8/5 Catnip, Land and Water Fund, Pebble Mine, Pilchuck dam, white ravens, treetop protest, wildfires, Colstrip, ocean megaprovinces

Catnip Nepeta cataria
Catnip is a species of the genus Nepeta in the family Lamiaceae, native to southern and eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and parts of China. It is widely naturalized in northern Europe, New Zealand, and North America. The names catnip and catmint are derived from the intense attraction about two-thirds of cats have toward them. (Wikipedia)

President Trump signs bill permanently funding Land and Water Conservation Fund
A landmark bill committing $900 million a year for land conservation and a one-time $9.5 billion boost to help catch up over the next five years on maintenance needs at national parks was signed into law by President Donald Trump Monday.The Great American Outdoors Act, S. 3422, will increase by two or three times the historic average amount of money spent by Congress for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The program, used to fund acquisitions from willing sellers for federal, state and local open space and outdoor recreation, is paid for from royalties earned on oil and natural gas leases on public lands. Lynda Mapes reports. (Seattle Times)

President’s son Donald Jr. on Twitter calls for blocking Alaska mine in sensitive fishing area
Two tweets, one by the president’s son and one by Vice President Pence’s former top staffer, on Tuesday called for stopping a giant gold and copper mine from being built in Alaska at the world’s greatest sockeye salmon fishery. Steven Mufson, Brady Dennis and Ashley Parker report. (Washington Post)

Another Washington dam removal — and 37 more miles of salmon habitat restored
Washington’s dam-busting summer is still rolling, with two more dams coming down on the Pilchuck River, opening 37 miles of habitat to salmon for the first time in more than a century. The $2 million dam removal project is a collaboration between the City of Snohomish and Tulalip Tribes, and will benefit multiple species of salmon, including threatened chinook salmon, crucial food for endangered southern resident killer whales. It’s the state’s second dam teardown project in two months. In July, the city of Bellingham blew up its Nooksack Diversion Dam on the Middle Fork of the Nooksack River, opening 16 miles of habitat for salmon, including chinook. Lynda Mapes reports. (Seattle Times)

More sightings of rare white ravens on Vancouver Island
Mike Yip says the mysterious white ravens are considered leucistic — not albino, which have no pigment at all. These ravens have blue eyes and likely have genetic defects that dilute their natural colour. “They are a freak of nature,” Yip said. Darron Kloster reports. (Times Colonist)

60-plus days of tear gas leaves lingering questions about environmental
Public agencies are trying to answer a question on the minds of many, including a U.S. congressman and Oregon lawmakers: What will all that tear gas mean for trees, water and wildlife? Monica Samayoa and lauren Dake report. (OPB)

SFU professor mounts high-altitude protest against Trans Mountain pipeline expansion
Tim Takaro is by himself but insists he isn't alone. Takaro, 63, is protesting the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project by camping out in a cluster of trees in Burnaby, B.C. Takaro is a professor of health sciences and environmental health at Simon Fraser University and a former physician, having retired from clinical medicine in December 2019. He and other environmental activists say trees along the Brunette River near the boundary between Burnaby and New Westminster are slated to be felled between now and Sept. 15 as part of pipeline construction. Liam Britten reports. (CBC)

Nanaimo-area wildfire is potential threat to Island marmots
A wildfire burning out of control on Green Mountain southwest of Nanaimo poses a potential threat to Vancouver Island marmots. Adam Taylor, executive director of the Marmot Recovery Foundation, said his team is still trying to determine where exactly the 160,000 square metre fire is burning on the mountain, which provides important habitat for the critically endangered herbivores. Lindsay Kines reports. (Vancouver Sun) See also: Olympic National Park fire held at 84 acres Firefighters continued efforts Tuesday to stamp out the East Beach Road Fire, with containment rising to 65 percent from 30 percent Monday and the burning area remaining at 84 acres, the Western Washington Type 3 Incident Management Team said. Michael Carman reports. (Peninsula Daily News)

Demolition starts on Colstrip's oldest units
Demolition has started on parts of Colstrip Power Plant used to service its oldest units. Construction workers began demolishing the Unit 1 and 2 cooling towers in July. The work comes 13 months after owners Talen Energy and Puget Sound Energy said it was uneconomical to keep running the units, which were shut down for good in January. Tom Lutey reports. (Billings Gazette)

The Ocean’s 12 Megaprovinces
Determining the borders of the ocean’s ecological regions is challenging. On land, different ecoregions such as rainforest or tundra can be classified by the species of animals and plants and their abundances, but in the ocean, most species are microscopic, and their movements mean boundaries are ever-changing. Typically, scientists studying the distribution of life in the sea use satellite images to measure a region’s chlorophyll levels—a chemical compound made by photosynthesizing phytoplankton—to get an idea of how much life is in an area. But these measurements don’t differentiate between species of phytoplankton, some of which support specific combinations of animal and plant life. New research led by Maike Sonnewald, a physical oceanographer at Princeton University in New Jersey, outlines a new way to classify marine ecosystems. She says that the ocean can be broken down into 100 different ecoprovinces, which together make up 12 main megaprovinces with similar balances of animal and plant species. Jackie Snow reports. (Hakai Magazine)

Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  232 AM PDT Wed Aug 5 2020   
TODAY  W wind to 10 kt becoming 5 to 15 kt in the afternoon.  Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 3 ft at 11 seconds. 
TONIGHT  W wind to 10 kt. Wind waves 1 ft or less. W swell 3 ft  at 9 seconds. A chance of rain in the evening then rain likely  after midnight.

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