9/16 Salish Sea News & Weather: Elwha Love, budget woes, coal train blues, fishing facts, Deschutes Chinook, Penn Cove Festival, Nat'l Estuaries Day, Moving Planet Day, islands' orchids

PHOTO BY Rich Murphy

What!?? Snow in forecast for Cascades this weekend

Big time Elwha Love: Whack! Whack! Whack!  Hammer punches a hole in Glines Canyon dam as demolition begins [Video]

Big time celebration on the removal of the dams this weekend. The Seattle Times previews in a video its Sunday special coverage, Removing the Elwha River dams

Sixth and final part of John Kendall’s series on the Elwha,  The secrets beneath the departing lakes

Budget woes: The new projection, combined with a down forecast in June, wipes out the state's reserves and leaves a big hole in the budget. Latest forecast calls for $1.4 billion less; more cuts expected

The full news story from the Skagit Valley Herald on the Port Commission’s  support of plans for a major shipping terminal at Cherry Point, but only if the project's proponents can lessen the impact on Skagit County's transportation system. Port of Skagit supports Cherry Point terminal - but not at their expense

Thank you, Scott North of the Herald for the tutorial on Facts about fishing in Washington — and fishing for votes

Nat Hulings of The Olympian writes about how Chinook salmon have begun their annual return to the Deschutes River through the Fifth Avenue dam, with about 900 already in the hatchery and thousands more expected. For us, it's salmon-watch season. For Sound's seals, it's tasty-snack season 

Save the Penn Cove Water Festival?  Susan Berta of Orca Network and current president of the Penn Cove Water Festival has called for a meeting to discuss whether to continue the 20-year-old festival held in Coupeville. The meeting will be held on Sept. 19, 6 pm, at the Coupeville United Methodist Church. Susan can be reached at info@orcanetwork.org

National Estuaries Day is September 24 and People For Puget Sound celebrates on Orcas Island. Estuary restoration workday at Cayou Lagoon celebrates National Estuaries Day

Sept 24 is also Moving Planet Day, organized by Bill McKibbon, a day to show all the other ways we can move our bodies and our stuff if we begin to leave the car behind. Around the world, “People will be skateboarding and kayaking and marching, and most of all, they’ll be biking.” Stopping bad things and starting good ones

And to end this week, Russel Barsh and Madrona Murphy share some insights about The islands’ native orchids

Now, your weekend tug weather:
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 244 AM PDT FRI SEP 16 2011
  TODAY
 SW WIND 10 KT BECOMING W IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 1 FT. W SWELL 5 FT AT 9 SECONDS. CHANCE OF SHOWERS IN THE AFTERNOON.
 TONIGHT
 S WIND 10 TO 20 KT. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. W SWELL 5 FT AT 9 SECONDS. CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
 SAT
 LIGHT WIND BECOMING E 10 TO 15 KT LATE. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 5 FT AT 10 SECONDS. CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
 SAT NIGHT
 NW WIND 10 TO 15 KT...BECOMING SE AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 1 OR 2 FT. W SWELL 6 FT.
 SUN
 SE WIND 10 TO 20 KT...BECOMING W IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. W SWELL 6 FT...BUILDING TO 8 FT IN THE EVENING.

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