May 14, 2008 - 04:30 AM
In late April a huge plume of bad stuff went down the Samish River and on out into Samish Bay. The levels of fecal coliforms at some locations were higher than ever recorded, and the Samish River and Bay have been measured often and for many years.
Shellfish harvesting in Samish Bay was halted for several days; much shellfish was recalled and destroyed. Fortunately the river and bay flushed themselves clean in a few days, as did the resident shellfish! No Name Slough and Padilla Bay…
May 07, 2008 - 07:00 AM
Yes! Your own certified
Wildlife Habitat, complete with official sign! Both the National Wildlife Foundation and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife provide checklists for what you need in your yard to qualify as a
Backyard Wildlife Habitat (NWF) or
Sanctuary (WDFW). You fix up your grounds to meet the checklist, submit an application and a few dollars, and you are in! Chances are you have seen lots of the signs already because at least two groups are very active…
April 30, 2008 - 02:33 PM
It must be a busy life to be a “planner”, either for a career or just as a volunteer. Now-a-days, public/customer awareness and participation is such a big part of and requirement for successful planning. The Internet gets all the information out and available readily. Public review meetings can be well attended with knowledgeable participants. Plans must be made, remade, reviewed, and challenged – sometimes by the whole world it seems! But that is usually good, planners need feedback!
April 23, 2008 - 06:30 AM
Quite a few things in the
Natural Skagit landscape are up for consideration and decisions: the dangerous big trees in Rockport State Park; new usage plans for the Anacortes Community Forest Lands; the selling of Puget Sound Energy; for examples. Keeps us busy paying attention. Good to see so many digging into these hard choices.
Speaking of
Digging In, I was at the Swinomish Earth Day celebration on Saturday with over 250 others and, as was mentioned often, it was a special…
April 16, 2008 - 08:01 AM
Quite a few pertinent tidbits of information have stacked up recently, so let’s clear that pile now!
First a correction: The requirement to house 80% of the projected county population gain in designated Urban Growth Areas is not required by the State Growth Management Act, as was wrongly stated in the April 9 NaturalSkagit blog posting. The specific number, 80%, is a Skagit county planning target.
Second a clarification: The West Coast Estuaries Initiatives…
April 09, 2008 - 11:09 AM
Here’s your assignment. There are about 115,000 people living in Skagit County. There were 80,000 18 years ago (1990), and the projection is for 150,000/165,000 18 years from now (2025.) Where shall the extra 40,000 live? Where will they work and how will they get around?
What will be the impact on Natural Skagit??? Well, the
Washington Growth Management Act (GMA) says 80% of the growth is to be accommodated by existing towns and cities and “urban growth areas” (UGAs)…
April 02, 2008 - 03:42 AM
A lot is going on this month, and there are many events and opportunities in the calendar below. But, if you have/know/are children, go to the
Children’s Museum in the Cascade Mall. It’s the grand opening and the Earth Month theme, with plenty to do! We got an advanced tour, and it is quite something!
I saw a letter to the editor in the Herald recently about
PUD #1 of Skagit County. It was taking the PUD to task over a number of items. This surprises me because during…
March 26, 2008 - 07:00 AM
The Skagit Land Trust held their annual meeting last Friday evening, March 21. That is a great event. Good food, inspiring reports, and unusual entertainment - Pat Buller showed eye-popping photographs taken on his quest to visit every body of water in the Skagit Watershed. (He is beyond 300 now, he said!) Among awards given is a yearly honor to an outstanding stewardship volunteer. This year that went to the
Sedro-Woolley High School Earth Corps Club! Among other notable activities, those…
March 19, 2008 - 06:00 AM
It has been a busy week for Natural Skagit news. Pharmaceuticals in the water (but not here), the disputed Chuckanut park district, a wetland mitigation bank proposal, septic system inspections … it’s good to see the public discourse,
keep it up. “Sprawl is happening in our own backyards, yet most people can’t name their local officials; you can bet that developers can. I saw this time and time again in covering local government: some horrible development erases an open space, and…
March 12, 2008 - 07:00 AM
Orcas and Steller Sea Lions are the only species listed as “Endangered” that regularly frequent our area! The Bald Eagle was completely delisted only about a year ago. “Threatened” species are Marbled Murrelet, Spotted owl, Puget Sound Chinook salmon, Puget Sound Steelhead, and Bull trout. (Full Wa. List here:
http://ecos.fws.gov/tess_public/StateListing.do?status=listed&state=WA The Federal…
March 05, 2008 - 09:44 AM
Imagine the Skagit area as a giant tapestry draped across the land. A richly woven and varied scene - but feeling constant tugs and pressures here and there. What holds this tapestry down and in place? Well, on the corners, with some mighty weight, are the
US National Park Service, The
Endangered Species Act, The
Clean Water Act, and the
Washington Growth Management Act. We are going to examine these a bit in further blog postings.
Some pretty big shoes have…
February 27, 2008 - 08:18 AM
Coming Home
Coming home,
the road descends at Conway hill
through dense forests of
alder, tall Douglas fir,
graceful hemlock and majestic Western red cedar.
The vast Skagit Valley comes into view
like a curtain drawn wide open
from the edge of the Cascade Mountains
to the marine-air haze
hovering over saltwater bays.
In the far distance, the San Juan Islands
like a chain of spectrolite gemstones
floating on the silver…
