 |
| Red-tailed hawk [Don DeBold/WikiMedia] |
Common resident of marshes and open areas near beach. Perches in trees, telephone poles, or fences. Soars. Feeds on rodents, rabbits, and other small animals. High-soaring, conspicuous courtship flight. Nests are large and visible; 40 to 80 feet high often in cottonwood trees (conifers in San Juan Islands). Call is distinctive, harsh descending scream. (Marine Wildlife of Puget Sound, the San Juans, and the Strait of Georgia)
The Secret Lives of Salmon: Plastics, whales and a freezer on the open ocean
On the North Pacific Ocean more than 1,000 kilometres from the nearest human settlement, the Russian research vessel Kaganovsky is finding evidence that our polluting influence is indeed global. The mission’s chief scientist, Vladimir Radchenko, is doing daily visual surveys for large plastic debris such as water bottles to determine the distribution of waste over the study area. Scientists from Canada, the United States, Japan, South Korea and Russia are aboard the Kaganovsky for five weeks to study the ocean-going lives of five Pacific salmon species across the Gulf of Alaska. There are also opportunities to observe and record great detail about the ocean conditions faced by the salmon. Crew members spotted a large chest freezer floating in the ocean, according to Radchenko, director of the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission based in Vancouver. Randy Shore reports. (Vancouver Sun)
Fixing culverts could save the orcas — but who will pay?
Puget Sound’s beloved orcas are at risk of extinction. A historic population of roughly 200 has shrunk to 75. Now the state Legislature is getting involved, considering a battery of options to save the distinctively marked marine mammals. A key to heading off extinction, scientists say, is improving the health of oceangoing runs of chinook salmon, the biggest, fattest and most nutritious kind of salmon and the killer whales’ main food source. To do that, some lawmakers would like to open up more than 1,000 miles of prime inland spawning areas that are currently blocked to the fish. Even those who would rather not are feeling the pressure to do so after an order from the highest court in the land told them they had to. But the Legislature is stuck, struggling to identify a source of funding for the project. And what is blocking all those fish? Culverts. These are the pipes and tunnels that pass under roads throughout the state, allowing water to flow downstream. It turns out that many old highway projects in the state were poorly engineered where they intersect with salmon-bearing streams and, as a result, can block the fish in a variety of ways. Brad Shannon reports. (Investigate West)
Trump seeks cuts for cleanup of Great Lakes, other waterways
President Donald Trump is trying again to slash federal cleanup funding for major U.S. waterways, including the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay. The president's 2020 budget released Monday calls for spending $30 million on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a program intended to remove toxic pollution, fight invasive species and deal with other longstanding environmental problems in the eight-state region. That's a 90 percent cut from the $300 million the program has gotten in most years since it began in 2010. The budget also proposes a 90 percent cut cleanup efforts in the Chesapeake Bay and would eliminate restoration funding for the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Champlain, Long Island Sound, South Florida, San Francisco Bay and Puget Sound. Trump sought similar cutbacks in his previous budgets but Congress rejected them. John Flesher reports. (Associated Press)
Friends mourn B.C. environmentalist Micah Messent after Ethiopian Airlines crash
Micah Messent, an ardent young environmentalist who devoted his rising career to protecting the world's oceans and sharing Indigenous teachings, was one of 18 Canadians killed in an Ethiopian Airlines plane crash on Sunday. The Boeing 737 Max 8 jetliner crashed near Bishoftu, south of Addis Ababa, shortly after takeoff, killing all 157 people on board. Like many others on the plane, Messent was on his way to meet other young leaders for the United Nations Environment Assembly, held this week in Kenya. He'd been chosen to go to the conference as a Canadian representative.... Messent was the youngest of five siblings growing up in Courtenay on Vancouver Island's east coast, traditional territory of the K'ómoks First Nation, according to a profile posted online last spring. (CBC)
Avalon plan expected back in 2020
A proposal that could have led to a fully contained community being built north of Burlington was withdrawn from consideration by the Skagit County commissioners because of confusion on whether it would first need to be considered by the county's Growth Management Act Steering Committee. "It's safest to just pull back and try again," said Simi Jain, a lawyer with the Bellingham law firm Carmichael Clark, which represents owners of the property. "We don't want this issue to cloud the community's view of our application." The proposal was withdrawn Friday afternoon from consideration as an amendment to the 2019 Skagit County Comprehensive Plan in a one-sentence email sent to the county Planning and Development Services.... Jain said she expects the proposal will be resubmitted for consideration as a 2020 Comprehensive Plan amendment. Brandon Stone reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)
More on lichen
A faithful reader was inspired by yesterday's story about lichen [Scientists view old-growth forests through lichens to understand their value] to share one of her own: "The individual who figured out lichen is not one organism, but two organisms living in a symbiotic relationship, was a Botanist who lived in the Lake Country of northern England. That individual wrote up their findings and submitted them for presentation at the annual meeting of The Linnean Society, the pre-eminent organization for Botanists the world over, the one that is responsible for identifying and categorizing all plant genus/species. However she was turned down because she was a woman, not even allowed to attend the Linnean Society meetings, let alone make presentations at them or have her proposals taken seriously. So this botanist asked a male colleague to present her paper under his name there, which he did. And the very idea of it was scoffed at; ridiculous! that lichen was more than one organism! (this was just before the invention of good microscopes). This Botanist was disgusted. She'd had it with these people. She turned away from the field of botany altogether and started writing children's stories. Her name: Beatrix Potter."
Navy rejects call for more monitoring of Growler jet training on Whidbey Island
Navy Secretary Richard Spencer has rebuffed a request from a federal advisory council to undertake additional monitoring of the Growler EA-18G jets as they fly over Ebey’s Landing National Historic Reserve on Whidbey Island. Spencer’s decision was detailed in a March 8 letter to the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. It marks the latest setback for central Whidbey Island residents opposed to a major expansion of low-flying Growler training as up to 36 aircraft are added to the fleet of 82 now based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. Spencer noted that the Navy has already done modeling to determine the noise impacts, and that noise measurements also were taken by the National Park Service. “I decline to implement additional noise monitoring efforts” Spencer wrote in his letter. Hal Bernton reports. (Seattle Times)
An ancient beach reborn — and renamed for a clam
“They are delicious when steamed open and dipped in hot butter,” according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. They’re also disappearing, according to scientists who've studied them from Alaska to California. Littleneck clams are golf ball-sized bivalves that have sustained the Jamestown S’Klallam and other Northwest tribes for centuries. The S’Klallam have returned the favor, in a way: by restoring and renaming a beach on Sequim Bay, near the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula, for the clams. The area around what is now Littleneck Beach has Puget Sound’s densest known populations of this increasingly rare species. John Ryan reports. (KU)W)
Fifth grader leading Tacoma climate strike: ‘Adults need to clean up their act’
Like only an 11-year-old can, Washington Elementary 5th grader Theo Sullivan quickly cut to the heart of the matter. “I think it’s important because I want to have a world to live in as an adult,” Sullivan told me by phone Sunday when asked about the looming threat of man-made climate change. “I just don’t think it’s fair that you guys have a long and healthy life, and we have to clean up after your messes.” Sullivan might be young, but he’s exactly right. If you’re an adult reading his words, don’t take exception, take notice. Matt Driscoll writes. (News Tribune of Tacoma)
Does public radio in the Northwest have a gender pay gap?
When Emily Schwing quit her job as a Spokane-based public radio correspondent last week, she left no doubt her decision was primarily about pay. In her March 6 resignation letter, she listed the salary discrepancy between her and her male colleagues as her top reason for leaving. But she worried that what she viewed as a pay-equity problem would continue if she wasn’t transparent about why she quit, she said. So she decided to say something publicly. “Breaking: Schwing quits the Northwest News Network,” Schwing, 36, wrote on Twitter last Wednesday. “Number one reason? My male colleagues make tens of thousands of dollars more for the same work.” Melissa Santos reports. (Crosscut)
Decline in readers, ads leads hundreds of newspapers to fold
.... Last September, Waynesville became a statistic. With the shutdown of its newspaper, the Daily Guide, this town of 5,200 people in central Missouri’s Ozark hills joined more than 1,400 other cities and towns across the U.S. to lose a newspaper over the past 15 years, according to an Associated Press analysis of data compiled by the University of North Carolina. Blame revenue siphoned by online competition, cost-cutting ownership, a death spiral in quality, sheer disinterest among readers or reasons peculiar to given locales for that development. While national outlets worry about a president who calls the press an enemy of the people, many Americans no longer have someone watching the city council for them, chronicling the soccer exploits of their children or reporting on the kindly neighbor who died of cancer. David Bauder and David A. Lieb report. (Associated Press)
Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca- 219 AM PDT Tue Mar 12 2019
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON
TODAY NW wind 15 to 25 kt. Wind waves 2 to 4 ft. W swell 12 ft at 17 seconds. A chance of showers in the morning then a slight chance of showers in the afternoon.
TONIGHT W wind 15 to 25 kt easing to 10 to 20 kt after midnight. Wind waves 2 to 4 ft. W swell 12 ft at 15 seconds. A slight chance of showers in the evening.
--
"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
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.