7/20 Tony Wright, Billy Frank Jr., Cultus Lake trout virus, Midway Cr., Great Bear Rain Forest, Kimberly-Clark, BP air grant

Tony Wright

Straight shooting: The incoming director of the Partnership is retired Army Corps of Engineers Col. Tony Wright. He has a reputation as a straight shooter who's not out to please everybody. Before he got this job, he told the Partnership it needed more courage if it wants to save Puget Sound. He says he's not afraid to "embrace the porcupine." Wright: "My previous job, I frequently tried to make everyone kind of equally unhappy. You can't solve difficult problems from a distance. You have to get in there, become part of the solution and sometimes you get stuck with quills in the process."  John Ryan reports. New Director Aims to Shore Up Puget Sound Agency 

If you like to watch: Governor tours Burien rain garden, Seahurst Park and Environmental Science Center on Wednesday   and Governor Gregoire Visits Burien’s Rain Gardens and Seahurst Park  

Climate change is sweeping indigenous villages into the sea in Alaska, flooding the taro fields of native Hawaiians and devastating the salmon population from which Indian tribes in Washington state draw their livelihood, tribal leaders testified Thursday at a Senate hearing. "The ocean is important to all of us," said Billy Frank Jr., chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, a group of 20 Washington state tribes with treaty rights to salmon fishing. "It's dying. And who the hell is in charge? Nobody that I see." Frank was among several witnesses at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs who called on the federal government to fight climate change and help tribes deal with its effects.  Tribes ask for action on climate change  

A virus linked to the death of farmed salmon has for the first time been found in B.C. freshwater fish — cutthroat trout in Cultus Lake — a research team reported Thursday. Discovery of deadly salmon virus in freshwater fish puts pressure on B.C. to conduct wider study  

The Squaxin Island Tribe joined the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group, Simpson Lumber and the Green Diamond Resource Company to open almost a mile of salmon habitat by removing two fish-blocking culverts. The culverts blocked Midway Creek, a tributary to Goldsborough Creek, the culvert ran underneath a railroad owned by Simpson Lumber, which is contributing significant funding to the project.  Opening up Midway Creek  

A scroll of signatures snaked down the steps at the legislature Thursday as environmental groups called on the government to complete the promised protections for the Great Bear Rainforest. Although most British Columbians believe that the 70,000-square-kilometre Central Coast rainforest is protected under 2006 and 2009 agreements between the province, First Nations and forest companies, only 50 per cent actually is. Protection sought for full rainforest  http://www.timescolonist.com/technology/Protection+sought+full+rainforest/6964022/story.html

The Kimberly-Clark pulp and paper mill has been closed since April. The company has committed to cleaning up the 66-acre property, and that could take at least three years, said Tim Nord of the state Department of Ecology's Toxics Cleanup Program.  Everett mill site may sit empty for years

An agency that enforces air-quality laws in the region is accepting proposals for reducing greenhouse gas pollution with money from a local oil refinery. The Northwest Clean Air Agency will get as many as 22 proposals by the end of the month to tackle the problem of global warming. BP Cherry Point gave the agency $3.4 million for the projects. The refinery paid the money voluntarily to offset the additional carbon dioxide that will be released from a new reactor that will remove sulfur from gasoline and diesel fuel.  BP funds Whatcom projects to reduce greenhouse gases  

Now, your weekend tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PDT FRI JUL 20 2012
TODAY
SW WIND 10 TO 20 KT. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. W SWELL 3 FT AT 8 SECONDS. SHOWERS AND SCATTERED TSTMS THIS MORNING.
TONIGHT
W WIND 10 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 5 FT AT 10 SECONDS. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
SAT
NW WIND 10 KT. WIND WAVES 1 FT. W SWELL 5 FT AT 11 SECONDS. AREAS OF DRIZZLE EARLY.
SAT NIGHT
W WIND 10 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 1 OR 2 FT. W SWELL 4 FT.
SUN
LIGHT WIND. WIND WAVES LESS THAN 1 FT. W SWELL 4 FT.
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