11/28 Spotted owl, #GivingTuesday, king tides, climate change harm, eelgrass, tufted puffins, climate change forests, hatcheries, ghost river

 Spotted owl [Mark Stephenson/All About Birds]

Spotted Owl Strix occidentalis
In the 1990s the Spotted Owl was catapulted into the spotlight over logging debates in the Pacific Northwest. This large, brown-eyed owl lives in mature forests of the West, from the giant old growth of British Columbia and Washington, to California's oak woodlands and the steep canyons of the Southwest. At night it silently hunts small mammals such as woodrats and flying squirrels. Despite federal protection beginning in 1990, the owl is still declining in the Northwest owing to habitat loss, fragmentation, and competition with Barred Owls.

#GivingTuesday
It's a wonderful feeling to be able to support causes that are important to us, and to know that others do as well. Join the #GivingTuesday wave today for an extra uplift to that good feeling, and be part of the change you want to see in the world. Thank you.

Incoming: King tides to Puget Sound
The highest tides of the year are on their way. “King tides” are expected in Puget Sound on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings (Nov. 25-28). King tides come every November, December, and January, when the moon, sun, and earth line up just right...The Olympia and Shelton areas get the highest tides on Puget Sound, just as the end of a bathtub gets the highest sloshing. John Ryan reports. (KUOW)

Climate report aims to answer: Who is most harmed by climate change?
As sea levels rise, members of the Quinault Indian Nation have endured more flooding along the western coast of the Olympic Peninsula. It has made their primary village at Taholah uninhabitable. “They’re having to relocate to a different area (uphill) within the reservation,” said Melissa Watkinson-Schutten, a UW Bothell graduate who is now deputy executive director at Na’ah Illahee Fund. That has “an impact on the tribe’s ability to really have that connection with the shoreline that they had since time immemorial.” Ta'Leah Van Sistine reports. (Everett Herald)

Eelgrass Is Amazing. Here’s Who’s Saving It
When her daughters were young, Dianne Sanford toted them to the beach to wade alongside her in the dense eelgrass meadows growing just off the shores of where they lived in Delta, B.C...Beginning in 2002, Sanford has dedicated much of her life to mapping once-abundant eelgrass and its decline. In a “piecemeal” fashion, she surveyed roughly 80 per cent of B.C.’s coastline from Gibsons to Pender Harbour. Recently, she was part of a team from the conservation non-profit SeaChange Marine Conservation Society working to protect B.C.’s dwindling eelgrass stocks. Pippa Norman reports. (The Tyee)

Oregon researchers look to fill gaps in understanding tufted puffins
Tufted puffin populations are in decline on the Oregon Coast. Last summer, the colony count was the lowest it had ever been since U.S. Fish and Wildlife began monitoring. Katie Frankowicz reports. (KMUN)

Researcher: Managed forests needed to fight climate change
Wood products and managed forests are necessary for climate mitigation, a 20-year forest management researcher told the Clallam County commissioners. Dr. Edie Sonne Hall of Three Trees Consulting in Seattle gave a presentation Monday on the role of forest management in climate mitigation...Hall said 74 percent of annual resource extraction is of non-renewable resources. Since 1970, the Earth’s population has doubled while global extraction of materials has more than tripled and is expected to double again by 2050, she said. Several wood products could replace existing fossil-fuel based materials, Hall said. Brian Gawley reports. (Peninsula Daily News)

ICYMI: The Paradox of Salmon Hatcheries
The golden dream of hatcheries was to make more fish. The reality is much more complicated. (Hakai Magazine)

ICYMI: Tacoutche Tesse, the Northwest’s great ghost river — Part 1: Not the Columbia
The Fraser is the Northwest’s great ghost river, largely invisible to those living below the 49th parallel, who equate “great river” with their own Columbia. The confusion between the two goes back as long as Europeans have trod these lands. Eric Scigliano reports. (Salish Current)

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Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  241 AM PST Tue Nov 28 2023    
TODAY  SE wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell  3 ft at 12 seconds. Areas of fog in the morning.  
TONIGHT  SE wind to 10 kt. Wind waves 1 ft or less. W swell  3 ft at 11 seconds.

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