11/21 Killdeer, Puget Sound 2020, Chris Luke Sr., no frack, BC pipe, spill response, Keystone XL, Skagit sockeye, crab weight

Killdeer [Teddy Llovet/BirdNote]

Where do Killdeer go in winter?
The cries of a Killdeer are familiar across most of the US during spring and summer. But where do they go in winter? Killdeer that breed in the southern half of the US and along the Pacific Coast are year-round residents. But those that breed in the northern US and Canada, where winter conditions are more severe, migrate south to Mexico and Central America. Because the northern Killdeer fly south — right over the region where other Killdeer reside year-round — they are known as leap-frog migrants. (BirdNote)

New blog: Puget Sound 2020: Enforce the Law to Save the Whales
Guest blogger Amy Carey, executive director of Sound Action, writes that "the forage fish, the salmon and the orcas don’t need more studies. They need a top-down, boot-on-the-ground commitment to the immediate and consistent application of habitat protecting regulations. They need a little thing called Action." Read more...

Who decides the land is 'sacred'?
Ktunaxa elder Chris Luke Sr. lives in B.C.’s Purcell Mountains, about 600 kilometres east of Vancouver. He uses a translator to communicate in English and he knows how to keep his silence. Still, Luke is a powerful man. For eight years, the elder’s religious vision has seized the attention of Canada’s top courts, demanding the focus of hundreds of lawyers, judges, civil servants and politicians. Their work became necessary because Luke said he had an epiphany in 2004 — which he did not reveal to his people until 2009 ­— that the grizzly bears that inhabit a large chunk of public land in the Purcells are sacred, divine protectors. As a result, Luke’s small tribal group entered into years of hard political negotiations with the B.C. government, which turned into a precedent-setting court case against developers of a ski resort called Jumbo Glacier. Douglas Todd writes. (Vancouver Sun)

Anti-fracking group returns to block train tracks in Olympia
One year after an anti-fracking group set up an encampment to block trains leaving the Port of Olympia, protesters have again settled into a makeshift camp on downtown railroad tracks. Three of the protesters, who declined to give their names, said the group set up the camp at Seventh Avenue Southeast and Jefferson Street Southeast on Friday afternoon to block a shipment of ceramic proppants, or fracking sand, which they said was at the port and scheduled to leave Friday. Abby Spegman reports. (Olympian)

Inslee finds ally in Victoria premier against massive proposed oil pipeline  
A new British Columbia government has joined legal challenges to a giant, 890,000-barrels a day pipeline that would bring Alberta tar sands oil into a major B.C. population center, and then ship it out by tanker though international waters of the Salish Sea. Washington Governor Jay Inslee makes an official visit to Victoria on Tuesday. B.C. Premier John Horgan could find an ally, or at least a kindred spirit, in his next door neighbor from across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Inslee was critical of the Canadian pipeline last week in Bonn, Germany, where he was serving as co-chair of the U.S. Climate Alliance. Joel Connelly reports. (SeattlePI.Com)

Nanaimo chosen as main response base for oil spills in the Salish Sea
The Harbour City has been chosen as the focus point of operations in case an oil spill taints B.C.'s coast. Western Canada Marine Response Corporation, an industry-funded organization who clean up oil spills, want to build a hub in Nanaimo to coordinate all oil spill responses on Vancouver Island…. The push for a better response time was a safety requirement for the proposed TransMountain pipeline expansion from Edmonton to Burnaby. Federally approved but mired in court challenges, if the pipeline is built the oil spill response has to be in place six months before. (Nanaimo News Now)

Keystone XL pipeline gets Nebraska’s approval, clearing a key hurdle in 9-year effort and allowing Trump to claim a win
TransCanada’s $8 billion Keystone XL pipeline got the go-ahead from the Nebraska Public Service Commission on Monday, clearing the last regulatory hurdle in a nine-year effort to build a line to carry thick crude oil from Alberta’s tar sands region to refineries on the Texas gulf coast. But the five-member commission rejected TransCanada’s preferred route and voted to approve an alternative plan that would move the pipeline further east. The route of the new pipeline, which would carry 830,000 barrels a day of crude, would circumvent more of the state’s ecologically delicate Sandhills region. The commission’s decision to back an alternative route could complicate TransCanada’s plans, forcing the pipeline company to arrange easements from different landowners. In its submissions, TransCanada had portrayed the alternative route as unworkable. Further litigation is likely. Steven Mufson reports. (Washington Post) See also: Keystone pipeline spill will take months to clean up: officials   Nia Williams and Kevin O’Hanlon report. (Globe and Mail)

Concerns raised over management of sockeye in Skagit, Skokomish rivers
The state Department of Fish & Wildlife is grappling with how to address the concerns of some nontribal fishermen who feel they are losing opportunities to fish for salmon in the region. From the Skagit River in north Puget Sound to the Skokomish River in south Puget Sound, nontribal fishermen have had doors close for several salmon fisheries and limits set for others that prevent them from reeling in the same number of fish as tribal fishermen. Kimberly Cauvel reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

Low crab weight delaying Dungeness harvest along Washington coast
The Washington coast commercial Dungeness crab harvest, once targeted for a Dec. 1 opening, will not start until at least mid-December to give more time for meat to form within shells. The meat is supposed to account for at least 23 percent of the crab by weight. But during a November test fishery, the samples averaged less than 21 percent, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife…. This year, crabbers have been relieved to find that the Dungeness off Washington have all tested at safe levels for domoic acid, a toxin that can be caused by a harmful algae bloom that was a problem in some years past. Hal Bernton reports. (Seattle Times)

Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  257 AM PST Tue Nov 21 2017  
GALE WARNING IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON  
TODAY  E wind 25 to 35 kt. Combined seas 6 to 7 ft with a  dominant period of 8 seconds building to 7 to 10 ft with a  dominant period of 8 seconds in the afternoon. Rain.
TONIGHT  SE wind 15 to 25 kt easing to 10 to 20 kt after  midnight. Wind waves 2 to 4 ft. SW swell 8 ft at 9 seconds  building to 10 ft at 11 seconds after midnight. Rain.

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