6/6 Saving Puget Sound, low tides, bag bans, Penn Cove mussels, Otto Langer, Mike Mottice, BC beaches

PHOTO: Laurie MacBride

Laurie MacBride in Eye on Environment writes about "how in early summer the Oriental poppies (Papaver orientale) come to life, all decked out in their colourful, voluminous skirts, kicking up their heels in an all-too-brief fling." The Dancers Return

The great crusade to restore Puget Sound is five years old. What crusade? People who've moved here since that start of the financial crisis may not recall that on May 7, 2007, Gov. Chris Gregoire stood on the shore of Puget Sound, signed the law that created the Puget Sound Partnership, and launched a campaign to restore the Sound by 2020. The time laid out for the cleanup is more than one-third up. By now, some political insiders have grown to think badly of the Puget Sound Partnership, but most people don't think of it at all. The Sound currently inspires little or no visible leadership. Dan Chasan at Crosscut writes.  After 5 years, Gregoire's Puget Sound progress is uncertain  

Some of the lowest tides of the year are drawing beachcombers to the water’s edge this week. It's a great time to check out sea life and geographic features. Low tides were happening around Victoria Tuesday from about noon to 1 p.m. and will happen again Wednesday around the same time.  Low tides reveal beach secrets  

Issaquah joined a string of cities along Puget Sound to outlaw plastic bags at local retailers Monday, after months of sometimes-acrimonious debate about adverse impacts to the marine environment and the regional economy. In the end, concerns about the environment led the City Council to decide 5-2 to eliminate most retail uses for plastic bags. The legislation is scheduled to go into effect in March 2013 for most businesses.  City Council outlaws plastic bags in Issaquah  

The Port Townsend City Council has approved the concept of a ban on single-use plastic bags. The council unanimously adopted a plastic-bag ban on a first reading Monday night. Before final approval — expected when the council votes after a second reading of the new law this month or next month — changes will be made to the draft bag ban. Port Townsend council votes to adopt plastic-bag ban  

Because a crew of trained noses smelled pollution in some mussel samples from Penn Cove on Tuesday, only a part of the area was deemed safe to reopen.  Mussels face the nose test; part of Penn Cove OK for shellfish harvesting  See also: Derelict crab boat: Up, up and away  

Otto Langer has devoted his adult life to protecting fish habitat. Now he wonders if it was all for nothing.  The retired head of habitat assessment and planning for the federal Fisheries Department in B.C. and Yukon describes the Conservative government’s planned changes to the Fisheries Act as the biggest setback to conservation law in Canada in half a century. Second in a series. Larry Pynn reports. Conservationists, scientists fear Fisheries Act changes  

The federal Bureau of Land Management has announced its new acting state director for Oregon and Washington. The agency said Tuesday that Mike Mottice replaces Ed Shepard, who served as state director from 2006 until the end of May. Mottice will serve during a search for a permanent state director. The agency manages more than 15.7 million acres of public land in Oregon and about 425,000 acres in Washington, as well as some 23.4 million acres of federal subsurface minerals.  New BLM acting director for Oregon-Washington  

For Lucas Harris, every piece of garbage that a small group of surfers collects on B.C.’s supposedly pristine beaches helps to paint a bigger picture on marine debris.  The plastic bottles, fuel containers, buoys, fish nets, ropes and blocks of Styrofoam his group collects (more than one ton of garbage on a recent outing) all help to reveal patterns of waste in the mass of detritus washing ashore daily on Canada’s coastlines.  Inspection reveals B.C. beaches a global garbage dump  

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PDT WED JUN 6 2012
TODAY
LIGHT WIND...BECOMING NE 10 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 1 FT. W SWELL 3 FT AT 9 SECONDS. SCATTERED SHOWERS.
TONIGHT
E WIND 15 TO 20 KT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 3 FT. W SWELL 3 FT AT 8 SECONDS. SHOWERS LIKELY EARLY...THEN RAIN AFTER MIDNIGHT.

--
"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to: msato@salishseacom.com. Your email information is never shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Salish Sea News: Communicate, Educate, Advocate

Follow on Twitter.

Salish Sea Communications: Truth Well Told