Puget Sound | Olympic Peninsula Environmental News

Jamestown S’Klallam proceeding with Dungeness Spit Aquaculture Permit

Posted on September 28, 2019 by Al Bergstein

Clallam County Department of Community Development has published that the Jamestown S’Klallam have applied to restart their permit application for an aquaculture permit inside the Dungeness Spit Wildlife Refuge. This highly controversial application has drawn criticism from the Refuge manager, in a detailed response to the previous application. (See below) Critics of the application have stated that any non Tribal organization wishing to seek to establish this kind of operation within a refuge would run into serious opposition from conservation organizations, and likely Tribes as well, but due to this being put forward by the Tribe, criticism has been muted. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. With shorebird populations in decline, especially those using Protection Island and feeding underwater in this very location, it’s hard to understand how this will be allowed. Then there is the growing problems of ocean acidification and the European Green Crab invading not far to the west of this spot. Could the State perhaps offer a trade off of shoreline to protect the Refuge?

DCD have tentatively scheduled the Public Hearing before the Clallam County Hearing Examiner for this matter for Thursday November 21, 2019 at 1 p.m..

More can be found at

http://websrv2.clallam.net/tm_bin/tmw_cmd.pl?tmw_cmd=StatusViewCase&shl_caseno=SHR2017-00011&projectcasetag=Y

Also this web site has published the letter of concern from the Refuge Manager.

Concerns raised over Dungeness Spit oyster farm application

As stated by the Department of Interior letter, “The shores and tidelands in this area provide some of the most important wildlife habitat and supports the highest density of waterfowl and shorebirds within the refuge….These shorelines also support one of the largest Brandt haul out sites in the state of Washington….Shorebird densities are highest within the action area and the adjacent lagoon on Graveyard Spit.”

“Human-caused wildlife disturbance and habitat loss are two of the most pervasive threats to shorebird and waterfowl use of the Salish Sea….very little information is available on entrapment resulting from aquaculture structures.”

The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe (JST) wants to proceed with the application after the Government to Government meeting with U.S. Fish & Wildlife (USFW). In a letter dated August 6, 2019

U.S.F.W rescinded their previous letter dated May 22, 2019 (See item B1.83 & B2.1 below for more information).

DCD will be providing notice and a SEPA threshold determination in the next couple of weeks.

We have tentatively scheduled the Public Hearing before the Clallam County Hearing Examiner for this matter for Thursday November 21, 2019 at 1 p.m..

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“The era of gradualism in environmental activism is over.”New York Times

Posted on September 28, 2019 by Al Bergstein

For many years now we’ve watched as right wing conservative donors like the Koch brothers have funded anti-environmentalist organizations that worked to undermine the message of scientists that were warning us about the impending climate change of the planet. Now a new generation of concerned wealthy people are helping to fund a new wave of climate change activists. They are abandoning the traditional environmental organizations that have been trying to find a moderate slow-go approach to an extreme problem. That is now changing right in front of our eyes, as we have seen in the last two weeks with millions of people from around the planet protesting to do something more radical about climate change. It couldn’t happen a moment to soon. Expect more in the future. Anyone here on the Peninsula want to discuss supporting these kind of activities here?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/27/climate/climate-change-protests-funding.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Filed under: Environmental Activism, Global Warming, Puget Sound | Tagged: Puget Sound | 1 Comment »

Mr. Rogers and teaching kids about climate change

Posted on September 27, 2019 by Al Bergstein

While this blog publishes a lot of articles that can be quite depressing when placed in context, I feel a need to make sure that we here on the Peninsula get the big picture. You the reader can edit them out yourself. However, there is discussion I’ve heard about being positive, especially for younger audiences, tailoring the message. That is a good idea. Greta Thurnberg is championing waking up the teens. But as she said, she suffered from depression when coming to grips with it. No one in her family or school apparently understood how to communicate the message to her.

This article in Grist, below, and also the recent documentary film about Fred Rogers (not the Tom Hanks movie) are worth considering.

My goal, when talking to anyone about climate change, is to establish rapport that

It is here and happening now, not something coming in the future. Younger audiences can be told how we are the beginning of weather changes that they will continue to see as they grow up. And that they can do things, to help make the changes go better.
Focus on what people can do. Children like being included. Pick up trash on the beach, don’t throw bags in the water, etc. Small things build their ability to understand larger things later.
Ask adults what they think they can do that could make a difference. Fly less? Drive less? Become more politically active?

Fred Rogers was a master of communicating hard news to children. In fact, as the movie states, “He was radical”. His taking on issues of assassination, death, violence and divorce, were well thought out and researched in advance. I recommend this movie to anyone that teaches young children. If you never really gave Mr. Rogers any thought, this will be an eye opener.

Grist also just published the following article.

Life as an outdoor educator might seem like it’s all fun and games — romping around outside, playing games, looking at bugs — until it comes to talking to 9-year-olds about climate change.

“They want to talk about it, but it can be hard sometimes,” Ian Schooley said with a laugh. He spent four years teaching visiting fourth and fifth graders at the Pacific Science Center’s Mercer Slough Environmental Education Center about the wetland ecosystems just outside of Seattle. Wetlands are a unique habitat that filters water, sucks up carbon dioxide, and protects our coasts — but the triple threat of sea-level rise, pollution, and development is putting them at risk.

https://grist.org/article/when-teaching-kids-about-climate-change-dont-be-a-downer/?utm_source=Sightline%20Institute&utm_medium=web-email&utm_campaign=Sightline%20News%20Selections

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Humans’ role in climate change, oil and gas industry lawyer says ‘that ship has sailed’ – Wa Post

Posted on September 27, 2019 by Al Bergstein

The Washington Post got ahold of closed door comments by the a top Petroleum industry executive. This shows that the industry is well aware of their role in this climate emergency, and that they are not assuming the Trump agenda is lasting or helping them.

The burning of petroleum accounted for 45 percent of the United States’ energy-related carbon emissions last year, according to the Energy Information Administration, while natural-gas burning contributed 31 percent.

In a closed-door meeting of oil and gas executives this summer in Colorado Springs, industry lawyer Mark Barron offered a bold proposal: Energy companies must accept that fossil fuels are helping to drive climate change. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s real, or not real, or what the issues are,” said Barron, who heads the energy litigation arm of Baker Hostetler. “That ship has sailed from a political perspective.” Barron added that any American younger than 40 had grown up learning that climate change is “an existential crisis that we need to address.” The recording of the June 24 meeting of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), which was obtained by The Washington Post, highlights a growing schism between the Trump administration and key players in the fossil fuel industry. Even as Trump officials work to repeal federal restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions, some oil and gas executives say they have no choice but to press forward with plans to address climate change. Juliet Ellperin reports. (Washington Post)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/when-it-comes-to-acknowledging-humans-role-in-climate-change-oil-and-gas-industry-lawyer-says-that-ship-has-sailed/2019/09/26/63c0d250-c9c2-11e9-a4f3-c081a126de70_story.html

Filed under: Climate Change, Puget Sound | Tagged: Puget Sound | 2 Comments »

State releases plan for protecting the marbled murrelet

Posted on September 27, 2019 by Al Bergstein

The highly contentious ongoing story of the State’s attempt to protect the endangered marbled murrelet continues. Whether this attempt will be successfull, it’s the first real movement since interim plan of 1997. As the article points out, there is a timber revenue stream at stake, and the enviromentalists following this point out that it’s likely not enough to save the bird long term. I must say, having been over in Skagit valley in the last year, the arguement that they need more timber to harvest seems absurd, in that their mills are seemingly being buried under mounds of raw logs waiting to be milled. I saw a stack of logs about 4 stories high when I drove by, the largest I had seen in decades. So I would question their acting like they were being starved for logs. Of course, there is a revenue stream if you simply cut everything, but that isn’t the answer to saving the bird. The question is constantly asked, “What is the value of wildlife?” Is an answer to that, “That’s the wrong question.” Maybe we should be asking, “Why must everything have a value assigned to it?”

After two decades of studying a small bird called the marbled murrelet that is found in coastal habitats of Washington including in Skagit County, the state has released a new management plan for the species. The management plan was drafted by and applies to lands managed by the state Department of Natural Resources. It is the outcome of a multiyear environmental impact statement, or EIS, process that weighed options for protecting the bird and supporting the state’s timber industry. The marbled murrelet is federally listed as threatened due to the loss of coastal forest habitat where it nests and raises its young. The once-abundant species is now estimated to be down to about 6,000 in the state, according to a news release. Kimberly Cauvel reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

State releases plan for protecting the marbled murrelet

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State presents proposed cleanup plan for abandoned Rayonier site – PDN

Posted on September 27, 2019 by Al Bergstein

The ongoing story of the cleanup of the environmental superfund site in PA. This site sits just east of the downtown, you can reach it as you take the walkway east from the port area. The hope and goal is to reclaim this for future generations.

Creation of open space for potential — though only occasional — use is included in a proposed cleanup strategy for the abandoned, still-polluted Rayonier pulp mill site and adjacent Port Angeles Harbor. The voluminous three-part study, and options it includes for the 75-acre industrial parcel east of downtown Port Angeles, were presented Wednesday at an Olympic Medical Center meeting room where some participants wanted more than that…To address soil pollution, 10 acres would be excavated to 1 foot deep and 0.5 acres to more than 1 foot. An additional 10 acres would be capped. To address groundwater pollution, air sparging — or the injection of air to disperse pollutants — would be employed to oxidize ammonia and metals in phases starting near the shoreline. To address sediment pollution in Rayonier’s portion of the harbor cleanup area — several other parties including the Port of Port Angeles are cleaning the western harbor — a log pond near a soon-to-be-removed 4-acre dock would be dredged. Sand, silt and gravel would be used as fill for dredged areas and berth and approach areas. It and the remainder of a sediment remediation area would be topped by a sand layer “to address sediment contamination and to provide suitable habitat,” according to the Volume 3 report. Cleanup costs of $24 million under the proposed plan will be borne by the land owner, Jacksonville, Fla.-based Rayonier Advanced Materials. Paul Gottlieb reports. (Peninsula Daily News)

State presents proposed cleanup plan for abandoned Rayonier site

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Local gun facility sited in Spokane article

Posted on September 26, 2019 by Al Bergstein

Interesting article helping to put the controversy over the firing range here at Tarboo Lake into a larger context. I’ll leave it to the reader to draw their own conclusions.

“An apocalyptic book series shows the type of society Rep. Matt Shea and his allies dream of rebuilding”

Today, Overstreet is an attorney for Security Services Northwest and Fort Discovery, two organizations run by a Joe D’Amico — a man who’s been tangled up with various legal and regulatory battles in Jefferson County for nearly 15 years. The latest conflict stems from D’Amico’s planned Cedar Hills Recreational Facility, a proposed 40-acre gun range and recreational facility on the Olympic Peninsula.

And at first, a group of property owners opposing the project formed the Tarboo Ridge Coalition, simply worried about the disruption from guns and helicopters.

But then, Tarboo President Scott Freeman says, his nephew stumbled across the 299 Days series. And they figured out that Tate had clearly based the character “Joe Tantori” on Joe D’Amico.

“Very, very quickly we realized the issue was much deeper,” Freeman says.

https://www.inlander.com/spokane/an-apocalyptic-book-series-shows-the-type-of-society-rep-matt-shea-and-his-allies-dream-of-rebuilding/Content?oid=18345627&fbclid=IwAR2FQ-bYcCyqitLytHF6LQwo5WXIZBeh8Ntj8WFGDh7lK5VzjtNN0fLdJfM

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17 States Sue Feds Over Endangered Species Act Rules – AP

Posted on September 26, 2019 by Al Bergstein

Perhaps we should consider the cost benefit analysis of saving humans.I don’t think we would be allowed to be saved if all species on this planet would be able to cast a vote for or against us.

Seventeen states sued the Trump administration Wednesday to block rules weakening the Endangered Species Act, saying the changes would make it tougher to protect wildlife even in the midst of a global extinction crisis. The lawsuit, in federal court in San Francisco, follows a similar challenge filed last month by several environmental groups, including the Humane Society and the Sierra Club. The new rules begin taking effect Thursday. They for the first time allow officials to consider how much it would cost to save a species. They also remove blanket protections for animals newly listed as threatened and make it easier for creatures to be removed from the protected list…The states challenging Trump’s rules are California, Massachusetts, Maryland, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. The District of Columbia and New York City were also named as plaintiffs. Gene Johnson report. (Associated Press)

17 States Sue Feds Over Endangered Species Act Rules

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Fisheries disaster money after ‘Blob’ just now being disbursed as new marine heatwave looms – Seattle Times

Posted on September 26, 2019 by Al Bergstein

It’s sad that it’s taken the federal government three years to get this money to the fishermen who needed it back then. Why can’t our federal government work faster? Why don’t we demand it do so! Now, we face another marine heatwave. Can our commercial fisheries withstand another financial hit, with the Feds taking so long to come through?

The marine heatwave known as “The Blob” wreaked havoc on Northwest fisheries during 2015 and 2016, Ron Warren, fish policy director for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, told a Senate committee Wednesday. And before the federal government could even provide disaster relief for that event, another marine heatwave loomed, he said. The Blob stoked marine temperatures nearly 7 degrees higher than normal, according to his testimony. Fewer coho salmon returned. Those that did return were smaller. Fisheries had to be closed. Gov. Jay Inslee and representatives of several tribal governments in 2016 requested millions of dollars in federal fishing disaster funds to help offset the losses to fishing communities. Now, more than three years later, the fishing disaster money has only just arrived from the feds, Warren told senators. Evan Bush and Hal Bernton report. (Seattle Times)

Fisheries disaster money after ‘Blob’ just now being disbursed as new marine heatwave looms

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The IPCC Sea-Level-Rise Report: The Oceans Are Breaking – The Atlantic

Posted on September 25, 2019 by Al Bergstein

This is our future if we don’t act now.

And this ecological upheaval of climate change is not limited to the seas. “Many glaciers, particularly in Washington State and the Mountain West, will disappear within the next decade and—at the latest—within a century,” said Regine Hock, an author of the report and a geophysicist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, at a press conference this week. That has implications for water security across huge portions of the American West: Phoenix and Los Angeles both rely, to some extent, on water from mountain glaciers.

Sea-level rise will become unmanageable, and life will flee the world’s tropical oceans, if carbon pollution keeps rising, a new report from the UN climate panel says.
— Read on www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/09/ipcc-sea-level-rise-report/598765/

and from the New York Times

Written by more than 100 international experts and based on more than 7,000 studies, the report is the most extensive look to date at the effects of climate change on oceans, ice sheets, mountain snowpack and permafrost.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/climate/climate-change-oceans-united-nations.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

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New UN Climate Report – Oceans rising faster

Posted on September 25, 2019 by Al Bergstein

For those of us who live on costs around the world the news could hardly be worse. The future of virtually every coastal city and more than 2 billion people around the world are going to be significantly impacted this century and perhaps as soon as mid century if the worst case scenario continues to play out as they seem to be every time a new report comes out.The planet is looking for leadership from China and the US and we have no one except a 16-year-old coming to our rescue at this moment. It’s up to us folks. There’s no one else going to lead us out of this mess. As far as Port Townsend and the Olympic Peninsula goes, we better be planning for alternative water sources, and significant changes to downtown planning in the near future. The likelihood of Water Street truly becoming a water street appears to be quite high.

The fate of our fisheries right here, as well as work being done on habitat restoration all around the Sound could be put at risk.

www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/09/25/new-un-climate-report-massive-change-already-here-worlds-oceans-frozen-regions/

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German coal mine expansion threatens to displace villagers, even as country charts green energy future | CBC Radio

Posted on September 23, 2019 by Al Bergstein

Interesting story comparing the various issues at play in Germany, the leader in renewable energy use.

A dozen or so historic villages in Germany are about to be swallowed up by open-pit coal mines in the coming years. Meanwhile, a neighbourhood in the city of Freiburg has forged its own reputation as a leader in energy conservation, solar power and green building standards.
— Read on www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-september-23-2019-1.5293685/german-coal-mine-expansion-threatens-to-displace-villagers-even-as-country-charts-green-energy-future-1.5291570

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Extreme Weather Displaced a Record 7 Million in First Half of 2019 – NY Times

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Al Bergstein

An interesting article by the New York Times documenting how many people have been displaced by climate change related weather in the first half of this year alone. The only question left to ask is, who’s next?

www.nytimes.com/2019/09/12/climate/extreme-weather-displacement.html

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