11/30 Song sparrow, Cherry Pt, local news, Pt Wells, Gold R, BC logging, Everett sea rise, young orcas, whale watching, Salmon People, bird kill, Trump's dereg, Electron Dam, Pebble Mine

Song sparrow [Gregg Thompson]

 
Song sparrow Melospiza melodia
Washington's song sparrows are large, dark, heavily streaked, chunky birds. They are solitary and highly territorial during the breeding season, but are found in loose flocks during migration and winter. They forage mostly on the ground, sometimes scratching the soil. They will come to bird feeders with adequate cover close by. These birds sing almost all year, and respond to 'pishing.' Typical of the family, song sparrows eat insects and seeds, with a greater proportion of seeds in the fall and winter, and a greater proportion of insects in the spring and summer. (BirdWeb/Seattle Audubon)

Unlikely partners' compromise will halt new fossil-fuel development at Cherry Point
An effort to steer future development at Whatcom County’s primary industrial center away from fossil fuels while providing regulatory certainty is inching closer to completion with the help of an unlikely partnership between environment and industry interests. Kimberly Cauvel reports. (Salish Current)

Erosion in local news threatens democracy
Bill Dietrich writes: "My old newspaper boss isn’t shy about warning that local dailies here in Northwest Washington are turning into ghosts — ghost newspapers, existing in name but no longer having the staff or the commitment to cover local and regional news. That’s not the fault of Whatcom and Skagit’s hard-working, underpaid journalists. It’s a national crisis that’s been accelerating at warp speed since 1990, when newspaper revenue began to crater because the internet eliminated want ads and much of print retail advertising. Frank Blethen, the 75-year-old publisher of The Seattle Times, is trying to address the erosion in local news that he fears threatens democracy..."  (Salish Current/Community Voices)

Point Wells plan should abide stricter rules, critics say
Opponents of a nearly decade-old plan to build a high-rise condo community on Puget Sound urged Snohomish County officials this week to hold the proposal to more stringent standards for construction near landslide hazard zones. Residents near the Point Wells development site, situated between the water and a steep hillside near Woodway, on Tuesday called on the county hearing examiner to require that the developer abide existing regulations for geologically hazardous areas. Rachel Riley reports. (Everett Herald)

‘A lost run’: logging and climate change decimate steelhead in B.C. river
When zero fish showed up for a winter count in the Gold River on Vancouver Island, their absence hinted at a much larger story of how and why this species is disappearing throughout the province. Stephanie Wood reports. (The Narwhal)
 
Conservationists demand fast action from B.C.'s new forestry minister on protection for old-growth trees Stark photos released this week by a conservation group pushing hard for the province to protect what remains of B.C.'s largest and oldest trees is just one point of pressure the province's new forestry minister is facing as she comes into the job.  Chad Pawson reports  (CBC)

How the Port of Everett is preparing for a rising sea level
[T]he Port of Everett is adapting to climate change: The pilings that secure the new stretch of dock are taller than those at the older west end. The additional two feet will allow the dock to float higher as global warming causes sea levels to rise. If that isn’t enough leeway to accommodate future king tides, extensions can be welded to the pointy-topped columns, said Erik Gerking, director of environmental programs for the port. While visible, the pilings at the state’s largest public marina are not his top climate change concern. “The biggest issue that we will have involves bulkheads and shoreline – having those high enough,” he said. Julie Titone reports. (Everett Herald)

Young orca calves take part in fall excursions into South Puget Sound with their mothers
The two orca calves born to J pod in September are still alive and doing well, according to Mark Malleson of the Center for Whale Research, who spotted J pod on Monday near the Canadian city of Victoria. Chris Dunagan reports. (Puget Sound Institute) See also: J-pod orcas swim close to shore near Maury Island  (KING)

Where the whales are: Discovering marine mammals from shore along the Pacific Coast
Erin Williams writes: "Only 100 yards from a nature center and down a sandy trail to the Pacific, I spotted a telltale heart-shaped spout — a misty exhalation of a California gray whale on her northern migration — rising from the ocean. Sunlight glinting off the animal’s back was a sparkling sign that some of the best whale watching can occur from a surprising place: land. This February visit to Dana Point Preserve near San Diego was my fourth stop along the Whale Trail, a collection of coastal sites stretching 1,500 miles from Southern California to British Columbia..." (Washington Post)

Salmon People: A tribe's decades-long fight to take down the Lower Snake River dams and restore a way of life
...The Nez Perce are at the center of a decades-long battle to remove this dam, and three others on the Lower Snake River. In many tribal members’ lifetimes, dams have transformed the Columbia and Snake from wild rivers to a hydropower behemoth and shipping channel — despite fishing rights reserved by their ancestors guaranteed in the treaty of 1855. The tribe does not agree with a recently completed assessment by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies that essentially cemented the status quo on the dams. Lynda Mapes reports. (Seattle Times)

Trump officials move to relax rules on killing birds
The Trump administration published an environmental analysis Friday finding that its proposal not to hold companies responsible for killing birds 'incidentally" would not cause undue harm, clearly the way for it to finalize the rollback before the president's term ends on Jan. 20. The administration, which is racing to lock in a series of regulatory changes before President-elect Joe Biden takes office, can now publish a final rule modifying the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s interpretation of the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Juliet Eilperin and Sarah Kaplan report. (?Washington Post)

E.P.A.’s Final Deregulatory Rush Runs Into Open Staff Resistance
President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency was rushing to complete one of its last regulatory priorities, aiming to obstruct the creation of air- and water-pollution controls far into the future, when a senior career scientist moved to hobble it. Lisa Friedman reports. (NY Times)

U.S. Justice Department sues over Puyallup River pollution
The Justice Department has filed a civil suit against the owners of the Electron Hydroelectric Project for violating the Clean Water Act by polluting the Puyallup River. Lynda Mapes reports. (Seattle Times)

Army Corps says no to massive gold mine proposed near Bristol Bay in Alaska
The Trump administration on Wednesday denied a key permit for a massive gold and copper mine in Alaska, striking a devastating blow to a project opposed by an unlikely coalition that includes the president’s son and other prominent Republicans, as well as conservationists, commercial fishermen and Alaska Natives. Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis report. (Washington Post)

Now, your tug weather--West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  614 AM PST Mon Nov 30 2020   
GALE WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM PST THIS MORNING   
TODAY  W wind 30 to 40 kt easing to 20 to 30 kt in the  afternoon. Combined seas 13 to 15 ft with a dominant period of  16 seconds building to 16 to 17 ft with a dominant period of  15 seconds in the afternoon. Rain likely in the morning then a  chance of rain in the afternoon. 
TONIGHT  NW wind 10 to 20 kt becoming N to 10 kt after  midnight. Wind waves 1 to 3 ft subsiding to 1 ft or less after  midnight. W swell 14 ft at 13 seconds subsiding to 12 ft at  14 seconds after midnight.

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