Salish Sea Communications: August 2022

Friday, August 26, 2022

Salish Sea News Week in Review August 26 2022

Aloha Dog Friday!
National Dog Day was founded in 2004 by Colleen Paige. National Dog Day is for all dogs, both purebred and mixed, and the mission of the day is to raise awareness about the number of dogs that need to be rescued each year, as well as to acknowledge the role dogs have played to keep us safe and bring us comfort.

Democrats Designed the Climate Law to Be a Game Changer. Here’s How.
In a first, the measure legally defines greenhouse gases as pollution. That’ll make new regulations much tougher to challenge in court.

State’s new Clean Fuel Standard takes aim at climate-changing pollution
A mammoth accounting ledger. A carrot-and-stick rule with a focus on incentives. However you describe it, Washington’s proposed Clean Fuel Standard has a simple goal: reducing vehicle-related carbon pollution, which accounts for almost 45% of statewide greenhouse gas emissions.

Columbia River's salmon are at the core of ancient religion
For thousands of years, Native tribes in this area have relied on Nch’i-Wána, or “the great river,” for its salmon and steelhead trout, and its surrounding areas for the fields bearing edible roots, medicinal herbs and berry bushes as well as the deer and elk whose meat and hides are used for food and ritual.

West Coast states band together to fight methane pipeline expansion
California, Oregon, and Washington have joined forces to push back against a methane pipeline along the West Coast...The pipeline is a subsidiary of Canadian company TC Energy. The company is currently asking for federal approval of the pipeline expansion.

High hopes for Fraser River sockeye dashed by precipitous returns
Returns for the fabled Adams River sockeye run will likely be just one-third of expected abundance, according to revised estimates of the Pacific Salmon Commission.

WA Fish Passage Program To Flood Contractors With Work
The state’s Fish Passage Program, a 17-year, $3.8-billion effort to correct barriers to fish passages is beginning to ramp up funding with the goal of repairing 90% of the region’s roughly 1,000 fish barriers by 2030.

Washington to phase out new gasoline-powered cars by 2035
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee says the state will phase out the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by the year 2035.

Benefits of dams must be replaced before breaching

The benefits provided by four giant hydroelectric dams on the Snake River must be replaced before the dams can be breached to save endangered salmon runs, according to a final report issued Thursday by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Washington U.S. Sen. Patty Murray.

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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Friday, August 19, 2022

Salish Sea News Week in Review August 19 2022

Aloha Orangutan Friday!
Known for their distinctive red fur, orangutans are the largest arboreal mammal, spending most of their time in trees. Long, powerful arms and grasping hands and feet allow them to move through the branches. These great apes share 96.4% of our genes and are highly intelligent creatures. The name orangutan means "man of the forest" in the Malay language. (World Wildlife Federation)

Behemoth moth lands in Bellevue, alarming agriculture officials
One of the world's largest moths showed up in Bellevue, Washington, to the astonishment of the homeowner who found it basking in the sun on the side of his garage — and the alarm of entomologists.

Conservationists worry about destruction of B.C.'s rare glass sponge reefs
...These reefs are as fragile as the most delicate crystal, given that they are made of silica, the main component of glass. They can be instantly shattered by things like crab and prawn traps, anchors, fishing line and downriggers.

‘Every citizen in British Columbia won’: court dismisses defamation suit against conservationists
On Monday, the B.C. Supreme Court dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed by a developer against the Qualicum Nature Preservation Society and its president Ezra Morse, ruling that the case did not have substantial merit.

B.C. wildlife federation alleges DFO meddling in steelhead science
B.C.’s commercial fishers are anticipating a lucrative Fraser River sockeye salmon harvest this season, but conservationists fear critically low Interior steelhead trout remain at risk due to a federal decision not to list them as endangered.

Higher salmon returns celebrated upstream of 2019 Big Bar rockslide north of Lillooet, B.C.
First Nations are cautiously celebrating upstream of a 2019 landslide that dealt a devastating blow to salmon populations reaching the Upper Fraser River to spawn. This year, preliminary data suggest that more of the fish are finally reaching their spawning grounds upriver.

Skeena Sockeye Returns Are Surging — But Big Concerns Remain
Four million sockeye, twice the average for the last decade, are expected this year.

Biden signs massive climate and health care legislation
President Joe Biden signed Democrats’ landmark climate change and health care bill into law on Tuesday, delivering what he has called the “final piece” of his pared-down domestic agenda, as he aims to boost his party’s standing with voters less than three months before the midterm elections.

Massive new climate law could give Pacific Northwest green businesses a boost
Companies large and small around the Pacific Northwest say they are excited by growth opportunities that may flow from the climate, healthcare and tax package signed by President Biden on Tuesday.

$3.1 million pumped into B.C. marine noise reduction as advocates call for targets
The federal government is putting $3.1 million into projects aimed at reducing underwater noise from vessels to protect marine mammals like southern resident killer whales...Part of a previously announced $26-million investment over five years, the $3.1 million will support 22 projects, including developing real-time tools to track underwater noise from marine vessels, detect marine mammals and alert nearby vessels.

Friday, August 5, 2022

Salish Sea News Week in Review August 5 2022

Aloha Oyster Friday!
There are over 200 species of oysters, of which only a handful are eaten. The most widespread species in the United States are the Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) and Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas). The former is found in Atlantic waters from Canada to South America, and the latter is found in Pacific waters from Japan to Washington State in the north, and south to Australia. Three other species can be found in US waters: the Ostrea conchaphila on the West Coast, and European Flat oysters (Ostrea edulis) and Kumamotos (Crassostrea sikamea), which are grown for specialty markets. Oysters may be given other names to indicate more precisely where they are from. For example, Eastern oysters from Maryland and Virginia are known as Chesapeake Bay Oysters, and Pacific oysters from Washington are known as Willapa Oysters.

Half of BC's Fraser River dikes would overtop in repeat of 1894 flood
An analysis of new information suggests higher dikes needed as climate change increases odds of flooding.

‘Way ahead of all of us’: Mourners remember Tulalip’s environmental champion
Hundreds flocked to the Tulalip Gathering Hall to reflect on the life of Terry Williams, who died last month at 74.

Rising temperatures will shift timing of water availability, amplifying vulnerabilities in Columbia River Basin over next 20 years
Anticipated future shifts in water supply and water demands will combine to create potential vulnerabilities related to water availability across many areas of eastern Washington.

Envisioning a cleaner Duwamish River in South Park
The Duwamish River is one of the most toxic hazardous waste sites in the country and communities around the river have long been affected by higher rates of asthma and a lower life expectancy than residents of other Seattle neighborhoods.

Will BC Let Mount Polley Mine Keep Pumping Waste into Quesnel Lake?
Eight years after a tailings pond disaster, critics say Imperial Metals should have come up with better waste plan by now and warn of risks.

41 large polluters to get free passes in Washington’s carbon trading market
Washington is required by law to eliminate or offset all of its greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050. But generous exemptions for more than 40 of the state’s biggest polluters in a forthcoming carbon market could push that goal beyond reach.

How a federal agency is contributing to salmon’s decline in the Northwest
Damming the powerful waters of the Columbia River was a boon for cheap, clean electricity. But the fish that swam those waters are dying out. And the agency in charge isn’t stopping that.

Judge rejects Navy environmental review of Whidbey Island Growler jet expansion
A U.S. District Court judge ruled Tuesday that the Navy violated federal law in an environmental study of expanded Whidbey Island jet operations that failed to quantify the noise impacts on classroom learning as well as other shortcomings

Seattle's Duwamish Tribe 'on the outside looking in' as city names new Indigenous Advisory Council
The city of Seattle is named for Duwamish leader Chief Seattle, yet his own descendants say they’ve been excluded from an effort to involve more Indigenous people in city issues.

Groups seek pause in long-running Columbia River Basin salmon dispute Groups seek pause in long-running Columbia River Basin salmon dispute
A legal dispute over the impact of hydroelectric dams on salmon runs in the Columbia River Basin has been winding its way through federal court for more than 25 years. On Thursday, a coalition of tribes, environmental groups and the U.S. government asked a federal judge for another year to craft that vision.

Four years after Tahlequah's journey, the legal and ethical debates over orca protection continue to evolve
It has been four summers since a mother orca’s dramatic vigil brought worldwide attention to the plight of Puget Sound’s southern resident killer whales.