledge Institute Steering Committee.

Jacob Pounds
Specialist

Jacob has served the Blue Lake Rancheria Tribe since 2009 by expanding the technical expertise and capacity of the Tribal Environmental Protection Agency to address environmental issues throughout the Mad River watershed. Currently, he implements the baseline water quality monitoring program and nonpoint source pollution prevention program, and works with other Tribal, State and Federal agencies, industry, non-profit organizations, and landowners to assist in critical fisheries co-management on Mad River. See the ‘Watershed Health’ page for more details on these programs.

Jacob can be most often found by wild rivers, camping, fly fishing, or swimming, and is an avid gardener and lapidary artist.

Ava Iorizzo
Assistant

Ava Iorizzo is the Environmental Programs Assistant at Blue Lake Rancheria. She serves as a Board Member of Arcata’s Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary and is a graduate of Cal Poly Humboldt with a BA in Environmental Studies and a Minor in Economics. She is passionate about collaborating with fellow environmental professionals to promote resilient ecosystems and thriving communities through outreach, environmental awareness and innovative thinking. She takes pride in being a Humboldt County resident and is continually inspired by this unique community’s ability to prioritize sustainability and regenerative practices, such as Blue Lake Rancheria’s commitment to achieving net- zero carbon emissions and the Marsh’s ability to utilize wastewater as a resource.