Northwest Environmental News and Upcoming Events

Rising gas prices, crowded buses, concern for the environment, and the desire to squeeze in a workout are motivating more people to commute by bike. Here's what you need to know if you're thinking about joining them.

Craig Skipton traverses the concrete walkways of Ballard's Hiram Chittenden Locks nearly every working day, with bicycle in tow. The link to Magnolia proves convenient for the bike commuter on his way downtown, as he joins thousands of people using pedal power to get to work.

If it's a nice day, engineering consultant Ben Kerbaugh will hop on his bike in Northeast Seattle and head to his Redmond office at Medtronic, a 17.5-mile ride that's largely on the Burke-Gilman and Sammamish River trails. "It sure beats sitting in traffic," he says.

In May, many more will give the two-wheeled commute a try, cajoled by their office mates to try it during "National Bike Month," a promotion by the League of American Bicyclists. The event swells daily bike commuting from an estimated 6,000 in winter to 13,000 people in summer locally, according to Chris Cameron, director of bicycle commuting for Cascade Bicycle Club. Municipalities and organizations like Cascade promote the event, which includes a month-long "bike to work challenge" that has 11,000 riders on 800 corporate teams, and Bike to Work Day on Friday, May 16, where morning commuters -- 19,000 of them last year -- are greeted by free coffee and energy bars on popular routes.

Read the rest of the story at Crosscut

May 5, 2008

Connect the dots to save orcas, salmon

Most people realize that saving Puget Sound's beloved resident orca whales depends on saving the Sound itself, removing the toxic chemicals that are killing the whales, preventing oil spills, and restoring the orcas' essential food, salmon.

But it may be news that our local orcas also depend on restoring salmon runs in the Columbia River Basin. Recent reports of the dramatic declines in West Coast salmon populations make this connection between the mighty Columbia and Snake rivers and our endangered orcas all the more crucial to examine.

April 29, 2008

Scientists: Rescue plan for Sound falls short

New blueprint neglects stormwater, critics say

For a quarter-century, government agencies have been birthing plans to rescue ecologically ailing Puget Sound. They didn't work.

And neither will the latest blueprint, a brand-new stab at the task unveiled by a brand-new agency that fails to deal with the biggest source of pollutants entering the Sound, leading scientists charged on Friday.

That pollution source is stormwater, the fetid mixture flowing off streets and parking lots and other hard surfaces, carrying oil, pesticides, antifreeze, pet waste and so much more into the Sound and its tributaries.

The Puget Sound Partnership's 43-page "internal discussion draft" on how to start cleaning up the waters of Puget Sound devotes just one tentative paragraph to what scientists advising the agency identified as the best solution: "low-impact development."

That involves steps such as "green roofs" that soak up rainwater, "rain gardens" that intercept water before it flows onto hard surfaces, cisterns and porous pavement that allows rainwater to soak into the ground.

None is mentioned in the draft paper, surprising even the group of scientists whose expertise the Partnership supposedly tapped to produce the report. They leveled their critique Friday at a meeting of about 180 scientists, regulators and activists at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center

Nutrition grants meant to help Washington schools, farmers

Public schools would be allowed to pay more for Washington produce as part of a new law promoted as a way to improve child nutrition while supporting Evergreen State farmers.
"It's a tremendous opportunity for us. We just need to connect with our farmers. ... It's great for kids to learn where food comes from - not from a can or a box," said Lisa Chatterton, a dietitian and nutrition service supervisor for the Franklin Pierce School District in Parkland.

The Washington Environmental Council and others lobbied for the "Local Farms-Healthy Kids" legislation as a way to foster good health, plus support agriculture and sustainable living.

The $1.5 million measure provides $570,000 in school nutrition grants beginning next fall. But some school nutrition managers are skeptical about whether the law will change what children eat in school.

Read the complete story at the News Tribune

Our travel habits are changing - Northwesterners are buying less gas

Like a frog who slowly permits himself to cook because the water only slowly comes to a boil, people in the rural Pacific Northwest have remained relatively quiet in the face of painfully escalating gasoline prices.

It was only four years ago when gas prices controversially broke the $2 a gallon threshold, a psychological barrier that unleashed a spasm of hand wringing and angry denunciations. Now, the Oregon average exceeds $3.50 for regular - and is considerably higher here on the coast. It is easy to imagine surpassing the $4 mark by Memorial Day weekend.

What happened? Where is the outrage as oil companies tap record profits?

Aside from simple fatigued feelings that mere citizen irritation will achieve nothing in the way of meaningful action from the White House and Congress, Northwesterners are responding to higher prices with that most time-honored capitalist tool - we are buying less.

If a report by Seattle's Sightline Institute is to be believed, residents of Oregon, Washington and Idaho are buying 11 percent less gasoline per person now than in 1999, the equivalent of every motorist in the Northwest taking five weeks off from driving each year.

Sightline chalks this up to more people using mass transit, buying more fuel-efficient vehicles, living closer to their jobs and simply driving less.

See the complete story at the Daily Astorian

Earth Share of Washington - News