4/22 Song sparrow, Kalama methanol, Fort Worden, Squamish Nation, SnoCo solar, Uncertainties Matrix

Song sparrow [Tom Grey/BirdNote]

If you like to listen: Patterns in Songs of the Song Sparrow
Heidi Hoelting, a musician, listens carefully to the songs of birds. In her piano studio at her home in the woods, she wrote down several variations of the different sounds a Song Sparrow makes. In this BirdNote, Nancy Rumbel plays some of those variations on a bamboo whistle. Listen to all thirteen variations, as played by Nancy. (BirdNote)

For Plastics Or Fuel? A Controversial Methanol Plant May Be Misleading The Public, Regulators
Nearly four years ago, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee touted a new company that was coming to Kalama to revolutionize the methanol market. On that sunny August day on the banks of the Columbia River, Inslee spoke alongside city and county leaders, business people and executives from NW Innovation Works (NWIW), a Chinese-backed company looking to build three massive natural gas to methanol plants in southwest Washington.... The governor praised the creation of hundreds of family-wage jobs, millions of dollars in local tax revenue, and the plant’s biggest selling point: the methanol it created from natural gas could help clean up China’s plastics industry. The project has been pitched by its developers and the governor as one way to combat climate change. They say making methanol from natural gas in plants that use renewable power could eventually displace many of China’s dirtier coal-based plants.... But the climate change-crusading governor currently running for president may not have know that NWIW was selling a different story to investors — one less focused on producing cleaner methanol for plastics and more on an opportunity to buy into a new methanol supply chain to fill China’s insatiable appetite for fuel. Documents obtained by OPB show that NWIW is saying one thing to state regulators while eyeing China’s fuels market. As recently as January 2019, PowerPoint presentations shown to potential investors in the Kalama facility detailed the company’s apparent intent to burn their methanol for fuel in China. Molly Solomon reports. (OPB)

State parks hears public on Fort Worden changes /
The state Parks and Recreation Commission is in a pre-design phase on a project at Fort Worden that would remove the boat launch and questions what to do with the pier. About 75 people attended a public meeting Thursday night at the Fort Worden Commons to provide input on three alternatives. One would rehabilitate the pier and add an elevated boat launch. Another would relocate the pier and require the Port Townsend Marine Science Center to build on land. A third option would remove both the boat launch and pier without replacing them; it also would require the Marine Science Center to move. Brian McLean reports. (Peninsula Daily News)

The little-known history of Squamish Nation land in Vancouver
The Squamish Nation's proposal to build up to 3,000 apartment units southwest of the Burrard Bridge is shedding light on the historic ejection of members from their traditional territory in the area more than 100 years ago. The area in question is west of the Molson Brewery site, near Vanier Park on the False Creek waterfront, in Kitsilano. Some controversy erupted online last week after some Kitsilano residents were quoted as saying they wanted to consult with the Squamish Nation about the development. But some Indigenous people have pointed out that the Squamish people were never consulted when they were removed from the same piece of land in 1913. Angela Sterritt reports. (CBC)

Community solar comes to Snohomish County
Solar power can feel out of reach. Upfront costs are usually considerable and you need a sunny roof or open space where you can put the panels. Community solar projects make it more accessible, by allowing ratepayers to buy shares in an installation that’s financed and operated by a group of investors. Utilities around the state, including Seattle City Light and Avista, offer them. Now, Snohomish County PUD is getting in on the game — in a big way. The PUD's Arlington Microgrid Community Solar Project will be the largest in the state. It will generate enough electricity to power about 50 homes. The array has 1,620 panels and covers nearly 2 acres on a site owned by the PUD, near Arlington airport. Ratepayers can opt to pay for as little as one sixth of a panel, at a cost of $120 dollars. Those investors get credits on their bills for the 20-year life of the project. The utility expects it will take about eight years to pay off the upfront cost. Bellamy Pailthorp reports. (KNKX)

Puget Sound’s known unknowns: The Grand Uncertainties Matrix
According to the Puget Sound Institute's lead ecosystem ecologist Tessa Francis, "The Grand Uncertainties Matrix, or the “GUM” is essentially a way for us to keep track of the biggest questions that we have related to Puget Sound recovery, questions that arise while developing implementation strategies. It is a compilation of things that we are uncertain about. Gaps in our knowledge that come up during the process of working on these strategies.... We were talking through the process of building implementation strategies and we recognized that along the way there will be questions that arise, unknowns about how the Puget Sound social-ecological system works. Probably they will range from questions we don’t have the answers for immediately — but the answer is out there somewhere — to large science gaps that require research to resolve. We really wanted to be able to capture all of those, because all of them are barriers to progress in some way. We thought if PSI starts to collect those and rank them, we can start to address them and move the implementation strategies forward." Jeff Rice reports. (Puget Sound Institute)


Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  252 AM PDT Mon Apr 22 2019   
TODAY  SE wind 5 to 15 kt becoming 10 to 20 kt in the  afternoon. Wind waves 1 to 3 ft. W swell 6 ft at 10 seconds.  Showers. 
TONIGHT  SW wind to 10 kt. Wind waves 1 ft or less. W swell  9 ft at 11 seconds. Showers in the evening then showers likely  after midnight.

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