Salish Sea Communications: August 2025

Friday, August 22, 2025

Salish Sea News Week in Review August 22 2025

Aloha Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker, born on this day in 1893, was an American poet, literary critic and writer of fiction, plays and screenplays based in New York; she was known for her caustic wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. Quotable Parker.

Drought is a big problem in Canada — and it’s getting worse
A rush of water-hungry AI data centres is just one reason to rethink industrial water use, as drought becomes a real, year-round problem across Canada.

Dwindling kelp beds gain protection with partnership between Squaxin Island Tribe, DNR

DNR’s Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove met with Squaxin Island Tribe chairman Kris Peters to sign an order creating the Squaxin Island Kelp Protection Zone, in an effort to bring the kelp bed and others around Puget Sound back to full health.

UW lab's seaweed-infused cement could slash carbon emissions
Cement is the source of as much as 10% of all carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. That’s according to materials scientists at the University of Washington who are aiming to reduce that carbon footprint, by adding seaweed to the mix.

Study finds impacts of colonization destroyed nearly 90% of Burrard Inlet food ecosystems
A new research study, in partnership with the səl̓ilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nation and the University of B.C., has found the impacts of colonization from as early as 1750, including smallpox, overfishing and industrialization, destroyed nearly 90 per cent of the food systems and sources in the Burrard Inlet in Metro Vancouver.

Salmon habitat is destroyed for development. Is it possible to replace what’s lost?
A human-constructed marsh in B.C.’s Fraser River was meant to mimic natural feeding and breeding grounds. Offset projects can succeed — if someone sticks around to care for them.

Well-known orca dies in Johnstone Strait surrounded by family, dolphins
There was no immediate word on what caused the death of the killer whale known as I76, but threats to the species include lack of prey, toxin accumulations and vessel impacts.

BC’s Coastal Fires Have Entered a New Era
The Mount Underwood fire near Port Alberni wasn’t your typical Vancouver Island blaze. But what is normal is changing. Thanks to droughts and heat waves, tiny fires that crews were once able to extinguish in a matter of hours are now ballooning into major blazes.

Monsanto settles with over 200 exposed to chemicals in Monroe school
This week’s announcement marks the largest, and only significant, PCB personal injury settlement since Monsanto was acquired by Bayer Pharmaceuticals in 2018, Bayer said. And it appears to be among the largest, if not the largest, PCB settlement stemming from a single site containing the pollutant.

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)salishseacom.com .Your email information is never shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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Friday, August 15, 2025

Salish Sea News Week in Review August 15 2025

Aloha Woodstock Friday!
The iconic music festival, popularly known as Woodstock, opened on this day in 1969 in Bethel, New York at the 600-acre farm of farmer Max B. Yasgur. Over 450,000 people attended the festival, and the festival has become widely regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history, as well as a defining event for the silent and baby boomer generations.

Rising electric bills: How states are tackling Big Tech's energy demands
Amid rising electric bills, states are under pressure to insulate regular household and business ratepayers from the costs of feeding Big Tech’s energy-hungry data centers.

Site C dam energy project now fully operational, B.C. Hydro says
Power utility says sixth and final generating unit on hydroelectric megaproject in northeast B.C. now online.

AI images of B.C. wildfire fuel misinformation
Experts warn of a 'supercharged' era of misinformation, as AI-generated images—including over a half-dozen found by BIV—are increasingly shared on social media.

B.C. to appeal landmark Aboriginal title ruling over Fraser River land in Metro Vancouver
The most recent Indigenous rights and title ruling in B.C. is heading back to court after the province released a statement saying it plans to appeal the decision.

Plight of the Bumblebees
A journey into the wild and not-so-wild world of bumblebees and the unintended consequences of domestication.

Gen Z wants to work outside, but PNW conservation jobs are vanishing
Young people, eager to work outside, are facing the fallout of cuts to federal programs that have developed the next generation of workers for decades.

People often make wrong climate choices, a study says. One surprise is owning a dog
A study recently published by the National Academy of Sciences found that when asked to rank actions, such as swapping a car that uses gasoline for an electric one, carpooling or reducing food waste, participants weren’t very accurate when assessing how much those actions contributed to climate change.

The Fraser’s Impressive Sockeye Returns Prompt Fishery Openings
Wild salmon lovers in the province are expressing cautious optimism as Fraser River sockeye returns significantly exceed expectations.

Restoring the natural order
The Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians partners with natural resource groups to resurrect the Stillaguamish River delta. Eliza Aronson reports.

Seeing the Fungi for the Trees
Mycorrhizal fungi help plants thrive, and sequester a lot of carbon. But a new atlas shows these climate warriors need urgent protection.

Friday, August 8, 2025

Salish Sea News Week in Review August 8 2025

Aloha Zucchini Friday!

Zucchini is a summer squash with a thin, dark, or light green skin. There also is the golden zucchini, a deep yellow or orange hybrid. The lineage of zucchini, like all squash, starts in America, but zucchini was developed in Italy in the second half of the nineteenth century. Cucurbits were introduced to Italy in the sixteenth century, and the zucchini developed from them. In fact, the name "zucchini" comes from the Italian word for squash: zucca. Zucchini was introduced to the United States in the 1920s, likely being brought there by Italian immigrants.

Baker River sockeye storm back in record run — overcoming 2 dams
At least an estimated 90,000 sockeye will return from their high-seas journey to feed the land, forest, bears, osprey, human families — and spawn the next generation. It was an extensive intervention over decades after Puget Sound Energy’s largest hydropower operation nearly drove these fish to extinction.

How Trump Is Transforming the U.S. Government’s Environmental Role
The E.P.A. said this week it would revoke its own ability to fight climate change. It’s the latest move in an extraordinary pivot away from science-based protections.

LOTT Clean Water Alliance wants to make wastewater drinkable. Are you ready for that?
The wastewater utility in downtown Olympia that treats millions of gallons of sewer water per day, in partnership with the South Puget Sound Community College’s brewing and distilling program, aims to use about 500 gallons of that treated water to make beer and other beverages for the public to try.

Unmasking the Sea Star Killer
After a decade of carnage, we finally know what’s devastating sea stars along North America’s West Coast. Does that mean scientists can save them?

Two WA oil refineries fined over $1.3M each for mishandling of sludge and acid waste
Washington’s Department of Ecology said Tuesday that HF Sinclair would be penalized $1,303,000 and Tesoro $1,397,000 for violations of dangerous waste laws. Both companies run refineries located in Anacortes.

Another B.C. fault can produce megathrust earthquakes
Confirming the megathrust fault line off Haida Gwaii offers a path to improve tsunami modelling in a zone that has produced Canada's two largest recorded earthquakes.

Mount Polley Can Continue Tailings Expansion, BC Supreme Court Says
A B.C. Supreme Court justice has dismissed the Xatśūll First Nation’s request to overturn a provincial decision allowing the expansion of the Mount Polley mine’s tailings facility.

Great Barrier Reef records largest annual coral loss in 39 years
The Great Barrier Reef has experienced its greatest annual loss of live coral across most of its expanse in four decades of record-keeping, Australian authorities say.

Friday, August 1, 2025

Salish Sea News Week in Review August 1, 2025

Aloha World Wide Web Day!
The World Wide Web, often simply called the Web, is "a global information medium which users can read and write via computers connected to the Internet." World Wide Web Day marks the birth of the World Wide Web at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), and honors and celebrates people being able to browse freely over it. The first website was published on August 6, 1991. It explained what the World Wide Web project was and how users could search the Web, set up their own web server, and create their own websites and web pages. After the Web's creation, its development was shared with other research institutes and organizations. On April 30, 1993, CERN made the World Wide Web public domain.

Where did the birds go? Why Oregon’s spring was quieter than usual
Some Oregon birdwatchers say this spring was strangely quiet – and the data backs that up.

Clearcutting tied to 18-fold increase in flood risk: UBC study
A new study from the University of British Columbia suggests that clearcut logging can make catastrophic floods up to 18 times more frequent. The study, published in the Journal of Hydrology, analyzed long-term data from one of the world's longest-running forest research sites in North Carolina, the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory.

EPA set to unravel U.S. authority to regulate greenhouse gases
The Trump administration is set to announce its plans to abolish the U.S. government’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases, threatening to strike a deep blow at Washington’s ability to fight climate change.

Canada wants cities to start filtering toxic forever chemicals from public drinking water, but that’s no easy feat.
Jaela Bernstien reports on the challenges facing water utilities as they try to adapt to new PFAS guidelines.

What we know about fossil fuel subsidies in Canada
Billions are given to oil and gas corporations each year, including loans, tax breaks and more. Exactly how many billions is a matter of debate.

Poll: Washington voters are ‘pretty pessimistic’ about the future
For only the second time in Cascade PBS/Elway poll history, respondents anticipate things will get worse for the country, the state and themselves.

Federal government rescinds Oregon’s offshore wind energy area
The Trump administration is rescinding more than 3.5 million acres of designated wind energy areas nationwide, effectively ending a yearslong effort to generate wind energy off the Southern Oregon Coast — for now. Nearly 195,000 acres off the Southern Oregon coast were previously identified as sites for offshore wind development.

Everett-based Helion breaks ground on ‘world’s first fusion power plant’
On the banks of the Columbia River in the small town of Malaga, Washington, Everett-based Helion has broken ground on what it says is “the world’s first fusion power plant.”