8/17 Chickweed, sea otters, Gorge Dam, ghost boats, Fairy Cr protest, TM protest, GasLink spill

Chickweed [Gardening Know How]

Chickweed Stellaria media
Chickweed is an annual and perennial flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae. It is native to Eurasia and naturalized throughout the world. This species is used as a cooling herbal remedy, and grown as a vegetable crop and ground cover for both human and poultry consumption. It is sometimes called common chickweed to distinguish it from other plants called chickweed. Other common names include chickenwort, craches, maruns, and winterweed. The plant germinates in autumn or late winter, then forms large mats of foliage. (Wikipedia)

Skeptics of sea otter reintroduction getting organized on Pacific Coast
Sea otters are undeniably cute, but cuteness only goes so far when major economic interests are at stake. That's an inference you can make from the emergence of organized pushback to the possible reintroduction of sea otters along the Oregon Coast. A trade group, the West Coast Seafood Processors Association, enlisted 24 maritime interests to sign on to a letter expressing grave concerns about bringing back sea otters. Some of the signatories include the ports of Ilwaco, Astoria, Newport, Coos Bay and Brookings, the Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers and Columbia River crab fishermen. Tom Banse reports. (NW News Network)

Controversy continues between Seattle, tribes over Skagit River dam
Disagreement continues over how to approach Seattle City Light’s Gorge Dam during relicensing of the city’s three-dam hydropower system on the upper Skagit River. Differences of opinion include the extent to which Gorge, the lowest of the three dams, impacts Skagit River fish, as well as how best to approach a potential remedy. In the past week, Seattle City Light announced that it will analyze whether considering removal of any or all of the dams is necessary, while also arguing in federal court that a lawsuit the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe filed over fish passage issues at Gorge Dam should be tossed out. Kimberly Cauvel reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

Ghost boats are haunting Puget Sound waters
It can cost over $10,000 to properly dispose of a boat that is no longer in working order. Some owners are choosing to abandon ship instead; causing big problems for marina managers and the environment. Paige Browning, Alec Cowan and Kristin Leong report. (KUOW)

A Judge Rebuked Illegal RCMP Tactics at Fairy Creek. They Continue
B.C.’s Supreme Court delivered “precedent setting” comments last week slamming RCMP tactics at the Fairy Creek blockades against old-growth logging, according to legal experts. Justice Douglas Thompson laid out in sharp detail why the court found unlawful the force’s use of “exclusion zones” to place certain areas off limits to protesters, members of the media and observers. Zoe Yunker reports. (The Tyee)

Anti-pipeline activists mark one year of treetop occupation in Burnaby
Protesters have been living in tree houses to block the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. Michelle Gomez reports. (CBC)

Coastal GasLink Spills More Contaminants in Wet’suwet’en Territory
For the second time in a little over a year, the Office of the Wet’suwet’en is asking why it wasn’t immediately notified after 1,000 litres of contaminants were spilled on the nation’s traditional territory at a Coastal GasLink pipeline work camp. Amanda Follett Hosgood reports. (The Tyee) RCMP Has Spent Almost $20 Million Policing Wet’suwet’en Territory  Costs include almost $6 million in the last fiscal year. But local residents say police presence has been reduced. Amanda Follett Hosgood reports. (The Tyee)

Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  232 AM PDT Tue Aug 17 2021   
TODAY  W wind to 10 kt becoming NW in the afternoon. Wind waves  2 ft or less. W swell 8 ft at 9 seconds. 
TONIGHT  W wind 10 to 20 kt becoming SW to 10 kt after  midnight. Wind waves 1 to 3 ft subsiding to 1 ft or less after  midnight. W swell 7 ft at 9 seconds.

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