Join the hearing for Climate Change Action in Olympia – 1/16 in Olympia

Act on Climate: Governor Inslee is putting forward a comprehensive proposal to put a price on carbon pollution and invest in solutions, and you can show strength for the hearing on this bill set for next week on January 16.  Here’s how you can support climate action this week:

Where: Cherberg Building 304—15th Ave SW (*location for pre-hearing coffee still TBD)

When: Tuesday, January 16, meet us at 8:30am before the hearing for coffee, hearing starts at 10 a.m.

RSVP: RSVP here from Washington Environmental Council

Goodbye and thank you to Carol Burns – Northwest Filmmaker

On this 40th anniversary of the Boldt Decision, news has come that filmmaker Carol Burns passed away on April 22nd in Olympia. She was a young filmmaker when she documented the struggles of the native people around Tacoma and Olympia, including Billy Frank Jr. that led up to the legal challenge that became the Boldt Decision. Her film is the only known original documentary footage that tracked the tribal people who were being harassed and arrested along the rivers of that area. Her work will survive as the lasting documentary of that era, as many of the prinicipals have now died, or are elderly. I attempted to get a new, updated documentary done on this last year, talking to many people in Olympia and Seattle, but found no real interest in it among any of the agencies or peoples that were involved. No one had any desire to fund such an independent effort, including the State Historical Society. In ten more years,  the remaining people who could tell the story first person are likely to be gone. I understand that the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission has done video interviews with many of the original tribal participants, but not as a focused documentary film. Hopefully, somewhere down the road an enterprising filmmaker will go to them and work out a way to fund a project to relook at Boldt 40+ years after.

You can watch, “As Long As The Rivers Run” on the Internet Archive here:

https://archive.org/details/AsLongAsTheRiversRun

Part of Carol’s Obituary from the Olympian Newspaper:

Carol M. Burns was born in Olympia, Washington on February 19, 1939, and passed away April 22, 2014. Carol was well known in the Olympia area for her many contributions to the causes that were close to her heart. A filmmaker, she was one of the founders of Capital Area Community Television Association, now in its 32nd year, and known as TCTV. Her best known work is the 1970 film As Long As the Rivers Run, about one Indian family and their struggle to hold on to their treaty rights and traditional way of life. A memorial service will be held Saturday, May 10, 2014, at 12:00 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Olympia. 

Ecology budget squeeze: Efficiency or neglect? – Crosscut

Given the Department of Ecology backing of net pens against all opposition from elected local officials, scientists, and the population, perhaps it could be argued that they need to have their budgets cut. The question would be, from which department? Apparnently when one local elected official called on the new head of DOE, Maia Bellon, not long after she took office, she told him that her department couldn’t allow a ban on net pens in the counties Shoreline Master Program, that the issue had to be taken to the legislature. No one has ever said that before. Given that her department is one of the departments that approves in water aquaculture in the State, it was an odd statement. And she is getting paid how much to manage this organization? Given that even a nuclear power plant, a water dependent business, would have to be sited up off the waters edge, you would think that closed containment aquaculture could be also.

One potentially divisive piece of the Washington Senate-House budget talks is whether the Washington Department of Ecology faces significant cuts, including the potential closure of its Bellingham office. As with much of the rest of the state’s operating budget, the Republican-oriented Senate wants to trim part of Ecology’s budget for 2013-2015. The Senate’s Majority Coalition Caucus — an alliance of 23 Republicans and two Democrats — believes the ecology department has become too fat and should be trimmed to become more cost-effective. The ecology department disagrees. The Bellingham office plays a variety of roles, ranging from helping out in the response to the recent I-5 bridge collapse to working on the review of a proposed coal port north of the city.

John Stang reports.
http://crosscut.com/2013/05/30/olympia-2013/114703/ecology-budget-squeeze/

Oil Spill Responders Face Budget Cuts

Ed: Let’s hope there’s one thing we can get through this year-after-the-Gulf-Spill

1/14/11 Kitsap Sun -Oil Spill Responders Face Budget Cuts
By John Stang

OLYMPIA —
A major oil spill from a tanker ship in Puget Sound has the potential to be a bigger disaster than the one last year in the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, the Washington Department of Ecology section in charge of dealing with oil spills faces major budget cuts.

The Environment Committee of the state House of Representatives was briefed Friday about the state’s ability to deal with a massive oil spill in Puget Sound. Friday’s session was homework for when the committee will discuss — at a yet-to-be-scheduled date — a bill from state Rep. Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island, to improve the state’ capabilities to deal with a huge spill.

More at
http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2011/jan/14/oil-spill-responders-face-budget-cuts/

Money battles ahead for Wash. environmentalists

*1/15/11 Associated Press
Money battles ahead for Wash. environmentalists
By GEORGE TIBBITS – Associated Press

SEATTLE —
Along with every other interest group, environmentalists hope the programs they’ve fought for won’t be gutted as the Legislature again tries to fix a huge deficit.

Still, lobbyists and legislators say there might be a few modest victories and if nothing else, the chance to keep issues in the public eye during the session that opened Monday.

… One tactic environmental groups will use, said Bruce Wishart, policy director for People for Puget Sound, will be to promote user fees on industries that cause environmental problems as a way to take pressure off taxpayers.

“We will be coming in proactively with a number of polluter fees,” he said.

More at
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013945345_apwalegislatureenvironment1stldwritethru.html

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