3/15 Paper birds, youth for climate, Helen Engle, moving species, ocean carbon, indigenous guardians, Kimberly-Clark cleanup, volcanos, WA lege bills

Owl [Calvin Nicholls]

Birds of Light and Shadow: Intricate Illusions in Paper
The daily commute to his attic studio is short and steep. The road to success for Canadian artist Calvin Nicholls has been much longer. He’s spent the last 30 years perfecting an unusual art form that is all about light, shadow, shape—and illusion. Nicholls is a paper sculptor who creates fantastically detailed birds and other animals that seem to leap, lean, or flutter straight out of their frames. His career evolved from drawing, model-making, sculpting, photography, and periodic doses of serendipity. Pat Leonard writes. (Living Bird Magazine

Local students to join global youth strike for climate
Students in Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham and Olympia plan to go on strike Friday to fight climate change, joining their peers in more than 100 countries. "It just seems like no one's been taking this seriously when our futures are at stake," Chelsea Li, a strike organizer and senior at Seattle’s Nathan Hale High School, said. Thousands of students in Europe and Australia have been striking weekly to demand an end to fossil fuel use. It all began with a Swedish schoolgirl named Greta Thunberg, who started sitting in front of the Swedish parliament building last summer. She has since accumulated hundreds of thousands of followers around the world, given speeches to world leaders and been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. John Ryan reports. (KUOW) See also: Global warming: Children's climate strike spreads worldwide  (BBC)

Salish Sea Communications: Remembering Helen Engle
More memorials have been added celebrating the life of activist Helen Engle who died on March 11 2019. Add your memories, too.

Tropical Species Moved Hundreds of Miles North During Marine Heatwave
Between 2014 and 2016, parts of the eastern Pacific Ocean warmed as much as 7 degrees Fahrenheit above average during what has been characterized as the worst marine heatwave on record. During the event, scientists began discovering a record number of tropical sea species along the northern California and Oregon coasts, more than 700 miles north of their usual range. The scientists published their findings this week in the journal Scientific Reports, reporting that of 67 rare, warm-water species found by University of California, Davis researchers and citizen scientists, 37 had never been documented so far north. “It’s perhaps a glimpse of what Northern California’s coast might look like in the future as ocean temperatures continue to warm,” UC Davis ecologist Eric Sanford, lead author of the new study, said in a statement. (YaleEnvironment360)

The ocean absorbs billions of tons of carbon every year, and the process is accelerating, study shows
Research published Thursday in the peer-reviewed journal Science analyzed more than 100,000 seawater samples worldwide collected from 1994 to 2007 and taken from nearly every corner and depth of ocean. The analysis found the oceans are absorbing about 31 percent of the carbon humans are spewing into the world. For context, the weight of the carbon seeping into the ocean each year, on average for the period of study, is roughly equivalent to 2.6 billion Volkswagen Beetle cars, [study co-author Richard] Feely said. It’s “a huge service the oceans are doing,” said Feely... “That significantly reduces global temperature.” But that temperature buffering comes at a cost. The ocean has continued to acidify, and changes in its chemistry are already affecting ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest.  Evan Bush reports. (Seattle Times)

B.C. Indigenous guardians sound alarm about impact of climate change
owing up in a small, remote First Nations community in northwestern British Columbia, Jarett Quock found he faced racism and stereotypes from non-Indigenous people whenever he left the reserve. The treatment took a toll on him, damaging his pride in his Tahltan Nation roots. It was only after he began work as an Indigenous guardian — monitoring the effects of climate change on his territory — that he recovered his confidence....More than 40 Indigenous communities in Canada have launched guardian programs, which employ local members to monitor ecosystems and protect sensitive areas and species. At a national gathering in Vancouver this week, guardians raised alarm about environmental degradation and climate change in their territories. Laura Kane reports. (Canadian Press)

Oil and gas cleanup costs in B.C. are $3B and rising, auditor general finds
British Columbia's auditor general says the number of inactive oil and gas wells in the province has risen dramatically, and warns the price tag for decommissioning them is $3 billion and rising. An audit published Thursday, titled The B.C. Oil and Gas Commission's Management of Non-Operating Oil and Gas Sites, found the province has more than 10,000 inactive wells — sites that no longer produce oil and gas — and that 7,474 of them had yet to be dismantled, filled or capped for environmental remediation purposes. That number had nearly doubled from 3,800 in 2007. Andrew Kurjata reports. (CBC)

New cleanup plans unveiled for Kimberly-Clark mill site
New state and local cleanup plans aim to prepare the empty Kimberly-Clark mill site for redevelopment. One proposal would remove crushed materials left behind after the waterfront mill’s 2012 closure and subsequent demolition. The debris has been a point of contention for years with the city of Everett. Kimberly-Clark would coordinate that work with the Snohomish Health District. The Department of Ecology has outlined separate steps under state environmental rules. They include removing patches of contaminated soil below the debris. The state also wants Kimberly-Clark to plug more than 20 old pipes that have been sending groundwater offshore. “We’re hopeful that it could be completed this year,” said Andy Kallus, the site manager for the Department of Ecology. The city and the Department of Ecology on Wednesday issued an environmental decision known as a mitigated determination of non-significance. That began a public comment period set to run through April 11, after which the cleanup proposals can be finalized. The Port of Everett and at least one private company are interested in buying the prime-but-polluted shoreside real estate, both with promises of bringing industry and jobs back to the area. Noah Haglund reports. (Everett Herald)


WA's volcano warning system gets a boost The omnibus lands bill provides $55 million for volcano monitoring. But it's unclear how much high-risk Washington and Oregon will get. John Stang reports. (Crosscut)

What's dead, alive and now law at Legislature's halfway point
Washington lawmakers are now more than halfway through a 105-day legislative session that has so far included debate over a public health insurance option, raising the smoking age, tightening rules on school vaccination exemptions and a plastic bag ban, among other proposals. A key deadline was Wednesday afternoon, by which lawmakers had to get bills not related to the budget passed out their original chambers. Here's a look at where things stand... Tom James reports. (Associated Press)



Now, your weekend tug weather--West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  230 AM PDT Fri Mar 15 2019   
TODAY  SE wind 5 to 15 kt becoming to 10 kt in the afternoon.  Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 8 ft at 13 seconds. 
TONIGHT  Light wind becoming SE 5 to 15 kt after midnight. Wind  waves less than 1 ft becoming 2 ft or less after midnight. W  swell 6 ft at 13 seconds. 
SAT  SE wind 5 to 15 kt becoming E to 10 kt in the afternoon.  Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 4 ft at 12 seconds. A slight  chance of showers in the afternoon. 
SAT NIGHT  W wind to 10 kt in the evening becoming light. Wind  waves 1 ft or less. W swell 6 ft at 17 seconds. 
SUN  SE wind to 10 kt becoming E 5 to 15 kt in the afternoon.  Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 9 ft at 16 seconds.



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