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| Violet-green swallow [Glenn Bartley/Audubon] |
Violet-green Swallows breed in open evergreen and deciduous woodlands, especially woodlands with standing dead trees that feature woodpecker holes or other natural cavities. They breed across the western United States from sea level to as high as 11,500 feet elevation.... Violet-green Swallows feed on flying insects such as flies, leafhoppers, leafbugs, aphids, beetles, and winged ants that they catch and eat in midair. They skim low over water bodies and fields snatching up insects, but they also forage high above the ground.... Violet-green Swallows are common throughout the West, but populations experienced a decline of about 28% between 1966 and 2015, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. (All About Birds)
‘State of the Air' report gives failing grades to Washington for sooty particulate pollution
Warmer weather and wildfire smoke are causing more air pollution in Washington. Three metropolitan areas in the state have the worst air pollution in the nation. They made the top-15 list for particle pollution in this year’s “State of the Air” report from the American Lung Association, which looks at both particle pollution and ozone. The main cause driving the rising levels of short-term particulate, or soot, here is smoke from wildfires. Yakima came in sixth-worst, Seattle-Tacoma came in ninth and the Spokane Valley-Coeur d'Alene area tied with Sacramento-Roseville, California, for 15th place. California is the only other state with more than one area on the top-15 list; it has seven. Bellamy Pailthorp reports. (KNKX) See also: Oregon's Air Is Getting Worse, According To American Lung Association (OPB)
Trans Mountain CEO says expansion will make waters safer even if tanker traffic spikes
Even when oil tanker traffic increases after the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, CEO Ian Anderson says the marine environment around Vancouver will be safer because of measures to protect orcas. “There will no doubt be measures taken that will make the transit and the understanding of the marine environment better than it was before,” Anderson said in a podcast interview with ARC Energy Research Institute, the investment analysis arm of an energy-focused private equity fund. “There will be incremental benefits to the whole value chain of marine traffic in the Salish Sea." Anderson, Trans Mountain Corp.'s president and chief executive officer, was referring to measures recommended by the National Energy Board (NEB) to mitigate "significant" adverse environmental impacts on Southern resident killer whales (orcas) and on Indigenous cultural use related to them. Alastair Sharp reports. (National Observer)
Can Alberta really ‘turn off the taps’ to B.C.? Here’s what we know about Jason Kenney’s plan
Jason Kenney, the soon-to-be premier of Alberta, rode to victory vowing to implement policies that would empower the province to fight back against its foes. Among them was Kenney’s promise to “turn off the taps” to British Columbia. He vowed to proclaim legislation into law that would enable him to squeeze the supply of oil and gas going into B.C., as part of a larger United Conservative strategy to exert pressure on the province and the federal government in order to get the Trans Mountain pipeline built. The stalled pipeline is widely seen as a key component of Alberta’s economic recovery. But the question remains: How would “turning off the taps” work? Is it even constitutional? Tyler Dawson reports. (National Post)
Man convicted in pipeline break-in gets new trial
A man convicted of burglary for breaking into the Kinder Morgan oil pipeline facility west of Burlington in 2016 has been granted a new trial. In June 2017, Kenneth Ward, 63, was sentenced in Skagit County Superior Court to community service after a two-day trial that ended in him being convicted for second-degree burglary. A second charge of criminal sabotage resulted in a mistrial because the jury failed to reach a verdict. It was the second time Ward of Corbett, Oregon, had been tried on those charges — the first trial earlier that year ended in a mistrial. Kera Wanielista reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)
Big Oil aims to kill tax increase to fund toxic site cleanups
While newly empowered Democrats and environmentalists are winning passage of many pro-environment bills, big oil companies are laboring mightily to defeat one proposal that would speed cleanups of toxic waste sites by increasing a tax on crude oil brought to Washington refineries. The Senate proposal – SB 5993 – would roughly double the state’s hazardous substances tax. The proceeds would pay for cleanups that have been put on hold or slowed due to large fluctuations in global oil prices and legislative budgeting maneuvers after the Great Recession that in effect stole voter-approved cleanup funds for other uses. As the Legislature nears the end of its regular session, the state’s oil refiners, agriculture and business lobbyists are joining Republican lawmakers in pushing to halt any tax increase. Meanwhile, environmental advocates and local government lobbyists are pressing for additional funding to speed the state’s cleanup of some 6,000 remaining toxic waste sites. Brad Shannon reports. (Investigate West)
Duckabush restoration promises major benefits for five species of salmon
An ecosystem-restoration project that would replace two bridges across the Duckabush River and restore a 38-acre estuary on the west side of Hood Canal has moved into the design phase with funding from state and federal governments. The project, which would improve habitat for five species of salmon along with a variety of wildlife, is the subject of a design agreement between the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Chris Dunagan reports. (Watching Our Water Ways)
Saving salmon
David Beatty agrees with Kenneth Pritchard's comments about how salmon protection and restoration opportunities have been lost because of misallocation of funding. "Kenneth Pritchard is correct on the Skagit Salmon Story. Too much has been spent (money and time) on failed watersheds for wild salmon, e.g. the Duwamish/Green River. Instead focus on Wild Salmon Strongholds, e.g., the Skagit River and major Tributaries." And check out the TEDx talk on Salmon Strongholds.
A pod of orcas is starving to death. A tribe has a radical plan to feed them
Bobbing on the gray-green waters west of Washington state’s San Juan Island, Sle-lh’x elten Jeremiah Julius lifted a Chinook salmon from a 200-gallon blue plastic fish box. He carried the gulping fish to the boat’s rail and slid it into the sea, where it lingered a moment, then disappeared in a silver flash. It was a quietly radical act. This sea once teemed with the giant salmon, which in turn sustained thriving pods of orca. Today wild Chinook fisheries are in decline, and the orcas are starving. Julius is the chairman of the Lummi Nation, a tribe pushing an unorthodox policy. They are feeding salmon to the wild whales. Levi Pulkkinen reports. (The Guardian)
Hatching new campaign
For 30 years, wild fish advocates have been framing hatchery produced salmon as the biggest obstacle to wild salmon recovery, and throwing their money, lobbying muscle, and legal expertise behind a concerted move to remove all hatchery fish from the rivers of the Northwest. However, sport anglers say that many of the promises and claims made by the conservation groups about the recovery of wild fish have not materialized, and now a coalition of sport anglers are pushing back. Armed with several new scientific studies that cast doubt on the arguments used against hatchery fish in the past, they are organizing to get their message out. The coalition centers around Hatchery Wild Coexist. The group is promoting a return to using responsible hatchery practices and putting fish back in our rivers. Terry Otto reports. (Columbian)
Why Are Gray Whales Washing Up Dead On Northwest Beaches?
An unusually large number of gray whales are washing up dead on their northbound migration past the Oregon and Washington coasts this year. The peak stranding time for gray whales in the Pacific Northwest is normally April, May and June. But the federal agency NOAA Fisheries has already logged nine dead whales washed ashore in Washington and one in Oregon. That’s on top of 21 strandings on California beaches since the beginning of the year. There were a total of 25 dead gray whale strandings on the entire West Coast in all of 2018. Tom Banse reports. (NW News Network)
Former brewery building to be removed as part of oil spill cleanup in Tumwater
Boston Street Southwest in Tumwater was closed Wednesday as crews continued to clean up after an oil spill at the former Olympia Brewing Co. property. Crews this week plan to remove a building located next to the site of the transformer that leaked oil into the Deschutes River and Capitol Lake in February. The building houses other transformers. Boston Street was closed between Custer Way Southwest and Deschutes Way Southwest. The closure could last into Friday depending on how long the work takes.In late February, the transformer was damaged by vandals and spilled oil containing a low concentration of PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, which can accumulate in bodies of water and reach harmful levels in fish. (Olympian)
Salish seafloor mapping identifies earthquake and tsunami risks
The central Salish Sea of the Pacific Northwest is bounded by two active fault zones that could trigger rockfalls and slumps of sediment that might lead to tsunamis, according to a presentation at the 2019 SSA Annual Meeting. These tsunamis might be directed toward the islands of San Juan Archipelago, Vancouver Island and low coastal areas of the United States including Bellingham, Washington. (Science Daily)
Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca- 258 AM PDT Thu Apr 25 2019
TODAY SE wind 5 to 15 kt becoming to 10 kt in the afternoon. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 5 ft at 10 seconds.
TONIGHT W wind 10 to 20 kt. Wind waves 1 to 3 ft. W swell 5 ft at 10 seconds.
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"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.
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