Monthly News Archive:
April 2006
Table of Contents:
- U.S. Settles Rift With Canada on Lumber
- Stories of a Wildlife Rescue - "Caught in the Act"
- Scientists target salmon puzzle
- 25 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day Every Day
- Internet Visionaries Betting On Green Technology Boom
- Sims wants to boost sales tax to add buses
- The Emerging Environmental Majority
- "Green" Hiking in Washington
- Earth Saving Tips - Are Energy Vampires in Your Home?
- Bicyclists face rough ride in region
- EPA's Latest Toxics Release Data Show Continued Decline
- Columbia River salmon failing to show up
- Washington Trails Association nine favorite hikes for cascading waterfalls
- Puget Sound a toxic stew, scientists say
- Ocean salmon recovery is all about habitat
- Religious congregations going green in Northwest
- Utilities turning to green power
- Have Wildlife Questions? PAWS Has Answers!
U.S. Settles Rift With Canada on Lumber
TORONTO, April 27 -- Canada and the United States announced a tentative agreement Thursday to end a long-festering dispute over imports of Canadian lumber, and Washington said it would repay $4 billion of $5 billion in tariffs collected on lumber that have been hotly contested by Ottawa.
But the agreement, on a two-decade-old issue that has helped sour Canadian attitudes toward the United States, is unlikely to end the controversy. Political opponents in Canada lambasted the deal as a sellout, and critics immediately attacked the plan.
The Canadian ...Read the full story
April 28, 2006
Add Comments...Stories of a Wildlife Rescue - "Caught in the Act"
By Naturalist Kevin Mack from Earth Share organization PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, published in the April 26, 2006 edition of Wild Again
On March 18th I opened a cage door in the PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center exam room and beheld a very sad sight. A large, majestic bird was huddled at the back of the cage looking anything but dignified. Ordinarily standing over three feet tall, the bird had compressed himself to less than a foot in height. He held his rig...Read the full story
Scientists target salmon puzzle
Ocean devices will track habits
Scientists hope to unravel one of the great mysteries surrounding Northwest salmon by installing a network of sophisticated acoustic receivers off the coast to track fish as they journey thousands of miles through the Pacific Ocean.
The question: Where do they go and what do they do during the two or three years they spend in the ocean before returning to freshwater rivers and streams to spawn?
Eventually, the network could include 2,000 listening devices at 30 locations, stretching from Baja California to the Bering Sea...Read the full story
25 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day Every Day
These Earth Savings Tips are courtesy of Whole Foods Market
In honor of Earth Day, here are 25 simple ways you can "green" your life. Incorporate these easy tasks into your daily routine not only on Earth Day, but every day of the year. Give them a try...we think you'll find active environmental stewardship a breeze.
1. Think locally
Purchase locally grown or produced food when possible to support independent, local farms and the environment. The quality and flavor of food grown near your h...Read the full story
Internet Visionaries Betting On Green Technology Boom
Vast Market, Huge Profit Potential Beckon Investors
Bill Gates, John Doerr and Steve Case believed in the Internet long before Wall Street did. Now, they're betting on the next great "disruptive" technology: alternative fuels and other environmentally friendly products, but this time other investors aren't far behind.
Last year, AOL LLC founder Case launched Revolution LLC, which has invested in companies such as car-sharing service Flexcar that promote sustainable lifestyles. In November, Microsoft Inc. fo...Read the full story
Sims wants to boost sales tax to add buses
King County Executive Ron Sims is proposing a sales-tax increase for the November ballot in hopes of buying so many buses that riders won't even need a schedule.
The plan, nicknamed "Transit Now," promises Metro Transit runs between downtown Seattle and West Seattle, Ballard and Aurora Avenue North every 10 minutes, with equally frequent trips from Bellevue to Redmond and along Pacific Highway South.
Sims' office calls it the largest expansion of service in two decades.
If county voters pass the measure, Metro's share of sales taxes, currently 80 cents on every $100 ...Read the full story
The Emerging Environmental Majority
There's a thaw in relations between greens and hunters. It could heat up big-time over global warming.
Today's GOP-controlled Congress has shown itself to be no friend of the environment, but even by conservatives' own standards, last October's surprise was a standout. An amendment inserted at the last minute into a budget reconciliation bill would have opened up millions of acres of public lands, including tracts in national monuments and wilderness areas, to purchase by mining companies and other commercial interests. It was to be the big...Read the full story
"Green" Hiking in Washington
Washington Trails Association Offsets Climate Change Impacts with Green Tags
On Earth Day, our individual and collective environmental impacts get the spotlight, and this year they are not looking good. The World Meteorological Organization recently announced greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, which are blamed for global warming and climate change, have reached their highest-ever levels in the earth’s atmosphere, and show no signs of leveling off.
Washington Trails Association (WTA) supports environmentally preferred renewable energy sources, and has ...Read the full story
Earth Saving Tips - Are Energy Vampires in Your Home?
Green tips are provided by Earth Share of Washington organization, Union of Concerned Scientists
When you walk through your home at night with the lights off, chances are your path will still be lit by the eerie glow of “standby� lights and digital displays on various appliances and electronic devices. Because these devices are ready to operate or receive signals at all times, they act like vampires silently sucking away energy even when they are turned “off.�
This wasted energy, known as standby or phantom energy loss, represen...Read the full story
Bicyclists face rough ride in region
Cycling club finds gaps in some area bike routes
Brad Severtson's 30-mile morning trip to work is both scenic and jarring.
Part of the way, the bicyclist enjoys paved shoulders and dedicated bike paths.
But there are stretches of potholed, narrow roads -- and always the chance of getting cut off by motorists and taking a nasty spill.
"The Burke-Gilman Trail is fabulous," said Severtson, 51, a programmer who often bikes from his Ballard home to Microsoft in Redmond. "But other than that, the network isn't as well-connected."
It's not e...Read the full story
EPA's Latest Toxics Release Data Show Continued Decline
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released its 2004 Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), which provides information on toxic chemicals used and released by utilities, refineries, chemical manufacturers, paper companies, and many other facilities across the nation. The TRI is compiled from data submitted to EPA by industry and the states.
The 2004 TRI data indicates a decrease of 18 million pounds of chemical releases as compared with 2003. A total of 381.8 million pounds of...Read the full story
Columbia River salmon failing to show up
PORTLAND — For the second straight year, the spring chinook salmon that normally leap by the thousands up the fish ladders of Bonneville Dam toward spawning grounds are virtually absent.
Fishery experts say the run has been late before, but it's off to such a weak start that a Columbia River Indian tribe had to haul some of last year's salmon out of the freezer last weekend for its traditional "First Foods" ceremony that marks the return of the fish.
As of Tuesday, 135 adult chinook had been counted at the dam. The 10-year average at this point, whi...Read the full story
Washington Trails Association nine favorite hikes for cascading waterfalls
In Washington’s deep and gloomy woods (and also in its arid, rolling hills), you’ll find an abundance of falling water, from subtle cascading streams to thundering falls that shake the stones to their foundations. In fact, our mountains - the Cascades - are named for the multitudes of falling waters you’ll find here.
One of the joys of waterfall viewing in the Northwest is that you’ll always find at least one flowing any time of year. Some are perennial, falling year-round. Others are seasonal. Some stream from glaciers heating in the summer sun, some are fed by winter rains, and ot...Read the full story
Puget Sound a toxic stew, scientists say
Residents, business, government all to blame, forum told
Fireproof salmon, fish dosed with anti-depressants and shellfish tainted with amnesia-causing toxins can all be found in Puget Sound, researchers said Wednesday at a public forum.
"People need to be mad as hell about this situation, but they aren't," said Brad Ack, head of the Puget Sound Action Team, a government agency. "We haven't gotten the message across."
Scientists gave sweeping overviews of the countless ways residents, businesses and government entities have fouled the Sound. They expl...Read the full story
Ocean salmon recovery is all about habitat
By Billy Frank, chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
A lot of misplaced anger will be directed at the Pacific Fishery Management Council as it meets in Sacramento this week to set ocean salmon fishing harvest levels. That's because the wrong people will be sitting across the table from representatives of thousands of fishermen and residents of coastal communities who will suffer because of poor land- and water-use decisions made on the Klamath River four years ago.
Those decisions in the Klamath River basin are the direct cause of the crisis now fac...Read the full story
Religious congregations going green in Northwest
PORTLAND (AP) - As ideas of green building grow in the Northwest, the concepts also are starting to take root within the congregations of churches, temples, and other religious gathering spaces.
Green building makes sense to congregations.
First, environmentally friendly, energy-efficient buildings fit within the concept of stewardship, or preserving the natural resources with which individuals are entrusted.
Second, as Julia Spence, a member of First Unitarian Church, said: “There are better ways for a church to spend money than on electric...Read the full story
Utilities turning to green power
Energy Northwest is planning to expand its Nine Canyon Wind Project south of the Tri-Cities for a second time and appears to have enough interest to build a second project near Reardan.
Both may be contingent upon the public power consortium's ability to gain access to zero-interest federal bonds authorized for environmentally friendly power projects in last year's federal energy bill.
But interest in wind power, at least partly due to the prospect of a citizens initiative being approved this fall requiring large utilities to buy prescribed amounts of green power, has swelle...Read the full story
Have Wildlife Questions? PAWS Has Answers!
By Kevin Mack, PAWS Naturalist
Over the past few weeks you have likely noticed a change in the behavior of the wild animals on your property. Birds are singing and gathering nesting materials. Squirrels are chasing each other and peeling thin strips of bark off of trees. You may have been woken up in the night by snarling raccoons or the pitter-patter of little feet in your attic. The spring breeding season has arrived, and many species of wildlife are making the necessary preparations to bring the next generation into the world.
In the...Read the full story
