Salish Sea Communications: February 2026

Friday, February 20, 2026

Salish Sea News Week in Review February 20 2026

Aloha Muffin Day!
National Muffin Day is observed not as a food holiday about consuming but as a day about giving back to communities. Each year people around the world bake muffins, with some organizing big baking parties. Known as Muffinteers, handing the muffins out to people experiencing homelessness and donating to a homelessness cause. The organizers of the day incentivize participation by donating to homeless causes for each person who bakes and gives. They suggest that people "give a dozen," meaning they give to a charity in $12 increments to symbolize the twelve muffins of a muffin tin.

As U.S. abandons climate fight, Washington state feels the heat to do more
Washington state’s push for a rapid switch to electric vehicles is in jeopardy— with its ultimate fate likely to be decided in the courts.

Trump budget maintains many Columbia River salmon, environment programs — despite dramatic proposed cuts
Columbia River salmon recovery programs fared better in the 2026 federal budget than tribes, advocates, bureaucrats and biologists feared.

Feds launch whale-safe fishing gear strategy to try to prevent entanglements
Entanglement is a top threat for all large baleen whales on Canada’s coasts, including humpbacks, minke, blue and fin whales.

Should 600-year-old oaks be cut down in Tacoma for a new storage facility?
The trees at 3802 S. 74th St. will be cut down if the city of Tacoma approves the landowner’s permits to build a new self-storage facility on the one-acre, triangular site.

Bayer agrees to $7.25 billion proposed settlement over thousands of Roundup cancer lawsuits
Agrochemical maker Bayer and attorneys for cancer patients announced a proposed $7.25 billion settlement Tuesday to resolve thousands of U.S. lawsuits alleging the company failed to warn people that its popular weedkiller Roundup could cause cancer.

WA climate funds needed to plug huge budget gap, lawmaker says
Lawmakers can’t find a better way to fill part of Washington’s perennial budget gap than by dipping into the billions raised by the state’s Climate Commitment Act.

New Southern Resident orca calf spotted in L pod
The Center for Whale Research spotted a new Southern Resident orca calf traveling with L pod on Feb. 16 in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Designated L129, the calf was seen with two females, the 49‑year‑old L55 and her daughter L103. Researchers said it is too early to know which whale is the mother.

Lawsuits challenge renewed push for oil drilling in Alaska petroleum reserve and upcoming lease sale
Conservation organizations and an Iñupiat group filed legal challenges Tuesday to the Trump administration’s renewed push for oil and gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and an upcoming lease sale that they say improperly makes available ecologically sensitive lands that have been long protected.

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 msato(at)salish-current.org .Your email information is never shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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Friday, February 13, 2026

Salish Sea News Week in Review February 13 2026

Aloha Galentine's Day
Galentine's Day is a global holiday that celebrates women's friendship. Galentine's Day is typically marked as February 13, but can be observed any day. Galentine's Day events are typically all-female occasions of mutual "empowerment...a reminder for women to support and uplift one another." The concept and name of the holiday was imagined into existence by Parks and Recreation in the eponymous episode "Galentine's Day."

The Stillaguamish Tribe gives its river north of Seattle room to roam
Over the past 15 years, the Stillaguamish Tribe has purchased 2,000 acres of land for fish and wildlife habitat. Under the 1855 treaty, the Stillaguamish and other Puget Sound tribes gave up almost all of their land but kept their rights to fish and hunt. What the tribe wants back on track is salmon.

Trump Opens Marine National Monument in Atlantic to Commercial Fishing
Off the coast of Cape Cod, the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument is a unique stretch of ocean that had been protected for a decade.

Trump Allies Near ‘Total Victory’ in Wiping Out U.S. Climate Regulation
A small group of conservative activists has worked for 16 years to stop all government efforts to fight climate change. Their efforts seem poised to pay off.

Orcas and ourselves
Sea pandas or sadistic killers? These enigmatic creatures invite contradictory labels that say far more about us than them.

Edmonds receives federal grant to advance marsh restoration
The $677,400 grant will go toward a public planning process and developing a design to connect the marsh with the Puget Sound.

Vigil to mark 5 years since deadly northern B.C. tugboat accident, push for stronger standards
Charley Cragg, Troy Pearson died after tugboat Ingenika sank near Kitimat in Feb. 2021.

Trump’s EPA plans to end a key climate pollution regulation
The Trump administration will rescind the Environmental Protection Agency's endangerment finding allowing regualtion of greenhouse gasses under the Clean Air Act. (NPR)

Washington and other Democratic-led states drop lawsuit against Arctic refuge oil drilling in Alaska
Fifteen Democratic-led states have dropped a six-year-old lawsuit challenging the legality of a federal plan that allowed oil and gas drilling in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska but said they will continue their opposition to ANWR drilling.

Thursday, February 5, 2026

Salish Sea News Week in Review February 6 2026

Aloha Chopsticks Friday!
Chopsticks trace their beginnings to China, to at least 1200 BCE, during the Shang dynasty, when they were used for cooking, not eating. Consisting of twigs from trees, they were used to reach into deep cooking pots to retrieve food. The Chinese philosopher Confucius was an advocate for chopsticks and can be credited for helping raise their popularity. A vegetarian, he thought sharp utensils would remind diners of the slaughterhouse and that knives would bring warfare and violence to their minds. Because of his beliefs, chopsticks became more widespread throughout Asia. By 500 CE they had spread to modern-day Korea, Vietnam, and Japan.

Appeals court upholds ban on fish farms in B.C.'s Discovery Islands
Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal has upheld Ottawa’s decision to end salmon farming in B.C.’s Discovery Islands.

Olympic marmots under review
The Olympic marmot is being considered for the endangered species list, the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife Service has announced.

B.C. would struggle to contain oil spill off north coast, research suggests
Decades of research shows waves, wind and darkness would defeat containment efforts for much of the year, raising questions about new oil export plans.

The Trump Administration exempts new nuclear reactors from environmental review
The announcement comes just days after NPR revealed the administration had secretly rewritten safety and environmental standards.

BC Halts Plans to Make Polluters Pay for Cleanup Costs
The province billed its Public Interest Bonding Strategy as a key step to protect the public from massive cleanup bills. Now it’s on hold.

MAHA has reshaped health policy. Now it's working on environmental rules
MAHA activists who want to hold corporations accountable for harming Americans’ health have found an unlikely ally in a Republican-led Environmental Protection Agency that has traditionally supported big businesses and less regulation.

Trump Administration Is Delaying Hundreds of Wind and Solar Projects
Federal agencies are delaying approvals for renewable energy projects on both federal land and private property at a time when electricity demand is going up.

9 C in February: Heat records fall across B.C., raising questions about winter's future
Repeated ridges of high pressure have been driving temperatures in B.C. up into the double digits, with daily heat records falling in at least a dozen cities from Vancouver to Cranbrook to Dawson Creek.

Trans Mountain proceeding with first of three expansions of oil pipeline
Trans Mountain is moving ahead with its first project to pump more oil through its pipeline system between Alberta and British Columbia by using drag reducing agents with the goal of moving up to 10 per cent more oil.

The bills that didn’t survive the WA Legislature’s first major deadline
Many policy ideas in the Washington Legislature met their end less than a month in, as they failed to pass the first key deadline on Wednesday to remain in play. Passage of those that survived is far from assured.