Salish Sea Communications: November 2021

Friday, November 26, 2021

Salish Sea News Week in Review November 26 2021

Aloha "Good Grief" Friday
"Good grief!" is a phrase often used by Charlie Brown, the main character from Charles Schulz's comic strip, Peanuts. Schulz was born on this day in 1922, and today is dedicated to both him and his enduring comic strip. Peanuts ran almost fifty years—from October 2, 1950, until February 13, 2000, which was one day after Schulz's death. Schulz created all aspects of the comic, from the script to the art and lettering. Today, reprints of Schulz's comic appear in many U.S. newspapers.

Flood-Ravaged British Columbia Starts Barging In Fuel From U.S.
British Columbia has begun receiving U.S. fuel supplies by sea to help ease shortages triggered by some of the worst floods on record, while the government warned residents to hunker down as fresh storms hit the disaster-ravaged province.

In photos: a view of RCMP arrests of media, Indigenous land defenders on Wet’suwet’en territory
Police made arrests Friday {Nov. 19], triggering international attention of Canada's support for the Coastal GasLink pipeline, which is opposed by hereditary chiefs.

Suzuki apologizes for warning pipelines could be 'blown up' over environmental frustrations
Well-known environmentalist David Suzuki apologized Thursday for comments about pipelines being destroyed.

Wet'suwet'en pipeline opposition leader released with conditions
A key leader in the fight against the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northwestern B.C. has been released from jail with the condition she not interfere with construction of the project.

How to make Washington State Ferries shipshape again
Unless leaders at Washington State Ferries can generate a tidal wave of new money and staffing ideas, the fleet could remain in dire straits through 2022 and beyond.

One man in a kayak working to make a virtual 360-degree view of the Puget Sound shoreline
Brian Footen has made it his mission to document every tideland of the sound's nearly 1,300-mile nearshore environment, using 120 pounds of instruments as he paddles.

Recovery of Puget Sound species could hinge on better understanding of ecosystems
To restore or improve salmon habitat in a stream, the challenge is to understand what has been broken in a complex interactive system.

How to build back B.C.’s flood infrastructure better
Ninety-six per cent of dikes in the Lower Mainland are not high enough to block extreme floods. Some experts say we have to think beyond concrete.

n a single week
A timeline of how once-in-a-century flooding unfolded across B.C. Rhianna Schmunk reports.

What toll did recent flooding take on Whatcom’s salmon?
...The scope of the flood has yet to be measured exactly, but provisional data shows that it was one of the top three on record for the North and Middle Forks and the Nooksack River at Ferndale.

Tacoma liquid gas plant gets go-ahead from state pollution board
A liquified natural gas plant on the Tacoma waterfront has gotten the green light from the Washington Pollution Control Hearings Board.

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.

Salish Sea News: Communicate, Educate, Advocate

Follow @savepugetsound

Salish Sea Communications: Truth Well Told

Friday, November 19, 2021

Salish Sea News Week in Review November 19 221

Aloha World Toilet Day!
World Toilet Day is about more than just toilets; it is about sanitation as a whole, which includes components such as hygiene and the management and treatment of wastewater. The day's goal is to inspire action to address the global sanitation crisis. Jack Sim founded the World Toilet Organization on November 19, 2001, and then declared that day to be World Toilet Day. After its founding, various organizations around the world marked the day, and it gained a new level of legitimacy in 2013 when it was formally recognized by the United Nations.

B.C. returns nearly 100 hectares of Crown land near Sechelt to shíshálh Nation
The 99.6-hectare parcel of land is located on the south shore of Salmon Inlet, about 16 kilometres north of Sechelt.

Making room for salmon
Salmon need more estuaries. We look at how local tribes are working to restore this critical habitat.

A Proposed New Marine Sanctuary Would be the First One to be Tribal-Led
The US government this week began the process to designate the country’s first tribal-led marine sanctuary. The proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary would protect sacred Chumash sites, feeding grounds for numerous species of whales and dolphins, sea otter populations, kelp forests, and is home to vital commercial and recreational fisheries.

Connecting the dots between B.C.’s floods, landslides and the clearcut logging of old forests
Deforestation dramatically alters how landscapes are able to cope with extreme weather events like the atmospheric river that surged across southern British Columbia earlier this week.

Land defenders arrested on Wet’suwet’en territory as RCMP enforces Coastal GasLink injunction
Elders, legal observers and media have been detained as police advance into Gidimt’en territory where land defenders closed road access earlier this week in an effort to prevent drilling under a sacred waterway. Matt Simmons reports. (The Narwhal)

Biden officials to propose road ban on much of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Friday will propose restoring roadless protections on more than 9 million acres of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, a move that would overturn one of Donald Trump’s most significant changes to public lands. Juliet Eilperin reports. (Washington Post)

First fires, now floods: British Columbia and Washington reeling from atmospheric river
First they baked, then they burned, and now they’re inundated.

Friday, November 12, 2021

Salish Sea News Week in Review November 12 2021

Aloha Elizabeth Cady Stanton Day!
The fight for equality for women was at the heart of the work of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who was born on today's date in 1815, in Johnstown, New York. The New York State legislature has since established the date as Elizabeth Cady Stanton Day. The holiday is also unofficially celebrated beyond New York by supporters of women's rights and by women's rights groups. Most known for being a women's rights advocate, her focus on the subject was all-encompassing, although perhaps her greatest attention was given to the right to vote. She was an activist for human rights on a broader scale as well, fighting for causes such as abolition.

U.S. re-opens land borders, but there is no mad rush south
The $150 to $300 cost of a COVID PCR test on return makes it cost-prohibitive to head over the border to fill up with gas or buy cheap cheese and milk.

Washington’s Fawn Sharp becomes first Tribal leader to receive diplomatic credentials
National Congress of American Indians President and Washington state Tribal leader Fawn Sharp has become the first Tribal leader to receive diplomatic credentials from the U.S. State Department.

How one Northwest tribe aims to keep its cool as its glaciers melt
Record-breaking heat took a heavy toll on the Northwest this summer, from beaches to cities to mountaintops. In the Washington Cascades, some glaciers lost an unprecedented 8% to 10% of their ice in a single hot season.

In new climate order, Inslee says Washington State vehicles to plug in
Many of Washington’s state vehicles will transition to electric over the next 19 years, according to an executive order issued by Gov. Jay Inslee.

Bellingham mayor urges tax to fund climate change programs
Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood asked the City Council to consider asking voters to approve a tax to pay for citywide programs aimed at reducing the city’s carbon footprint and helping the effort to fight global climate change.

How B.C.’s long-awaited forestry law updates leave gaps around protecting old-growth and Indigenous Rights
While environmental advocates are cautiously optimistic about proposed amendments to B.C.'s 2004 Forest Ranges and Practices Act, many worry they lack clarity and don't provide the protections the province's oldest forests need.

Most cargo containers vanished after falling overboard from ship near Victoria, B.C.
Of the 109 cargo containers that went overboard from the Zim Kingston, a cargo ship that caught fire near British Columbia last month, 105 have not been seen, according to the Canadian Coast Guard.

‘Faulty’ science used by Trump appointees to cut owl habitat
Political appointees in the Trump administration relied on faulty science to justify stripping habitat protections for the imperiled northern spotted owl, U.S. wildlife officials said Tuesday.

B.C. study shows sustainable management of salmon before colonization
The study published Wednesday in the journal Scientific Reports examined chum salmon bones dating from between 400 BC and AD 1200 from four archeological sites around Burrard Inlet.

Months later, Tacoma moves to restrict fossil fuel use on Tideflats. Some worry about loopholes
Tacoma City Council moved Tuesday to restrict the expansion of fossil-fuel infrastructure on the Tideflats, but there remains debate about whether the new land-use codes go far enough to address the climate emergency the city declared in 2019.

Whatcom County takes these steps to address local effects of global climate change
Whatcom County Council members approved a Climate Action Plan that spells out the effects of global climate change locally and makes specific recommendations on how to address them.

Friday, November 5, 2021

Salish Sea News Week in Review November 5 2021

Aloha Donut Friday!
The cookbook ”Küchenmeisterei (Mastery of the Kitchen)," published in Nuremberg, in 1485, offers a recipe for ”Gefüllte Krapfen,” sugar free, stuffed, fried dough cakes. Dutch settlers brought olykoek ("oil(y) cake") to New York (or New Amsterdam). These doughnuts closely resembled later ones but did not yet have their current ring shape. Daniela Galarza, for Eater, wrote that "the now-standard doughnut’s hole is still up for debate. Food writer Michael Krondl surmises that the shape came from recipes that called for the dough to be shaped like a jumble — a once common ring-shaped cookie. In Cuisine and Culture: A History of Food and People, culinary historian Linda Civitello writes that the hole was invented because it allowed the doughnuts to cook faster. By 1870 doughnut cutters shaped in two concentric circles, one smaller than the other, began to appear in home-shopping catalogues." (Wikipedia)

What's going on in the North Puget Sound? Check out Salish Current for the latest local news--independent, free to read, free from advertising, not-for-profit community-based journalism.

Ship that spilled 100+ containers could have ridden out the storm in sheltered waters
The ship that spilled more than 100 shipping containers off the Washington coast was in a holding pattern on the open ocean when it could have ridden out the storm in more sheltered waters.

Kelp’s Carbon Sink Potential Could Be Blocked by Coastal Darkening
Coastal darkening, an environmental threat researchers are only beginning to study, is found to dramatically reduce the productivity of kelp.

The Loudest Jets in the Quietest Park
In the summer of 2014, the U.S. Navy established an Electronic Warfare Range on large swathes of Washington’s Olympic National Forest and in airspace over it, plus airspace over Olympic National Park and surrounding communities.

How the Blueberry ruling in B.C. is a gamechanger for the Site C dam, extractive industries and Indigenous Rights
In a precedent-setting ruling, B.C.’s Supreme Court found the province guilty of breaching its obligations to Treaty Rights through decades of cumulative impacts. Now, the impact of that ruling is reverberating across the country.

Settlement negotiations fail between Oregon climate activists and government attorneys
Attorneys for 21 young people suing the federal government over climate change say settlement talks with the U.S. Department of Justice have failed.

‘Extremely frustrating’: B.C. announces 2.6 million hectares of at-risk old-growth, no permanent protections
The announcement, which comes one full year after B.C.’s expert panel recommended the province introduce immediate deferrals in old forests facing irreversible biodiversity loss, is short on specifics and funding for affected First Nations, critics say.

Trudeau promised to cap emissions, but Canada’s oil and gas companies have different plans
A new analysis shows the climate plans of eight Canadian oil and gas producers are ‘wholly out of line’ with Canada’s climate goals.

The Danger of the Marine Vessels that Serve Refineries
The track record for—and the potential risk of—maritime shipping of oil is even worse than the often-dismal records of pipelines and trains.

Cause of mysterious brain-invading-fungus outbreak finally discovered
Scientists have finally found the cause of a mysterious brain-invading tropical fungus outbreak that killed more than 40 dolphins and porpoises in the Pacific Northwest: humans.

Killer Whales’ Low Genetic Diversity Offers a Warning for the Future
Even after thousands of years, many killer whale populations are still reeling from the genetic bottleneck of navigating the end of the last ice age.

Puget Sound fish and wildlife populations fall short of 10-year recovery goals
A final report on the 2020 ecosystem-recovery goals for Puget Sound outlines habitat improvements for some streams, shorelines and wetlands, but it also describes ongoing declines among fish and wildlife populations that use those habitats.