Monthly News Archive:
August 2007
Table of Contents:
- What it will take to save Puget Sound
- To go green in jet fuel, Boeing looks at algae
- Log airlift helps fish return to their roots
- A history of Lake Washington, one step at a time
- Mount Rainier National Park Briskly Recovering From Storms
- Tribes win ruling on salmon
- Giving everyone a sidewalk is no walk in the park
- Where did that food come from? Your guess is as good as the label
- David Dicks to Head ‘Puget Sound Partnership'
- Apocalypse? Nah
- Living near work? Great idea, in theory
- A united effort, Clean Marina Program celebrates milestone
- Everett's man-made Jetty Island is all about nature
- Pratt River fans try to protect it as wilderness
- Warming Draws Evangelicals Into Environmentalist Fold
What it will take to save Puget Sound
BREMERTON -- In a year, the Puget Sound Partnership must come forward with an Action Agenda — essentially a blueprint for the restoration of Puget Sound.
It seems that everyone agrees it is a daunting task, but volunteers are already lining up to help, as was demonstrated Thursday near the beginning of a two-day meeting in Bremerton.
"We're done testifying; we're ready to start work," Mike Racine of the Washington Scuba Alliance told the partnership's Leadership Council. "We can share our first-hand knowledge of what we see and don't see (under Puge...Read the full story
August 31, 2007
Add Comments...To go green in jet fuel, Boeing looks at algae
Once reluctant to believe that alternative energy made any sense in jet airplanes, Boeing now ponders how to take the biofuels revolution off the ground.
The world's largest airplane maker is working with fuel developers from around the world to find the holy grail of alternative fuels: one that will shrink jet flight's substantial environmental footprint without requiring an overhaul of the world's existing airplane fleet.
"Two years ago, we were quite skeptical of this whole area, because we thought there were too many challenges," said Bill Glover, environmental-strategy ...Read the full story
Log airlift helps fish return to their roots
The logs added to the Stillaguamish River delta will help restore lost habitat.
STANWOOD — The sprawling Stillaguamish River delta once was covered with toppled old-growth trees ripped out of mountain soil and washed down the river by raging winter floods.
The giant logs would clump together and their roots would tangle, creating areas for young salmon to hide and forage before they headed out to sea.
Those big old trees are gone now, leaving the delta devoid of anything but mud and grass. Salmon, especially endangered chin...Read the full story
A history of Lake Washington, one step at a time
First of four parts: It's been done before and written up, but historian Lorraine McConaghy wanted to circumnavigate metro Seattle's vast urban lake on her own terms, to soak up the past by lingering in the present. At her pedestrian pace, she saw and felt a great deal of change.
I originally decided to go for a long walk to clear my head. That's what vacations are for, and this year we weren't going to be able to get away. Rob was very busy with a new job and didn't want to talk about camping in British Columbia or hiking in Oregon. But I had set a week aside at the end of...Read the full story
Mount Rainier National Park Briskly Recovering From Storms
Unprecedented numbers of volunteers are helping paid contractors rebuild trails, campgrounds, and roads in Mount Rainier National Park. Storm damage closed the iconic park for six months this past winter and spring. Now, the pace of recovery is delightfully brisk. Correspondent Tom Banse reports.
Torrential rains and flooding last November cut access to Mount Rainier from all sides. Step by step, the pieces are being put back together.
Kevin Bacher: "We are making tremendous progress. We had anticipated that we would probably get most of the work done this year. Some of the ...Read the full story
Tribes win ruling on salmon
State ordered to fix culverts for fish passage
The state has breached its duties to Indian tribes under treaties dating to the 1850s by failing to maintain the road system, cutting off salmon from spawning grounds and robbing tribes of fish they were promised, a federal judge in Seattle ruled Wednesday.
The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo Martinez puts the state under the gun for tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, of dollars' worth of repairs to culverts, the pipes that carry streams below roads.
It i...Read the full story
Giving everyone a sidewalk is no walk in the park
Jim Portillo walks in the roadway, just a few feet from passing cars, because there are no sidewalks along his Greenwood street. Portillo, 31, is blind.
Sweeping the area ahead left to right with a white cane, he avoids the roadway's gravel shoulder — if it exists at all — because ditches or parked cars frequently interrupt the path.
He shrugs and says he's been dealing with the danger for five years.
"There's not a lot of room between me and traffic," he says. "Every now and then you wonder about some drivers."
Forty percent of Seattle streets lack full side...Read the full story
Where did that food come from? Your guess is as good as the label
Law would streamline regulations -- if it passes
The apple-blackberry sauce sold widely in Seattle supermarkets, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture organic seal on the label, says it comes from Chino, Calif. It also says "Product of Canada."
So how do you know where it's from? You don't.
Dried banana chips are labeled as being from Sumner. But banana trees don't grow in Sumner. Peanut butter from Canada? There are no peanut farms in that country.
Congress passed a law in 2002 saying that consumers were to be tol...Read the full story
David Dicks to Head ‘Puget Sound Partnership'
OLYMPIA -- David Dicks, a Seattle environmental lawyer and son of U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, has been named the first executive director of the Puget Sound Partnership.
"David Dicks is an accomplished lawyer in the area of environmental law and has a strong connection to the Puget Sound," said Gov. Chris Gregoire in making the appointment. "Spending his childhood summers on Hood Canal has made David passionate about the protection of one of our state's most precious resources."
Gregoire said she expects Dicks' energy ...Read the full story
Apocalypse? Nah
It's been on every Seattle resident's lips for weeks: the horrible, terrifying prospect of losing two lanes of I-5, just south of downtown, for 19 consecutive days of major maintenance. The predictions were as uniform as they were dire: Gridlock! Pandemonium!! Traffic Armageddon!!!!
I'm barely exaggerating. Both major papers featured the lane closure in front page, above-the-fold articles. It was a top story in local TV news. And every single one of the stories carried the same storyline -- reducing traffic capacity was bound to be a nightmare for commuters. The Seattle P...Read the full story
Living near work? Great idea, in theory
On a warm weekday morning, the downtown sidewalks of Snoqualmie Ridge bustle with well-dressed residents. They enter the bank and grocery store. They walk past a nail salon and a corner spa offering discounts on Botox injections.
They grab their a.m. java, jump into cars and head to work.
Urban-village life.
Marketed as suburbia's answer to sprawl, three master-planned communities on the Eastside were once billed as places where residents could saunter down the street and show up to work a stone's throw from their doorsteps. Nearly a decade later, homes have sprouted...Read the full story
A united effort, Clean Marina Program celebrates milestone
This week, the Clean Marina Washington program, established in 2005 to recognize environmentally-friendly marinas in Washington, announces Deer Harbor Marina on Orcas Island as its 30th marina certification. Clean Marina staff will be available to answer questions about the program this Saturday, August 7 from 10am-2pm at the Port of Edmonds Marina National Marina Day celebration.
The Port of Edmonds earned the Clean Marina certification and the Clean Marina Leadership Award in January 2007. The marina is located at 336 Admiral Way in Edmonds, WA. <...Read the full story
Everett's man-made Jetty Island is all about nature
Tucked behind construction and boatyards, Everett has an island getaway. And you don't need to own a boat to get there. Just board the free, 80-person passenger ferry and step into a world of wildlife, sandy beaches, marsh grasses, a lagoon and sweeping views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains.
Jetty Island is home to more than 45 bird species, including: osprey; the Caspian tern; spotted, western and least sandpipers; killdeer; and the glaucous winged gull. Hawks and eagles can be spotted soaring high above as they search for fish. It's also common to see seals breaking the s...Read the full story
Pratt River fans try to protect it as wilderness
Reichert doesn't expect much opposition to plan
NORTH BEND -- Washington has scant federal wilderness acreage in lowland valleys or close to its urban core and little that hasn't involved political warfare between conservationists and industrial and private-property interests.
But Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., and a host of leaders of environmental and outdoor-recreation groups are optimistic about developing a plan to protect the wild Pratt River valley, less than 50 miles from downtown Seattle, and nearby lands along the South and ...Read the full story
Warming Draws Evangelicals Into Environmentalist Fold
LONGWOOD, Fla. -- At 8 on a Saturday morning, just as the heat was permeating this sprawling Orlando suburb, Denise Kirsop donned a white plastic moon suit and began sorting through the trash produced by Northland Church.
She and several fellow parishioners picked apart the garbage to analyze exactly how much and what kind of waste their megachurch produces, looking for ways to reduce the congregation's contribution to global warming.
"I prayed about it, and God really revealed to me that I had a passion about creation," said Kirsop, who has since t...Read the full story