Monthly News Archive:
June 2006
Table of Contents:
- Olympia's 'zero waste' plan advances
- Colorful coral seabeds a "breathtaking" discovery
- Endangered orcas return to Puget Sound with 2 babies
- Supreme Court to Hear Case on CO2 Regulation
- Washington's Top 10 Threatened Hiking Trails
- Seattle Family Goes Car-less To Save the Planet
- Report links suburban sprawl with health woes
- No easy solutions to die-off at Hood Canal
- Smaller budget chips away at Rainier
- After a slow start, spring chinook return in big numbers
- $17M deal to preserve land on Orcas Island
- Federal judge strikes down Hanford nuclear-waste initiative
- EPA plans to ban orchard pesticide
- Stormwater: A People Problem
- Gov. Gregoire honors Snohomish county's land preservation efforts
- Feds propose critical habitat for Puget Sound's orcas
- Timber industry gets exemption from endangered-species law
- Global Warming Could Significantly Disrupt Northwest Weather
Olympia's 'zero waste' plan advances
Advisers will spend a year plotting how to cut garbage, boost recycling
OLYMPIA - It's official: The capital city wants to recycle or reuse everything possible under a new vision that could affect the way people recycle and how much packaging they buy.
The City Council passed a "zero waste" resolution this week so everything used or sold in Olympia can be - and is - reused or recycled. The resolution sets no deadline.
"We talked about 20 years, 25 years, 30 years. How quickly can you implement programs, and how much are peop...Read the full story
June 29, 2006
Add Comments...Colorful coral seabeds a "breathtaking" discovery
Clinging to the seafloor of the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary is a candy-colored jungle: waving pink fans, giant yellow cups and slender, feathery-tipped creatures that look a bit like old fountain pens.
On an expedition off Washington's coast, government scientists for the first time have documented the most extensive collection of corals and sponges ever found in the vast ocean between California's sun-fed reefs and the deep coral gardens of western Alaska.
Researchers had known for about two years that there were unusual corals in Washington's ocean waters. But ...Read the full story
Endangered orcas return to Puget Sound with 2 babies
The endangered orca whales of Puget Sound have two new babies, bringing the southern resident population to 89.
K and L pods are back in the San Juan Islands from their winter travels, and each brought a baby in tow. "They look healthy. They apparently had a good winter. It looks like they all pulled through," said Kenneth Balcomb, director of the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor.
The K pod baby is estimated to be only a few weeks old. The L pod baby was probably born in the spring. Both appear to be very healthy, said Balcomb, who confirmed the sightings on Friday...Read the full story
Supreme Court to Hear Case on CO2 Regulation
The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider whether the Bush administration must regulate carbon dioxide to combat global warming, setting up what could be one of the court's most important decisions on the environment.
The decision means the court will address whether the administration's decision to rely on voluntary measures to combat climate change are legal under federal clean air laws.
"This is the whole ball of wax. This will determine whether the Environmental Protection Agency is to regulate greenhouse gases from cars and whether EPA can re...Read the full story
Washington's Top 10 Threatened Hiking Trails
As the hiking season kicks into full gear with the first day of summer, some of Washington’s most fantastic hiking trails are getting extra attention today with the release of Hike It – Ten Threatened Trails in Washington State. The new report by the state's leading hiking organization, Washington Trails Association (WTA), names the state's top 10 threatened hiking trails and offers common sense solutions to help them. The report encourages hikers to get out and experience the beauty and importance of these trails firsthand, and urges policymakers to act for their recovery and prot...Read the full story
Seattle Family Goes Car-less To Save the Planet
Article republished from CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 Blog
We hear so much about global warming, yet are often left wondering, "What can I do to help keep the earth cool?" Well, I met a family of five in Seattle that is living without a car for at least one year in order to help save the planet from global warming.
When 19-year-old Gary Durning totaled the family car, his parents made a deal with him and his two siblings. "If we did...Read the full story
Report links suburban sprawl with health woes
People who can walk to shops and services in their neighborhoods are more fit and less likely to die in car crashes.
That's the finding of a new report released today by the Sightline Institute (formerly Northwest Environment Watch) on sprawl and health in the Pacific Northwest.
The Cascadia Scorecard 2006, which looks at an area comprising British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and Idaho, also takes stock of the region's economy, population, energy, wildlife and pollution.
The link between obesity and the built environment is not new. In King County, public health off...Read the full story
No easy solutions to die-off at Hood Canal
UNION, Mason County — It's been three years since the last major die-off in Hood Canal, when thousands of sharks, sculpins, sea stars, octopi and other creatures suffocated in Hood Canal from lack of oxygen.
But that's not to say it has been an uneventful period.
Eelgrass beds — nurseries for crab and salmon — have declined more here than in the rest of Puget Sound. Bottom-dwelling rockfish continue to disappear. Algae blooms, which suck oxygen from the canal's deep waters, have become more common. And annual "bubbles" of low oxygen are growing, las...Read the full story
Smaller budget chips away at Rainier
Visitors will begin to see the impact of a shrinking budget at Mount Rainier National Park this summer. Park officials have cut visitor center hours, eliminated some campfire programs and guided hikes, and printed fewer free handouts because of a shrinking budget heading into the busiest time of year.
Since 1997, managers at Mount Rainier have planned on having $275,000 less for operational expenses each year, said Dave Uberuaga, superintendent of Mount Rainier National Park. They will continue to do so for the next five years.
“That $275,000 is a lot when you consider you c...Read the full story
After a slow start, spring chinook return in big numbers
124,000 salmon pass dam; 2005 count was 95,000
PORTLAND -- For a while, it looked like the Columbia River's spring chinook salmon run might give 2006 a miss. Fishing seasons were curtailed and tribal fisheries were reduced as fish biologists waited -- and waited -- for the fish to arrive at Bonneville Dam.
But then the fish arrived -- in bigger numbers than last year.
When the counting season closed on Wednesday nearly 124,000 chinook had passed the dam, more than the 88,000 expected and more than last year's return of 95,00...Read the full story
$17M deal to preserve land on Orcas Island
Turtleback Mountain, one of the most cherished and expansive landscapes in the San Juans, would be spared from development and opened to hikers if a $17 million sale goes through.
The Medina Foundation, a Seattle-based philanthropic organization, has decided to sell its private 1,578-acre tract on Orcas Island to a partnership of local and national conservation groups.
Although not the highest peak on Orcas, Turtleback has been the highest priority for conservationists, who for decades have talked about preserving it.
"Turtleback always has risen to the top not just ...Read the full story
Federal judge strikes down Hanford nuclear-waste initiative
A federal judge Monday struck down a voter-approved initiative that would have prohibited the federal government from shipping nuclear waste to Hanford, ruling the law unconstitutionally infringes on federal prerogatives.
The ruling isn't likely to change anything, at least anytime soon. Initiative 297 hasn't been enforced while the case was pending, and a different lawsuit has suspended waste shipments to Hanford for now.
I-297, approved by Washington voters in 2004 with more votes than any previous statewide measure, would have blocked a U.S. Depa...Read the full story
EPA plans to ban orchard pesticide
Citing health risks to farmworkers and the environment, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to phase out by 2010 one of the most widely used insecticides in the state's fruit orchards.
The insecticide is azinphos-methyl, a nerve poison that has been used in the orchards for decades to control coddling moths and other pests. The most extensive use is in apple orchards, where one survey found that it was sprayed on more than 70 percent of the acreage.
The EPA-proposed phaseout was spurred by a lawsuit filed in Read the full story
Stormwater: A People Problem
Reducing stormwater pollution is essential to saving Puget Sound, officials say, and local studies may point the way. You can help, too.
Strolling along Clear Creek Trail in Silverdale, water quality inspector Mindy Fohn lingered in a shady area where the stream flows through a culvert under Ridgetop Boulevard.
Somewhere around here, she said, the creek absorbs a slug of pollution so heavy that health officials have posted a caution sign: "Warning. Stream polluted. Stay out of stream."
Three nearby pipes are known to release polluted stormwater into ...Read the full story
Gov. Gregoire honors Snohomish county's land preservation efforts
EVERETT - Snohomish County's program to preserve farmland north of Arlington received a governor's award on Wednesday evening.
Gov. Chris Gregoire honored seven programs for creating livable communities in Washington. Wednesday's event in Tacoma marked the 15th anniversary of the state's Growth Management Act.
"I am pleased to recognize the important work our communities and their partners are doing to keep Washington a great place to live," Gregoire said.
Snohomish County received a special recognition award for the Transfer of Development ...Read the full story
Feds propose critical habitat for Puget Sound's orcas
Federal officials have proposed designating nearly all of northwest Washington's inland waters - about 2,500 square miles - as critical habitat for killer whales, the first major development since the creatures were listed as endangered last year.
Following a public comment period, the habitat designation could become official by the end of the year, the National Marine Fisheries Service said Friday in a news release. It would mean that within the outlined area, no federal activities can take place unless officials demonstrate that the habitat will not be harmed.
The propose...Read the full story
Timber industry gets exemption from endangered-species law
For the next half-century, Washington's timber industry will be shielded from Endangered Species Act prosecutions for harming salmon and four dozen other types of water creatures, the federal government declared Monday.
In exchange, the industry pledged to take steps to help salmon, such as leaving forests alongside streams on 9.3 million acres. That's one-fifth of the state, making it the largest such deal in the West.
But as speaker after speaker at a signing ceremony cited that figure -- 9.3 million acres protected -- none bothered to bring up the asterisk: Officials don'...Read the full story
Global Warming Could Significantly Disrupt Northwest Weather
For those harboring the guilty hope that global warming will transform Seattle into a sun lovers' paradise on par with the Côte d'Azur, meteorologist Cliff Mass has some bad news: It might actually get cloudier.
Mass and his colleagues at the University of Washington recently completed the most detailed computer simulation ever conducted of the region's future weather. Among the surprises was a big boost in cloud cover in March, April and May.
"The spring is going to be gunkier — if you believe this — under global warming," he said.
The model also predicts that the n...Read the full story
