1/31 Black rockfish, Pebble Mine, Tongass NF, War in the Woods, Boundary Bay, Makah AF Station, crypto mining, Duwamish R

 

Black rockfish [Monterey Bay Aquarium]

Black rockfish Sebastes melanops
Black Rockfish range from Amchitka Island (in the Aleutian Islands) and Kodiak Island, Alaska, to northern Baja, California. They have been found at water depths up to 366 m (1,200 ft), but are most commonly found in waters shallower than 73 m (240 ft). This species is known to form large schools in and around rocks and kelp. Black Rockfish can grow up to 69 cm (27.6 in) in length, and 6 kg (13.3 lbs) in weight. Maximum age is at least 56 years old. (WDFW)

EPA blocks Alaska Pebble Mine in salmon-rich Bristol Bay region
The Environmental Protection Agency has blocked development of the Pebble Mine project in a corner of the Bristol Bay watershed, a vast and pristine swath of southwest Alaska that sustains the greatest sockeye salmon runs on the planet. The EPA decision made public Tuesday placed a key portion of land surrounding the Pebble deposit off-limits for use as a disposal site. Hal Bernton reports. (Seattle Times)

The U.S. reinstates road and logging restrictions on the largest national forest
A federal agency said Wednesday it is reinstating restrictions on road-building and logging on the country's largest national forest in southeast Alaska, the latest move in a long-running fight over the Tongass National Forest. (Associated Press)  See: Why new protections don’t eliminate threats to the Tongass National Forest Neveena Sadasivam reports. (Grist)

B.C.’s War in the Woods is entering a new phase. Will it be the last?
More than two years after the province promised to implement recommendations set out in the old-growth strategic review, big trees continue to fall. Review author Garry Merkel says changing B.C.'s forestry culture isn't easy. Arno Kopecky writes. (The Narwhal)

Ducks Unlimited project to boost Boundary Bay's climate resilience
King tides and rising sea levels have helped wash logs ashore in sensitive salt marshes in the shadow of the Boundary Bay Airport. There, the loose logs can crush vegetation “like rolling pins” to smother the delicate foreshore. Starting this week, Ducks Unlimited is hauling them out along the dike in Delta to help restore a larger area of salt marsh. Work on the project began this week, with excavators contracted to conduct the removal over the next several weeks. Derrick Penner reports. (Vancouver Sun)

Air Force to clean up station
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking public comment by Feb. 13 on a proposed corrective action plan from the U.S. Air Force for cleaning up soil and groundwater contaminated by underground fuel storage tanks at the former Makah Air Force Station in Neah Bay...Public notice of the corrective action plan is also on EPA’s website, www.epa.gov/publicnotices, which also provides an executive summary. Brian Gawley reports. (Peninsula Daily News)

Washington and Oregon may regulate the wild West of crypto mining
The targets for Oregon’s and Washington’s ambitious clean-air laws, which seek to phase out nonrenewable energy sources from the states’ power grid in the next couple of decades, are growing closer. In response, lobbyists and policymakers have begun to focus on ensuring crypto mining’s high electricity use doesn’t wind up contributing to fossil fuel emissions after the deadlines pass. Kaylee Tornay reports. (Investigate West/Crosscut)

The Duwamish River Restoration Efforts Are Really Coming Along
....The natural habitat that formed the landscape of the Duwamish for centuries before colonizers arrived has started to regrow, revealing a face of Seattle that hasn’t been seen in over a hundred years. And you’re invited to watch. Matt Baume writes. (The Stranger)

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Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  217 AM PST Tue Jan 31 2023   
TODAY  SE wind to 10 kt becoming S 5 to 15 kt in the afternoon.  Wind waves 1 to 2 ft. W swell 4 ft at 16 seconds. A chance of  rain. 
TONIGHT  SE wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 1 to 2 ft building to  2 to 4 ft after midnight. W swell 4 ft at 15 seconds. A chance of  rain.

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