6/26 Obama on climate, fish study budget, Salish Sea salt, L-119, Tolt pipe, Gulf 'dead zone'

PHOTO: T.J. Gehling/BirdNote

From BirdNote: Don't mess with crows when they're nesting! Although the American Crow may seem blasé about pillaging another bird's nest, it regards a threat to its own young as a punishable offense. To protect their nest, adult crows dive-bomb people, cats, and other animals, and even other birds. Young crows fledge when they are around five or six weeks old, and their parents continue to care for them for months. Crow Parents, Fearless Defenders

President Obama proposed a sweeping plan to address climate change on Tuesday, setting ambitious goals and timetables for a series of executive actions to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and prepare the nation for the ravages of a warming planet. The plan, announced in a policy address at Georgetown University, is the most far-reaching effort by an American president to address what many experts consider the defining environmental and economic challenge of the 21st century. But it also could provoke a backlash from some in Congress and in states dependent on coal and other industries, who will say that it imposes costly, job-killing burdens on a still-fragile economy. John Broder reports.  Obama Outlines Ambitious Plan to Cut Greenhouse Gases  And read: Obama’s Conservation Message Resonates In The Northwest  

A dispute on how much seafood Washington residents devour entangled lawmakers Tuesday as they worked to reach agreement on a budget and avert a partial shutdown of state government next week. The House and Senate collided on whether a study is needed before any work is done to revise state rules that tie the amount of fish each resident eats with the levels of contaminants allowed in water discharged from industrial facilities. Boeing Co. opposes efforts to increase the fish consumption figure because it would lead to stricter water quality standards. Compliance could require the company to spend millions of dollars in renovations at the facilities....House Democrats and Gov. Jay Inslee strongly oppose the Senate approach. Representatives reached Tuesday said they viewed the study as an attempt to indefinitely delay the process of changing the fish consumption standard. Jerry Cornfeld reports. Budget snags on fish study  

Brady Ryan is turning bay water into San Juan Island Sea Salt, sharing a taste of his native island — and the Salish Sea — one pinch at a time. Nancy Leson reports. Making salt from the Salish Sea is a labor of love  

Chris Dunagan in Watching Our Water Ways writes: "In May of last year, when all three Southern Resident killer whales returned to Puget Sound, they brought along a new baby, designated L-119... Apparently, since last fall, more than a few naturalists and researchers have been worried that this young calf may not have survived. Personally, I was not aware that this calf was “missing” until yesterday, when I received a news release from Pacific Whale Watch Association saying L-119 was alive and doing well. Year-old orca baby alive and doing quite well

The huge Tolt pipeline that provides 30-40 percent of the water for much of the Puget Sound region could crack under the weight of the shifting earth if something isn't done. "The earth is moving some 90 feet below the surface," said Senior Water Systems Manager Eugene Mantchev, "to the tune of about three to four inches a year." Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) engineers noticed the movement a dozen years ago when a forestry company began legally clearing the land above the Tolt pipeline. Fewer trees meant more water runoff, saturating the ground and making it unstable. Then five years ago they spotted cracks in the asphalt around the pipeline. Tolt River pipeline threatened

This year’s “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico could be very large and potentially record-setting, predict researchers, who also offer a forecast for the Chesapeake Bay. Spring floods across the Midwest are expected to contribute to a very large and potentially record-setting 2013 Gulf of Mexico “dead zone,” according to a University of Michigan ecologist and colleagues who released their annual forecast today, along with one for the Chesapeake Bay.... This year’s Chesapeake Bay forecast calls for a smaller-than-average dead zone in the nation’s biggest estuary. Gulf ‘dead zone’ could be as a big as Jersey

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PDT WED JUN 26 2013
TODAY
SE WIND 10 TO 20 KT. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. W SWELL 6 FT AT 13 SECONDS. SHOWERS.
TONIGHT
N WIND 10 TO 20 KT BECOMING E TO 10 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT SUBSIDING TO 1 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 6 FT AT 12 SECONDS. SHOWERS.

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