Building a stronger, more just & transparent democracy
Building a stronger, more just & transparent democracy
Sorted by date Results 1 - 11 of 11
MOUNT VERNON - When a brand-new wedding venue opened up next door to longtime cattle rancher Terry Sapp's place, he saw the potential for serious, perhaps literal, rain-on-parade incidents. Farming chores the Skagit County farmer used to do anytime he needed - pumping manure or moving cows from pasture to pasture - created a range of problems for wedding guests and the occasional bridal couple, even though the land they stood on had long been designated for farmers....
With wildfire season already underway in Western Washington, the state's Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz said firefighters are better equipped to handle more intense wildfires across the state. During a visit to Whatcom and Skagit counties this week, where she sat down for an interview with Cascadia Daily News, Franz focused on the environmental challenges the Department of Natural Resources has faced through her tenure - like wildfires - and her approach to solving...
No concrete plans exist to transport Tokitae, the Southern Resident orca currently housed at the Miami Seaquarium, back to Washington waters, federal agencies said this week. In late March this year, leaders at the seaquarium, alongside Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay and members of the environmental nonprofit Friends of Toki, announced ambitious plans to move the orca from a pen at the seaquarium back to waters in the Pacific Northwest, the natural habitat of Southern...
As demand on the electric grid continues to rise and state mandates on clean energy use inch closer, utility providers are scrambling to find alternative storage options for clean energy products. The Washington Clean Energy Transformation Act requires the state's electricity supply to be free from greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, marking a significant shift from traditional coal, oil and gas. But in order to reach that goal, companies need to find ways to make clean energy p...
The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has canceled the two remaining finfish net-pen aquaculture leases in Puget Sound, officials announced Monday night. The two leases, one in Rich Passage off Bainbridge Island and one off Hope Island in Skagit Bay, are owned by Cooke Aquaculture. Net-pen aquaculture continues to be controversial in Washington, where the farming system is considered "high risk" because of the possibility of failure, according to the Canad...
The Aleutian Isle fishing vessel has been removed from the waters off San Juan Island after 39 days, the U.S. Coast Guard announced Thursday night. Efforts to recover the vessel, which was under more than 250 feet of water in the Haro Strait, were complicated by environmental concerns and short diving windows. "We are so pleased to see the vessel safely out of the water," USCG Commander Kira Moody wrote in an announcement. "The unique environment of the San Juan Islands and...
The waters around Whidbey Island will be dyed red Monday, Sept. 12, to allow the state Department of Health (DOH) to study wastewater movement in the region. DOH will be working in the waters beginning Friday and will remain until Sept. 14 to analyze wastewater movement near the Oak Harbor Clean Water Facility (CWF). Waters around the facility, which opened its doors in 2019, were supposed to be evaluated three years ago, but technology issues and the COVID-19 pandemic delayed studies. The red dye, rhodamine, is fluorescent...
Ten days after it sank, the Aleutian Isle is still on the seafloor. The 49-foot fishing vessel, which sank off the west coast of San Juan Island on Aug. 13, is sitting in waters around 200 feet deep. Specialized gear will be required to remove it. Salvage crews are waiting for equipment from Seattle to begin the process, which will require a crane and a barge to lift it off the seafloor. Representatives from the Unified Command, made up of the United States Coast Guard...
Though there are no confirmed sightings of Asian giant hornets yet this year, scientists and entomologists from the Washington Department of Agriculture (WSDA) were ready to talk about new research related to the massive bugs during a training session in Birch Bay State Park Tuesday. The training session was designed to teach attendees about the trapping, tracking and eradication of the invasive hornets. Among the small group of trainees: Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. "I'm here...
The King County Superior Court jury awarded the Lummi Nation close to $600,000 in damages Wednesday over the 2017 collapse of an Atlantic salmon net pen in Puget Sound. The collapsed net pen, owned by Cooke Aquaculture Pacific LLC, triggered statewide studies, new regulations and bans on farming non-native fish when it collapsed five years ago, releasing close to a quarter-million Atlantic salmon into the sea near Skagit County. When the nets failed, between 243,000 and...
The latest addition to the Southern Resident orca J pod has been identified as a girl, according to observers from the Center for Whale Research (CWR). This orca, the first calf born in the pod since September 2020, was first seen in early March and is named J59. Last week, researchers with the CWR observed the pod. The orcas were "very socially active with lots of splashing and horsing around," according to a post on the group's blog. "J37 was pushing her new calf around and...
