3/17 Salmonberry, 'don't come,' WA lege climate, Skagit cleanups, SnoCo invasives, Nisqually stewardship, oil dirty secret, bird engineers

Salmnberry [Native Plants of the PNW]

Salmonberry Rubus spectabilis
Rubus, derived from ruber, a latin word for red, is the genus of plants generally called brambles. The epithet spectabilis means spectacular due to Salmonberry’s showy flowers and fruits.  The common name Salmonberry is thought to have come from the natives’ fondness for eating the berries with salmon roe, but it could also be due to the orangy-pink color of the berries. (Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest)

*EDITOR'S NOTE: Access updates on the COVID-19 virus at national and regional print publications like the CBC, the Seattle Times, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.

B.C. health minister to U.S. visitors: 'Don't come'
B.C.'s health minister issued a stark warning Monday to would-be visitors thinking of travelling north from the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic: "Don't come." Adrian Dix pleaded with Americans to stay away from British Columbia minutes after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would be closing its borders to all foreign citizens except those from the United States. Dix noted that B.C. borders Washington, one of the states hardest hit by COVID-19. As of Monday, the state had seen 42 deaths and nearly 800 cases in regions only a few hours away from the northern border. Jason Proctor reports. (CBC)

Climate activists disappointed by session outcome: new goals set, but action lags behind 
[This year's legislative] session started with high hopes for new state policies to reduce climate warming greenhouse gas pollution, stoked by youth climate strikes as well as cities and the Puyallup Tribe declaring climate emergencies. At the start of the session, one key goal was to update the state’s statutory limits on greenhouse gas emissions. They were last set in 2008. Lawmakers did commit to setting new limits and getting to net-zero carbon by 2050. But they failed to pass the bill that activists say would have made the most progress in actually cutting carbon, the so-called clean fuel standard. Bellamy Pailthorp reports. (KNKX)

Cleanups being planned for old Anacortes water plant, landfill
Cleanup plans are being proposed for a former landfill in Anacortes and are being drawn up for the city’s former water treatment plant along the Skagit River west of Mount Vernon. The state Department of Ecology is accepting public comment through April 7 on a cleanup plan for the former March Point Landfill, also known as Whitmarsh Landfill. The state agency is also taking public comment through April 14 on what is called a remedial investigation and feasibility study that describes the extent of contamination at the water treatment plant and the options for cleaning it up. For the water treatment plant cleanup, Ecology has scheduled a digital open house for 4 p.m. March 23 that replaces an in-person meeting canceled amid the spread of the coronavirus. Kimberly Cauvel reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

County to tackle a development side effect: invasive plants
In the next 100 years, native plants and habitat could vanish from urban forests like Meadowdale Beach. That’s because Himalayan blackberry, English holly and other invasive species are slowly choking out large trees emblematic of the Pacific Northwest, according to the environmental nonprofit Forterra. As development creeps farther into the rural reaches of Snohomish County, human disturbance is increasingly allowing invasive species to encroach on the 12,000 forested acres owned by the county. The local government is partnering with Forterra to keep those plant invaders at bay, dedicating $130,000 last year to the Healthy Forest Project. It kicked off in January as a 1,000-acre pilot project in 10 locations: Portage Creek, Kayak Point, Smith Island, McCollum Park, Picnic Point, Lake Stickney, the Evergreen State Fairgrounds, Lord Hill Regional Park, Meadowdale Beach and the Paradise Valley Conservation Area...Of the 1,000 acres, about 22% have a high presence of invasive species, Forterra reported. Another 46% have a medium presence. Julia-Grace Sanders reports. (Everett Herald)

To Protect and Preserve
....The Nisqually Tribe’s efforts to repair damage done to the watershed, and to seek partnership from other organizations willing to aid them in doing so, gained momentum in the 1960s, when plans were announced to transform the Nisqually Delta — where the river meets the Sound 10 miles north of Olympia — into a deepwater seaport. After thousands of years depending on the resource-rich river and its surrounding area, the Tribe fought back against proposals to further develop the land. Zoe Branch writes. (South Sound Magazine)

Breaking Bad: Uncovering The Oil Industry's Dirty Secret
Every year hundreds of ships and oil rigs are sold to shipbreaking yards in south Asia where they are cut apart by low-paid migrants. We followed a trail from the north coast of Scotland to the beaches of India to reveal how wealthy companies profit from an industry which destroys lives and damages the environment. Chris Foote reports. (BBC)

Why Birds Are the World’s Best Engineers
A nest is “a disordered stick bomb,” resilient in ways that humans have hardly begun to understand, much less emulate. The term “bird’s nest” has come to describe a messy hairdo, tangled fishing line and other unspeakably knotty conundrums. But that does birds an injustice. Their tiny brains, dense with neurons, produce marvels that have long captured scientific interest as naturally selected engineering solutions — yet nests are still not well understood. Siobhan Roberts reports. (NY Times)


Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  244 AM PDT Tue Mar 17 2020   
TODAY  SE wind to 10 kt becoming 5 to 15 kt in the afternoon.  Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 2 ft at 19 seconds building to  4 ft at 10 seconds in the afternoon. 
TONIGHT  SW wind to 10 kt in the evening becoming light. Wind  waves 1 ft or less. W swell 5 ft at 9 seconds.



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