9/17 Oxeye daily, burned wildlife, Trump's climate, outdated EPA WQ rules, BC old growth, birds in smoke, TM protest, marine mammal covid

Oxeye daisy

 
Oxeye Daisy Leucanthemum vulgare
Oxeye daisy is a perennial herbaceous plant that reaches 1 to 3 feet tall. It has shallow, branched rhizomes and adventitious roots. The entire plant has a disagreeable odor when crushed. It aggressively invades fields where it forms dense populations and decreases plant species diversity. Oxeye daisy decreases crop yields and is a weed of 13 crops of 40 countries. Oxeye daisy was changed from a Class B to a Class C noxious weed in 2013. This plant is also on the Washington State quarantine list. (Washington Noxious Weed Control Board)

Endangered wildlife, habitat burned in Washington wildfires; years of effort to boost populations wiped out
Entire wildlife areas have been destroyed and endangered populations of animals gravely depleted by wildfires burning in Eastern Washington. Much of the area burned east of the mountains included shrub-steppe habitat. The assemblage of sage and other plants is critical to the survival of the pygmy rabbit, sage grouse, and sharp-tailed grouse. It is still the early days in understanding the extent of the damage from the fires and how it unfolded. But wildlife managers think the Pearl Hill fire may cause a population decline of anywhere from 30% to 70% in sage grouse, bringing the statewide population to dangerously low levels. Lynda Mapes reports. (Seattle Times) See also: Wildfires Live Updates: Blazes Scorch Habitats for Endangered Species  (NY Times)

What Trump’s Environmental Rollbacks Mean for Global Warming
President Trump has made dismantling federal climate policies a centerpiece of his administration. A new analysis from the Rhodium Group finds those rollbacks add up to a lot more planet-warming emissions. Nadja Popovich and Brad Plumer report. (NY Times)

EPA Sued Over Washington State’s ‘Outdated’ Water Quality Rules
The EPA should be ordered to work with Washington state to update its more than 20-year-old water quality standards for toxic pollutants, a conservation group says in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court. The state’s continued use of the outdated standards violates the Clean Water Act, the suit says. It also creates a risk of harm to the state’s threatened or endangered species including Chinook salmon and Southern Resident killer whales, according to the complaint filed by Northwest Environmental Advocates in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. Maya Earls reports. (Bloomberg Law)

B.C.’s old-growth forest announcement won’t actually slow down logging: critics
As rumours swirl of a snap fall election, the NDP government has announced development deferrals for nine areas — but closer inspection reveals a startling absence of old growth, and some areas have already been clear cut. Sarah Cox reports. (The Narwhal)

Seattle is in smoke. What's happening to the birds?
You haven’t been the only who’s wondered what happened to the birds. The wildfire smoke descended on this region, and just like that, for some of you, the birds you used to see in your backyard mostly disappeared. That’s the reports from some bird enthusiasts. Others haven’t noticed much change. Erik Lacitis reports. (Seattle Times)

Burnaby tree-sitters claim victory in protest against Trans Mountain pipeline
Pipeline opponents and tree-sitters in Burnaby say they have successfully pushed back the completion date of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project to 2023. Tree-sitter Dr. Tim Takaro says the victory being claimed is based on a Trans Mountain affidavit sworn in court in May. According to Takaro, Trans Mountain stated in the affidavit that it needed to start construction in several areas around the Lower Mainland by Sept. 15 — including near Holmes Creek in Burnaby — in order to meet its deadline of being operational by Dec. 2022. Trans Mountain CEO Ian Anderson was quoted by the Canadian Press on Tuesday saying the project is advancing as expected and on schedule to be completed by December 2022. Karin Larsen reports. (CBC)

Could Marine Mammals Contract COVID-19?
Some marine mammals carry gene mutations that could make them more susceptible than humans to SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus at the heart of the ongoing pandemic. If these marine mammals get infected, the results could be devastating—more than half of the species predicted to be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 are already at risk of extinction. Nancy Averett reports. (Hakai Magazine)

Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  244 AM PDT Thu Sep 17 2020   
TODAY  SW wind to 10 kt becoming NW 5 to 15 kt in the  afternoon. Wind waves 2 ft or less. SW swell 4 ft at 8 seconds. 
TONIGHT  W wind 5 to 15 kt becoming to 10 kt after midnight.  Wind waves 2 ft or less. SW swell 4 ft at 8 seconds. A slight  chance of tstms. A chance of showers after midnight.

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