Earth Share of Washington - News

State turned a vital corner on path to clean energy

Editorial by KC Golden of Earth Share organization Climate Solutions, courtesy of the Seattle P-I.

Washington's transition to a clean energy economy shifted into high gear this year with an impressive package of forward-looking legislation coming out of Olympia. Bipartisan majorities delivered clean cars, high-performance buildings, efficient equipment and solar energy incentives.

The timing couldn't be better. These clean energy policies will help us reduce the economic and military costs of oil imports, which ...Read the full story

May 31, 2005 | Comments Off

Seattle Green Map Launched to Celebrate World Environment Day

Online Map Provides a "Living Resource for a Sustainable Seattle"

(Seattle) - On June 2, a coalition of grassroots organizations and individuals will launch the Seattle Green Map, a cutting-edge, web-based map providing residents and visitors with the city's first-ever interactive tool to discover all things "green" and sustainable about the Emerald City.

Seattle Green Map (a coalition of eight non-profit organizations) and City Councilmember Richard Conlin will hold a press conference announcing the launch of the first Seattle Green Map at 10:00 am in the B...Read the full story

May 27, 2005 | Comments Off

Parched Salmon

We love our fish. Not only is the salmon a cultural icon in the Pacific Northwest, it has become a touchstone to nature for a lot of people. Perhaps it's proximity. Spawning steelhead and salmon migrate right through the heart of metropolitan Seattle. After climbing the fish ladders of the Ballard Locks, they swim through lakes Union and Washington to return to the rivers and tributaries where they began life. In normal circumstances, about one egg in 1,000 survives to complete the cycle. In times of drought, the odds drop, especially when tributaries that fish use for spawning begin to dry...Read the full story

May 26, 2005 | Comments Off

Changes to Environmental Policy Act Threaten National Forests

Imagine this scenario - one of your favorite trails passes through a stand of 80-year-old Douglas fir or cedar on its way to the summit. You enjoy this little section for the dappled forest light, the clean water in the stream running alongside the trail, the ferns and lichens growing on the rocks all around you. It's a forest idyll, a prelude to wherever you're headed. The next time you go there, a lot of the trees have flagging tape tied around them. And the next time, they're gone.

Welcome to the bad old days. In the past, land managers could log and mine on National Forests with...Read the full story

May 25, 2005 | Comments Off

New global wind map may pinpoint better locations for power production

Stanford researchers have produced a new map that pinpoints where the world's winds are fast enough to produce power. The map may help planners place turbines in locations that maximize power harnessed from winds and provide widely available low-cost energy. After analyzing more than 8,000 wind-speed measurements to identify the world's wind-power potential for the first time, Cristina Archer, a former postdoctoral fellow, and Mark Z. Jacobson, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, suggest that wind captured at specific locations, if even partially harnessed, can ge...Read the full story

May 23, 2005 | Comments Off

Stroking the Columbia

An aquatic epiphany

Christopher D. Swain, an average man by his own description, discovered how interconnected we are with nature and how badly we treat her by swimming the Columbia River (largest river flowing into the Pacific Ocean in North-America). Here is the first hand account of his trial:

ON JUNE 4, 2002, I jumped into the Canadian headwaters of the Columbia River, and took the first strokes that would carry me to the Pacific Ocean. No-one predicted success. I was not rich, I was not a scientist, and I was not a fas...Read the full story

May 20, 2005 | Comments Off

Cascade Land Conservancy Unveils 100 Year Preservation Plan

$7 billion plan would preserve 1.3 million acres in 4 counties

Two years ago, a handful of people sat around a table brainstorming ways to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Olmsted plan that gave Seattle its most beloved parks.

Former Mayor Charles Royer remembers marveling at the people who stared out over the mudflats and imagined a beautiful city with lush, green refuges and tree-lined boulevards.

The group decided the best way to honor that far-reaching vision was to emulate it -- by figuring out how to conserve enough land to protect the re...Read the full story

May 19, 2005 | Comments Off

Mount St. Helens erupting with new life 25 years later

MOUNT ST. HELENS - The rainbow trout flexed and flopped as Charlie Crisafulli scraped a few scales from its side with a knife.

"The fish are very large this year," he said, before releasing the 5-pounder back to its watery home.

When Crisafulli first ventured onto the moonscape left behind by Mount St. Helens' May 18, 1980, eruption, Spirit Lake was lifeless. His discovery of a single lupine growing near its shores two years later was cause for wonder.

Now, as the U.S. Forest Service ecologist begins his 25th season...Read the full story

May 18, 2005 | Comments Off

U.S. Senate Transportation Vote Holds Victory for Trails

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy Helps Shield Program from Devastating Cuts

Washington, D.C. May 18, 2005-In a landslide victory, the U.S. Senate rejected Amendment 646 May 17, protecting Transportation Enhancements (TE) funding. Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) rallied support for the TE program - the largest source of trail funding - by garnering support from trail enthusiasts across the nation.

Amendment 646, introduced by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), proposed to cut the $295 billion surface tra...Read the full story

May 17, 2005 | Comments Off

Meager chinook run leaves fishing industry high and dry

PORTLAND - Fertilizer salesman Rex Harke had planned to take 12 of his most loyal clients on a salmon-fishing expedition down the Columbia River this week.

Usually at this time, the spring chinook are charging up the river in the tens of thousands, heading from the Pacific Ocean to their spawning beds.

But in a phenomenon that has puzzled environmentalists and government biologists, this season the fish have failed to appear. The low numbers prompted officials to halt sport and commercial fishing on the river - and Harke reluctantly called his guide...Read the full story

May 12, 2005 | Comments Off

New legislation to protect working farms across the state

Bill adds new category to highly acclaimed Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program

Olympia - Legislation signed into law by Gov. Christine Gregoire will provide significant new funds for farmland protection, helping local communities around the state preserve and enhance working farms for generations to come.

The farmland protection provision, passed by the legislature last month as SB5396, adds a new category to the highly acclaimed Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program (WWRP), the first major amendment to the program since...Read the full story

May 10, 2005 | Comments Off

Forest Service Strips Protections For Roadless Forests

Final Rule Caters to Logging, Mining and Drilling Interests and Ignores Public Support for protections

Seattle, WA - Local conservation organizations reacted today in opposition to the Forest Service's decision to strip protections for National Forest roadless areas. The Forest Service announced final regulations repealing the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which prohibited most road-building and resource extraction on 58.5 million acres of National Forests, including more than 2 million acres in Washington State.

"Once again the Bush Administration ...Read the full story

May 9, 2005 | Comments Off

How to Make Solar Powerful

By guest contributor Richard Feldman of Worker Center, the economic and workforce development division of the King County Labor Council, AFL-CIO, originally published in the Cascadia Scorecard Weblog.

This Friday, Governor Gregoire will sign a number of environmental and clean energy bills passed during Washington State's stellar legislative session, including SB 5101. Denis Hayes, former director of the federal Solar Energy Research Institute and current President ...Read the full story

May 5, 2005 | Comments Off

Part 2 - Scientists fault state habitat plan

Inky water runs out of the showerhead, drenching the man in the camera's eye. Filthy rivulets cascade over his forehead, gurgle over his eyelids, snake down his nose and onto his lips.

Then the scene switches to a babbling forest brook, pure and clear.

"Private forest landowners, like you, know the importance of water in our everyday lives. That's why we've committed to forest practices that ensure cool, clean water on private forestlands for years to come."

The TV spots have been airing for years now, paid for by big timber companies in Washington. Their qu...Read the full story

May 5, 2005 | Comments Off

Part 1 - Flaws in habitat conservation plans threaten scores of species

The federal government is handing out licenses to kill endangered species.

Hundreds of exemptions to the Endangered Species Act have been issued nationwide since the mid-1990s, covering some of America's most sensitive lands.

The deals being cut are perfectly legal. Many last for decades. And they are helping push creatures to the brink of extinction, conservation biologists and other critics say.

Agencies entrusted to protect animals have allowed driving on Florida beaches where threatened sea turtles nest, the electrocution of rare birds on security fences at Calif...Read the full story

May 3, 2005 | Comments Off