8/21 NOAA grants, coastal floods, McGinn's coal, B'ham waterfront, Heck & Kilmer, Wild Sky, sand dollar, salmon shark

Northern flicker (WikiCommons)

If you like to listen: Woodpeckers - including this Northern Flicker - are master carpenters of the bird world. They're called "keystone species" for their crucial role in creating habitat suited to other woodland wildlife. Abandoned woodpecker nest-holes become nests or roosts for small owls, cavity-nesting ducks, swifts, bluebirds, swallows, wrens, and other birds, as well as many small mammals. BirdNote: Woodpeckers as Keystone Species  

The National Marine Fisheries Service announced $3.7 million in grants Tuesday for fish-habitat restoration in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. The largest grant, $1.4 million, goes for three projects to restore nearly 500 acres of flood-plain habitat on Puget Sound. An additional $1 million with Snohomish County will help restore nearly 330 acres of wetland in the Snohomish River estuary. $3.7M in NOAA fish-habitat grants awarded to 3 NW states

Coastal flooding caused by global warming could cost the global economy $1 trillion a year in coming decades and Vancouver is one of the cities most at risk for losses, says a new study. The article, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Climate Change, is part of an ongoing project by the Organization for Economic Co-operation. "This work shows that flood risk is rising in coastal cities globally due to a range of factors, including sea-level rise," Robert Nicholls, a professor of coastal engineering at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom and co-author of the study, said in a news release. Nicholls told CBC News that Vancouver is on the list of vulnerable cities because of its large population living along the coastal flood plain. Future flooding scenario shows Metro Vancouver at risk

Eric de Place at Sightline sets the record straight on what the Mayor McGinn's Seattle report on coal exports says and doesn't say-- and takes Fairview Fanny to task for missing the real story. What Coal Trains Would Cost Seattle

Concerned citizens packed the Port of Bellingham commissioners' room Tuesday, Aug. 20, to offer their critique of plans for redevelopment of 237 waterfront acres. It was the port commission's first hearing on the completed plans, which port and city of Bellingham officials hope to have complete by the end of 2013. Those plans call for conversion of some areas now zoned heavy industrial into new sites for residential buildings, shops, offices and new facilities for Western Washington University. Most of the comments repeated oft-stated public concerns that have been voiced at public meetings going back at least a decade as the current plans slowly emerged...  John Stark reports. Port commissioners get an earful on Bellingham waterfront plans

Freshmen U.S. Reps. Derek Kilmer and Denny Heck promised Tuesday that they’ll do their best to sustain former Congressman Norm Dicks’ drive to clean up Puget Sound. “Together our feet aren’t big enough to fill the shoes of Norm Dicks and what he has done to improve the health of Puget Sound,” said Heck, D-Olympia, “but we’re here to see how we can advance our movements forward.” At a field hearing held at Tacoma’s Center for Urban Waters, Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, called the restoration of Puget Sound “both a moral and an economic necessity.” Kilmer replaced Dicks, who retired in 2012 after representing the 6th Congressional District for nearly four decades.... During more than two hours of testimony Tuesday, the heads of federal and state environmental agencies and Indian tribes summarized achievements, which they said included the restoration of miles of wetlands and other shoreline habitat; improvements in the handling of stormwater runoff; and the removal of invasive species, creosoted docks and pilings, and derelict vessels. But they told the congressmen that continued vigilance, and a continued flow of federal money, is critical for success. Rob Carson reports. First-year congressmen vow to fight for Puget Sound health

Five years later, Wild Sky is still wild. This was precisely the goal of the people who pushed for the creation of the Wild Sky Wilderness area in the Cascade Mountains -- to set aside a wild area to make sure it stays that way. About 60 people gathered in Index on Tuesday to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the designation of more than 106,000 acres near Index as off-limits to any kind of development. Bll Sheets reports. Those who pushed for Wild Sky Wilderness celebrate its 5-year mark

Eric Talaska enjoys beachcombing at low tide, and last week he found a treasure on Puget Sound’s Eld Inlet near Olympia: A sand dollar he believes could take over a world record... According to the Guinness World Records, August Balicki set the record for the largest sand dollar in 2011. It was found in Treasure Island, Fla., and measured 5.01 inches in diameter. Talaska’s sand dollar is about 4.7 inches across, but it’s a different species than the record holder. Lisa Pemberton reports. Sand dollar on Eld Inlet could be record size

A salmon shark spotted swimming in Bellingham's Squalicum Harbor on Tuesday morning, Aug. 20 has died. The shark appeared to be stranded and was not in good health, according to a spokesman for the Marine Life Center at the Port of Bellingham. When Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officials went to the scene, the shark was near death. A necropsy is pending to determine the cause of death, port officials said. Jim Donaldson reports. Shark spotted in Bellingham's Squalicum Harbor dies

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 244 AM PDT WED AUG 21 2013
TODAY
LIGHT WIND. WIND WAVES LESS THAN 1 FT. W SWELL 4 FT AT 10 SECONDS. PATCHY FOG THIS MORNING.
TONIGHT
W WIND 5 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 3 FT AT 9 SECONDS.
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