1/11 Shaw Island vole, Strait weapons training, climate costs, BC salmon fishery, Budd Inlet cleanup, Teck Metals, local journalism

 

Townsend's vole [J. Maughn/WikiCommons]

Shaw Island Townsend's vole Microtus townsendii pugeti
This subspecies of Microtus townsendii occurs on at least 16 islands in the San Juan Archipelago.  Museum specimens from the late 1930s to the 1960s exist from Allen, Cypress, Deception, Dot, Frost, Guemes, Lopez, Orcas, Saddlebag, San Juan, Shaw, Sucia, and Turn islands in San Juan and Skagit counties. Island residents reported voles present on Henry and McConnel islands in the late 1960s. Surveys conducted in 2012 and 2014 confirmed presence on Lopez, Orcas, San Juan, and North Finger islands, but did not detect them on Blakely, Vendovi, or Waldron islands. Recent surveys on other islands have not been conducted and population status is unknown. (WDFW)

Canadian military to resume weapons training in Juan de Fuca Strait
The firing range known as Whiskey Hotel is a 30-kilometre-long and 11-kilometre-wide swath of water between Sooke and Port Renfrew, about a kilometre off land, where the Canadian and U.S. navies and coast guards practise using sea surface and aerial machine-guns and other small weaponry. Darron Kloster reports. (Times Colonist)

Extreme weather, fueled by climate change, cost the U.S. $165 billion in 2022
A town-flattening hurricane in Florida. Catastrophic flooding in eastern Kentucky. Crippling heatwaves in the Northeast and West. A historic megadrought. The United States endured 18 separate disasters in 2022 whose damages exceeded $1 billion, with the total coming to $165 billion, according to a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The annual report from the nation's premier meteorological institution highlights a troubling trend: Extreme weather events, fueled by human-caused climate change, are occurring at a higher frequency with an increased cost — in dollars and lives. Nathan Rott reports. (NPR) 

Who gets to fish for B.C. salmon in the future?
The West Coast’s commercial salmon fleet is clearly in the midst of transformative change. Ottawa has shuttered approximately 60 per cent of B.C.’s commercial fisheries since 2021 and last month launched a licence buyback program to lure fish harvesters to exit the industry to protect plummeting salmon stocks. What’s less evident is who will remain on the water with access to salmon as the federal government reshapes the industry that was once the backbone of the coast. Rochelle Baker reports. (Vancouver Sun)

EPA approves Budd Inlet water cleanup plan
(News Release) Last month, the Washington Department of Ecology received approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its water quality cleanup plan for Budd Inlet. The plan addresses decades-old problems associated with low dissolved oxygen that have threatened fish and wildlife in the waterway at the southern edge of Puget Sound. The water quality plan sets a “total maximum daily load,” or TMDL, controlling how much nutrient pollution can enter Budd Inlet each day. The single most important action for improving water quality in Budd Inlet is removing the Capitol Lake dam. (WA Dept of Ecology)

Canadian mining company Teck Metals fined $2.2M for polluting B.C. river
Teck's operations in B.C.'s West Kootenay leaked pollutants into Columbia River in 2019: Environment Canada. (The Canadian Press)  See also: A Canadian mining giant has long been fighting U.S. pollution rules. Now Montana is on its side. Montana’s about-face on pollution standards includes letting B.C.'s Teck Resources pen a petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Francesca Fionda reports. (The Narwhal)

AG Ferguson, Sen. Mullet, Rep. Pollet propose legislation to support local journalism
(News Release) Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced today that he is partnering with Sen. Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah, and Rep. Gerry Pollet, D- Seattle, to propose a bill in the next legislative session to exempt Washington newspapers and eligible online news outlets from the state business and occupation tax. Newspapers currently pay a reduced B&O tax rate, but that preferential tax rate expires in July of 2024. Consistent with the Legislative Auditor’s recommendation, Senate Bill 5199/House Bill 1206 expands the preference to fully eliminate the B&O tax for newspaper publishers and printers. This legislation also extends the same rate to exclusively online news outlets that provide a similar public benefit as printed papers. (Washington Attorney General Office)

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Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  253 AM PST Wed Jan 11 2023   
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 2 PM PST THIS AFTERNOON 
GALE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 2 PM PST THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH  THURSDAY MORNING   
TODAY  SE wind 10 to 20 kt becoming E 15 to 25 kt in the  afternoon. Wind waves 2 to 4 ft. W swell 10 ft at 12 seconds. A  slight chance of showers in the morning then a chance of rain in  the afternoon. 
TONIGHT  E wind 20 to 30 kt rising to 25 to 35 kt after  midnight. Combined seas 10 to 12 ft with a dominant period of  11 seconds. Rain.

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