4/12 Green-Duwamish, Upthegrove, oyster coop, NW Stream Center, oil port, coal port, Lake Whatcom, BC trees

Howard Hanson Dam (Parker Miles Blohm/KPLU)

Green-Duwamish Makes American Rivers Most Endangered List for 2016 
For the first time, a river that connects Seattle and Tacoma has been included on a list of the 10 most endangered waterways in the country.  American Rivers is highlighting the Green-Duwamish watershed this year. The national conservation group says the issue it wants addressed is outdated dams that lack passage for endangered fish. The territory this river covers provides a rich study in contrasts. The headwaters start in the steep peaks of the Cascade Mountains, near Stampede Pass. From there, the Green winds down through forested foothills and carves its way into a lush river valley. It then passes through rich farmland that yields to a sprawling warehouse district before it reaches the heart of Seattle, where it ends in Puget Sound’s Elliot Bay. Bellamy Pailthorp reports. (KPLU)

New blog: The Salish Sea— What’s In A Name?
It’s not a good idea to read a Wikipedia entry and think that makes me smart, but it’s not a bad idea to read an entry to remind myself that I don’t know everything. For example, about how the Salish Sea officially got its name...

Upthegrove jumps into Land Commissioner race as "environmental champion"
King County Council member Dave Upthegrove has jumped into the race for State Land Commissioner less than a week after incumbent and fellow Democrat Peter Goldmark opted not to seek a third term. Upthegrove is running as an out-and-out environmentalist for a post that oversees timber harvest in 2.1 million acres of state-owned forests, as well as commercial management of state aquatic lands. Specifically, he is aligning with opponents of the big proposed Gateway Pacific coal export terminal at Cherry Point north of Bellingham. Joel Connelly reports. (SeattlePI.Com)

"How We Save Whales from Space"
The Whale Trail presents Oregon State University's Bruce Mate, a leader in the development of satellite-monitored radio telemetry, speaking about tracking critically endangered marine mammals. His work has led to the discovery of previously unknown migration routes and seasonal distributions (wintering and summering areas), as well as descriptions of diving behavior to better understand feeding effort. This Earth Day event will be held at 7 PM on April 21 at The Hall at Fauntleroy, 9131 California Ave SW, Seattle. Tickets are $10 adults and $5 kids under 12; brownpapertickets.com

Oyster lovers become oyster farmers
It's harvest time at the only oyster farm in Puget Sound where the customers also are the harvesters…. Operating since 2010, the Port Madison Community Shellfish Farm produces between 1,200 to 1,500 oysters for its 70 members each year. The farm is a community supported agriculture program — commonly known as a CSA, and most often used by small, land-based farms. The basic idea: You buy a share and get a portion of the harvest. Depending on the week, a typical CSA share might be a box filled with lettuce, kale, eggs, raspberries and maybe more kohlrabi than you know what to do with. Tristan Baurick reports. (Kitsap Sun)

Northwest Stream Center close to opening
More than 20 years after drawing up a master plan, the Northwest Stream Center is preparing to open this summer. The center, a project of the Adopt-a-Stream Foundation, has a few things left to do before formally opening its doors. That's probably news to the hordes of schoolkids who already have taken tours of the site and marveled at the underwater views of cutthroat trout or the blooming skunk cabbage in the 20-acre wetland in Snohomish County's McCollum Park. Chris Winters reports. (Everett Herald)

Port Of Vancouver Prepares For Hearing On Oil Terminal
Port of Vancouver commissioners are looking for input at a hearing Tuesday about how to move forward with the nation’s largest oil-by-rail terminal. The Port wants to hear from the public about how to proceed with a proposed lease amendment from the backers of the Vancouver Energy Project.
Near a dock at the Port of Vancouver where crude from the proposed oil terminal would be loaded onto ships. The hearing will be held at Clark College. It’s expected to last about 12 hours. Conrad Wilson reports. (OPB)

Coal exports stopped by Lummi Nation fishing rights?
Environmental reviews of a coal-export terminal that would be the largest in the nation were summarily suspended on April 1 — but it was no April Fool’s trick for the developers of Gateway Pacific Terminal or local, state and federal agencies working on the protracted review. A small army of scientists, researchers, bureaucrats, politicians, environmentalists and business executives are sitting on their plans, waiting for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to define a tiny Latin term: de minimus. It is tied to questions over whether the project would harm Lummi Nation fishing. Indeed, pushed by an impatient Lummi Nation to enforce 19th Century treaty rights that guarantee fishing in “usual and accustomed places,” the Corps is boxed in. On one side are sophisticated and well-funded tribal leaders, who know Indian law to the last phrase; on the other, angry but powerful coal-country Republican congressmen, who fear their chances to export coal to massive Asian markets will be shut off. Floyd McKay reports. (Crosscut)

EPA approves 50-year cleanup plan for phosphorous in Lake Whatcom
A 50-year plan to vastly reduce the amount of phosphorous flowing into Lake Whatcom has been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. The cleanup is expected to cost an estimated $50 million in the first five years. It will require 87 percent of the developed area around the lake to store and filter water like a natural forest so phosphorous can seep into the ground instead of flowing into the lake. Put another way: 3,500 acres, out of 4,000, must function like a forest to hit the cleanup goal. Kie Relyea reports. (Bellingham Herald)

Climate change helping B.C. forests recover from pine beetle says study
The warming climate that helped trigger B.C.'s mountain pine beetle outbreak might also be helping the province's forests recover, according to new research led by federal government scientists in Victoria. That's because B.C. forests are responding to climate change by growing faster, said the lead author of the study published in Geophysical Research Letters…. The study says B.C. forests are regaining their status as "carbon sinks" — something the mountain pine beetle wiped out along with 18 million hectares of lodgepole pine. Lisa Johnson reports. (CBC)

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WILL STOP SCREAMING IN ALL CAPS
FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY, THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED ITS FORECASTS IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. But in the age of social media that’s considered yelling, so next month federal meteorologists are lowering their voices and their letters — except in dire emergencies. Weather service spokeswoman Susan Buchanan said the agency started using all capital letters in 1849 forecasts because of the telegraph. Twenty years ago, the agency tried phasing out the practice, but old equipment wouldn’t recognize lower-case letters. Starting May 11, weather service forecasts will no longer read like someone shouting in a hurricane — the agency will use both upper- and lower-case letters. Seth Borenstein reports. (Associated Press)

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA-  227 AM PDT TUE APR 12 2016  

TODAY  S WIND 10 TO 20 KT. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. W SWELL 7 FT AT  13 SECONDS. RAIN.

TONIGHT  W WIND 15 TO 25 KT...EASING TO 10 TO 20 KT AFTER  MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT. W SWELL 7 FT AT 13 SECONDS...  BUILDING TO 10 FT AT 12 SECONDS AFTER MIDNIGHT. SHOWERS LIKELY IN  THE EVENING...THEN A CHANCE OF SHOWERS AFTER MIDNIGHT.

--
"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to msato@salishseacom.com. Your email information is never shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Salish Sea News: Communicate, Educate, Advocate

Follow on Twitter.

Salish Sea Communications: Truth Well Told