2/13 Dead orca, tracking orcas, flame retards, Smuggler's Slough, Kitsap gun club, Sunset Falls, FEMA insurance, Elwha hatcheries, North of Falcon

PHOTO: Bellingham Herald

Cliff Mass writes about global warming and whether we should do anything about it. And read the comments to his blog, Will we do anything about global warming? Should we?

Tonight only: The environmental debate over exporting massive amounts of coal through Washington ports to China comes tonight to The Olympia Center, 222 N. Columbia St., 7-9 pm. Sponsored by Climate Solutions and featuring a panel of Thurston County Commissioner Sandra Romero, businesswoman Cheryl Heinrichs and the Rev. Kathleen Patton of Longview. Coal railcars proposal draws spirited debate

New blog:  Our Lady of the Slough follows how the Clean Samish Initiative spent $20,000 to install a culvert, 1200 feet of fencing and 300 plants to keep 2 horses from pooping in a ditch that doesn’t flow into the Samish River.  Where's the Beef?

The News Tribune of Tacoma takes great pains in its weekend editorial to rehash the Norm and David Dicks father and son funding relationship only to conclude that Norm truly loves Puget Sound and David truly is qualified to lead. A needless shadow over Puget Sound cleanup efforts  Sadly, The News Tribune hasn’t done much heavy lifting in reporting the Partnership stories and neither the Washington Post nor The News Tribune have credited John Ryan of KUOW for “breaking” the funding and financial mismanagement stories. Best way to dispel any “shadow over Puget Sound cleanup efforts” is to shine a clear and bright beacon of news coverage on what is and is not being done.

A 12-foot female orca washed ashore near Long Beach, Washington on Saturday. A Portland State University biology professor and Cascadia Research biologists performed a necropsy Sunday on the animal and found hemorrhaging, indicating major trauma. The whale could be a resident belonging to the "L pod," but that has not been confirmed by photo identification and DNA testing. Dead orca washes ashore near Long Beach

Every winter, the three pods of orca whales that call Northwest waters home just disappear into the wild blue yonder. Federal biologists cast off this week on a research cruise from NOAA's new homeport in Newport, Oregon, hoping to solve the mystery of where do the Northwest's resident orca whales go in the winter? Researchers on hunt for killer whales' winter hideout

The Washington state Senate passed a bill Friday to ban one potentially cancer-causing flame retardant from kids' products but not another that is more widely used. An amendment that cleared the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday by one vote removed the chlorinated Tris ban from the bill. It also did away with a requirement that makers of children's products containing potentially hazardous chemicals including Tris chemicals, formaldehyde and bisphenol A identify safer chemicals or materials for use. The bill now consists of a ban on TCEP, a form of Tris the chemical industry says hasn't been used in the U.S. for years.  WA Senate OKs weakened flame retardant bill

The Smuggler’s Slough restoration project in the lower Nooksack floodplain received an $804,000 grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for acquisition of 101 acres of wetlands and salt marsh. To complete the acquisition of conservation rights on the properties, and to make habitat improvements, Lummi Nation will contribute $350,000 and the Salmon Recovery Funding Board will add another $125,000. In previous phases, Ecology in partnership with the tribe acquired 406 acres farther upstream on Smuggler's Slough. 101 acres off Lummi Bay set aside for salmon habitat  

Ducks Unlimited is working with Skagit property owners Nolan and Shirley Lee to protect another 72 acres to the 550 acres already under protection at their Fir Island farm. Partnering in farmland preservation

Alberta Conservative MP Brian Jean last week called for federal legislation that would both block foreign funding of the “radical” Canadian environmental movement and lessen the possibility outsiders are directly paying aboriginal chiefs to oppose major projects, such as the Northern Gateway pipeline. Alta. MP wants law to block foreign funding of environmentalists
 Kitsap Rifle & Revolver Club was been shut down last Thursday by a Pierce County Superior Court judge, who declared the shooting range on Seabeck Highway a public nuisance and in violation of land-use laws. The judge said the club would need to receive a conditional use permit from the county before reopening. No statement yet from gun club officials

The undammed Skykomish River runs from the Cascade Mountains and flows into the Snohomish River which empties into Northern Puget Sound. It could be a hydro hotspot. Sun Setting On Sunset Falls?  

Puget Sound cities of Orting, Puyallup, Arlington, Auburn, Burlington, Everett, Federal Way, Kent, Lake Forest Park, Mount Vernon, North Bend, Port Angeles, Renton, Snoqualmie, Sultan and Tukwila have all joined to fight the suit brought by the National Wildlife Federation against the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s flood insurance program. The Federation charges that the program encourages development in floodplains and has been found to harm salmon and by extension, the Puget Sound orca whales that feed on them. The cities claim that blocking flood insurance for construction in their flood plains areas will hurt them financially. Cities fight potential flood insurance loss

Wild Fish Conservancy, The Conservation Angler, the Federation of Fly Fishers Steelhead Committee and the Wild Steelhead Coalition filed suit last week against Olympic National Park, NOAA Fisheries Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and representatives of the Lower Elwha tribe to block restocking the Elwha River west of Port Angeles with hatchery-raised salmon as part of the Elwha dam-removal project. Suit filed to block hatchery salmon in Elwha River

The state Department of Fish and Wildlife on February 28 will release Puget Sound, coastal Washington and Columbia River salmon forecasts at the first meeting of the North of Falcon fisheries management process which concludes April 1-6 when the Pacific Fishery Management Council meets in Seattle to adopts ocean fisheries regulations and state-tribal fishing plans. North of Falcon process begins with salmon forecast meeting Feb. 28

Tragedy of the Commons: Overfishing of EU fisheries is costing £2.7bn (3.2bn euros) a year and 100,000 jobs, according to a UK-based New Economics Foundation report. Overfishing 'costs EU £2.7bn each year'

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PST MON FEB 13 2012
TODAY
NW WIND 10 KT EARLY...BECOMING LIGHT. WIND WAVES 1 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 9 FT AT 13 SECONDS. A CHANCE OF RAIN EARLY.
TONIGHT
W SWELL 11 FT AT 14 SECONDS. SE WIND 10 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS.

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