5/28 State budget, climate change consultant, clam gardens, Feiro homage, Fort Worden woes, 'Rite of Spring'

PHOTO: Laurie MacBride

Laurie MacBride in Eye on Environment writes: "We live among ravens. Day in, day out, the raucous calls, mechanical-sounding “toc” notes and powerful wing swishes of these large birds punctuate our soundscape. The raven was known to First Nations people as The Trickster, for good reason. This bird lives for up 40 years and has a wide range of vocalizations, from the gentlest “coo” to the harshest “kraak’, and everything in between. Ravens mate for life and often the pair will work together to snag a meal, one bird serving as decoy, the other as bandit...." The Trickster Goes Flower Picking  

Staffers in the state’s financial management agency have been conducting legal and historical research to determine what would happen if lawmakers fail to pass a budget before the start of the fiscal year. David Schumacher, the budget director under Gov. Jay Inslee, said the work is being done in order to keep officials prepared and insisted that it’s not a sign that budget negotiations are at an impasse. Still, Senate Minority Leader Ed Murray called the pace of negotiations “glacial.” Mike Baker and Rachel La Corte report. Sides still far apart in ‘glacial' state budget talks

Fourteen candidates want to become state government’s consultant on climate change. The state Office of Financial Management took bids through Wednesday and is assigning scores to the 14 proposals it received. A newly formed committee made up of Gov. Jay Inslee and four state lawmakers will choose the consultant. At a cost of up to $350,000, the contractor will study what strategies could work to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in the state, and what the costs could be. That includes a look at what has been done elsewhere, with California’s cap-and-trade system of pollution credits and British Columbia’s carbon tax as likely subjects of comparison. Jordan Schrader reports. State receives 14 applicants for climate job

The excavation of what appears to be an ancient food storage system along the beach of Russell Island, at the entrance to Swartz Bay, is helping to cast more light on the history and development of local aboriginal groups. Six years after researchers discovered two clam gardens along the beachfront, University of Victoria students are sifting through sand, gravel and shells to figure out how and when the gardens were built. Some researchers have suggested the gardens helped augment a community’s food supply. The gardens are beach areas where clams grow naturally and have been enhanced to increase clam production. 1,000-year-old First Nations clam gardens unearthed near Sidney

Two of the builders are long gone — yet they're not.  Standing beneath a 13-foot Western red cedar tree adorned with copper sea life, friends and family shared memories of Will Wirt and Art Feiro. The occasion for this gathering Friday afternoon was “Kindred Spirits,” the cedar monument freshly installed at the Arthur D. Feiro Marine Life Center on City Pier. Diane Urbani de la Paz reports. Feiro Marine Life Center's founders feted with new monument  

Enemy forces never got the chance to attack the artillery batteries at Warden State Park in Port Townsend, but it is now under assault on three fronts. Budget cuts, erosion and vandalism are taking a toll on the famous fort overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Employees and volunteers on Wednesday were installing a new fence on bluff near one of the old batteries. The trouble started when winter storms ate away at the bluff, undercut it and left a portion of park jutting out over the cliff supported by only a thin layer of soil and sod... To make matters even worse, someone apparently took temporary protective barriers workers placed on the bluff and threw them off the cliff. Gary Chittim reports. Budget cuts, vandals and nature gang up on Fort Worden  

If you like to watch: Composer, pianist and software engineer Stephen Malinowski has created one brilliant solution to an age-old problem: how to communicate and understand what's going on in a piece of music, particularly if you don't know standard musical notation. Over the course of some forty years, he's honed what he calls his "Music Animation Machine" from a 20-foot printed scroll to the software and iPad apps he's created — but the results are art.  Anastasia Tsioulcas reports. A mind-blowing visualization of 'The Rite of Spring'

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 757 AM PDT TUE MAY 28 2013
TODAY
S WIND 10 TO 20 KT. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. NW SWELL 5 FT AT 8 SECONDS. SHOWERS THIS MORNING...THEN SHOWERS LIKELY IN THE
 AFTERNOON.
TONIGHT
SW WIND 5 TO 15 KT...BECOMING E TO 10 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 5 FT AT 9 SECONDS. A CHANCE OF
 RAIN...THEN RAIN AFTER MIDNIGHT.

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