10/16 Hedgehog 'shroom, unlawful industrial aquaculture, Leque Is restoration, Trump's California EPA, killing owls, logging Tongass

Hedgehog mushroom

Hedgehog mushroom Hydnum repandum
Often called the "hedgehog mushroom," Hydnum repandum is easily recognized by its pale orange-tan colors, its terrestrial habitat, and the spines or "teeth" on its underside. Over the years mycologists have suspected a relationship between Hydnum repandum (sometimes named Dentinum repandum) and the chanterelles. In fact the hedgehog mushroom is easily mistaken for a faded chanterelle--until you get a peek at its spiny underside. Michael Kuo writes. (MushroomExpert.Com)

Expansion of Washington industrial shellfish aquaculture ruled unlawful
A Federal Court for the Western District of Washington has ruled that the US Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) commercial shellfish aquaculture general permit, which is used to permit the majority of the shellfish aquaculture in Washington, is unlawful. In response to a lawsuit brought by Center for Food Safety (CFS), the court found that Army Corps failed to adequately consider impacts of commercial shellfish aquaculture to Washington shorelines and wildlife habitat. The court ruled that Army Corps’ conclusive findings of minimal cumulative impact were not supported by the evidence before the agency, which shows harm to the environment, including damage to crucial fish habitat that support species like salmon and orcas.  Army Corps’ permit, Nationwide Permit 48 (NWP 48) issued by the Trump administration in 2017, would have allowed an expansion of the industry without sufficient marine wildlife or water quality protections, according to CFS. Sam Mehmet reports. (New Food Magazine)

‘Camano will feel a lot more like an island’ as of this week
As the tide rose in Port Susan Monday afternoon, water inched up a dirt berm on the edge of Leque Island. Just before 5 p.m., the flow seeped over the berm’s edge, rushing into a channel that cuts through the island’s grassy plain. It was the first time saltwater flowed naturally onto the island in over 150 years, since before the almost 300-acre swath of land was diked off for farming in the early 1900s. The last of those dikes were removed Monday as the final step in a project to restore the land to its original state as a salt marsh. With water now on both sides of the highway at high tide, “Camano will feel a lot more like an island,” said Loren Brokaw, restoration project coordinator for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. He’s been working on the project for about seven years. Julia-Grace Sanders reports. (Everett Herald)

E.P.A. Bypassed Its West Coast Team as a Feud With California Escalated
When the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Andrew Wheeler, accused California of allowing “piles of human feces” on city streets to contaminate sewer systems, leaders of the agency’s West Coast region hastily convened an all-hands meeting of the San Francisco staff. At that meeting, E.P.A. officials informed staff members that Mr. Wheeler’s torrent of allegations about the state’s water pollution were exaggerated, according to five current and former E.P.A. officials briefed on internal discussions. Moreover, the accusations, contained in a Sept. 26 oversight letter, had been developed without the knowledge of the California-based staff, which would normally issue such notices. Instead, it was put together by a small group of political appointees in Washington assigned specifically to target California, according to three current E.P.A. officials. Lisa Friedman reports. (NY Times)

Owl killings spur moral questions about human intervention
As he stood amid the thick old-growth forests in the coastal range of Oregon, Dave Wiens was nervous. Before he trained to shoot his first barred owl, he had never fired a gun...Wiens grew up fascinated by birds, and his graduate research in owl interactions helped lay the groundwork for this tense moment. “It’s a little distasteful, I think, to go out killing owls to save another owl species,” said Wiens, a biologist who still views each shooting as “gut-wrenching” as the first. “Nonetheless, I also feel like from a conservation standpoint, our back was up against the wall. We knew that barred owls were outcompeting spotted owls and their populations were going haywire.” The federal government has been trying for decades to save the northern spotted owl, a native bird that sparked an intense battle over logging across Washington, Oregon and California decades ago. Phuong Le reports. (Associated Press)

Trump administration issues plan to lift limits on logging in the largest intact temperate rainforest in North America
The Trump administration Tuesday proposed allowing logging on more than half of Alaska’s 16.7 million-acre Tongass National Forest, the largest intact temperate rainforest in North America. President Trump instructed federal officials to reverse long-standing limits on tree cutting at the request of Alaska’s top elected officials, on the grounds that it will boost the local economy. But critics say that protections under the “roadless rule,” finalized just before President Bill Clinton left office in 2001, are critical to protecting the region’s lucrative salmon fishery and tourism operations. Juliet Eilperin reports. (Washington Post) See also: Forest Service Backs an End to Limits on Roads in Alaska’s Tongass Forest https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/climate/tongass-forest-roads.html Coral Davenport reports. (NY Times)


Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  227 AM PDT Wed Oct 16 2019   
TODAY  SE wind 10 to 20 kt. Wind waves 1 to 3 ft. W swell 10 ft  at 12 seconds. Rain. 
TONIGHT  S wind 10 to 20 kt. Wind waves 1 to 3 ft. W swell  12 ft at 13 seconds. Rain.



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