Salish Sea News Week in Review December 1 2023

 

Aloha Rosa Parks Friday!
Rosa Parks Day celebrates the legacy of Rosa Parks, a woman who is a symbol of equality, civil rights, and the American Civil Rights Movement. The holiday is celebrated on December 1, the anniversary of the date in 1955 on which she refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. On that day, Rosa Parks was riding a Montgomery bus home from her department store job, where she worked as a seamstress. She was seated in the front row designated for black people, and when some white passengers boarded the bus and had to stand, the bus driver, James F. Blake, moved back by a row the sign that separated the races and told four black riders in the row to move back. Three complied, but Rosa Parks would not. Blake called the police and Parks was arrested. She had violated Chapter 6, Section 11 of the Montgomery City Code. Rosa Parks's refusal to give up her seat sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  Rosa Parks Day is also celebrated on her birthday, February 4.

West Coast toxic hot spots threaten endangered salmon and killer whales
Newly identified toxic metal hot spots on the West Coast further threaten endangered killer whales and their key food source, a recent study shows.

Group wants herring fishery pause in Strait of Georgia
Saanich Inlet Protection Society wants the allowable catch to be zero and a recovery plan for some areas of the strait. 

 Incoming: King tides to Puget Sound
The highest tides of the year are on their way. “King tides” are expected in Puget Sound on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings (Nov. 25-28). King tides come every November, December, and January, when the moon, sun, and earth line up just right...The Olympia and Shelton areas get the highest tides on Puget Sound, just as the end of a bathtub gets the highest sloshing. John Ryan reports. (KUOW)

Eelgrass Is Amazing. Here’s Who’s Saving It
When her daughters were young, Dianne Sanford toted them to the beach to wade alongside her in the dense eelgrass meadows growing just off the shores of where they lived in Delta, B.C...Beginning in 2002, Sanford has dedicated much of her life to mapping once-abundant eelgrass and its decline. In a “piecemeal” fashion, she surveyed roughly 80 per cent of B.C.’s coastline from Gibsons to Pender Harbour.

U.S. government invests $11M in Washington conservation efforts
The U.S. Interior Department announced this week $11 million in grants for conservation projects in Washington state. The federal grants are part of the “America the Beautiful Challenge” to restore land and water across the nation.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists wolverines as ‘threatened’ under Endangered Species Act
After more than two decades of petitions by wildlife conservation groups, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has listed wolverines as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

Stanley Park is set to lose 25 per cent of its trees due to infestation
160,000 trees to be removed over next few years due to hemlock looper moth infestation.

Feds consider removing Snake River dams in leaked agreement with plaintiffs in lawsuit
The Biden administration and federal agencies are prepared to remove four lower Snake River dams to save imperiled salmon species, according to a leaked proposal among parties in a federal lawsuit and the administration’s environmental council.

These news clips are a selection of weekday clips collected in Salish Sea News and Weather which is compiled as a community service by Mike Sato. To subscribe at no cost to the weekday news clips, send your name and email to mikesato772 at gmail.com. Your email information is never shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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