Editor's Take: Top Story For May 09, 2008
Credit: UpNorth Memories/flickr
Salmon Fishing a Relic of the Past?
Today, the New York Times visits Southern Oregon’s coast to find out how salmon fisherman are going to make it through the summer. Some are giving up on their craft altogether and turning to other means of making a living. In Cascadia’s more remote fishing and logging towns, these are really hard times.
Editor's Top Picks
Your editor today is Kristin Kolb | View All Today's News
Salmon Gone, Fishermen Adapt
New York Times
05/09/2008
With most of Oregon and California's commercial salmon fishery shut down because of sharp declines in the number of the fish returning to the Sacramento River to spawn, many fishermen are looking for almost any alternative, trying to diversify along with the rest of the regional economy.
Go to article.
Millions for Timber Payments Added to Iraq Bill
Portland Oregonian
05/09/2008
The chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee has agreed to add $400 million for county payments to the must-pass Iraq war funding bill, giving rural communities in Oregon and beyond unexpected hope that federal aid could be delivered this year.
Go to article.
Olympia Food Bank Sees Jump in Demand
Olympia Olympian
05/09/2008
The number of individuals seeking help increased 27 percent to more than 17,000 in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period last year, food bank executive director Robert Coit said. The number of households seeking help rose 28 percent to more than 7,000, he said.
Go to article.
BC has Worst Child Poverty in Canada
Georgia Straight
05/09/2008
British Columbia holds the dubious record of having the worst child-poverty rate in the country for five consecutive years, from 2002 to 2006.
Go to article.
Sam Sullivan: We Must Care for Our Most Vulnerable
Toronto Globe and Mail
05/09/2008
You have all read about international surveys ranking Vancouver as one of the best places in the world to live, work and visit.
But for every one of those, you will also read about the social challenges of homelessness, drug addiction and mental health facing our city.
Go to article.
Backing off Biofuels
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
05/09/2008
Local officials behind the enthusiastic rush toward biofuels are tapping the brakes, thanks to mounting concerns about the impact on food supplies and the environment. Representatives of Seattle, King County and the University of Washington this week said they wanted to take a closer look at where the fuel comes from and what effect it's having on the planet.
Go to article.
Medford's H2O is No. 1
Medford Mail-Tribune
05/09/2008
Next time you take a swig of Medford tap water, appreciate the clarity of its color in the glass, the full-mouth feel, the mineral finish.
You're drinking an award winner.
Judges at the regional conference of the American Water Works Association said Medford has the best-tasting tap water in the Northwest.
Go to article.
Murrelet Populations Trend Down
Eureka Times-Standard
05/09/2008
Studies started in 2000 appear to show a decline in the population of federally protect marbled murrelets on the West Coast -- but not at the high end of earlier estimates, said a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wildlife biologist.
Go to article.
Montana Biologists Use Trout to Study Dam Removal
Missoula Missoulian
05/09/2008
State fisheries biologists implanted telemetry devices into seven more trout Thursday, the latest batch to be followed in a decade-long study of the biological impact of the removal of the Milltown Dam and the toxic mining wastes that accumulated behind it over the past century.
Go to article.
Wild Sky Wilderness Backers Celebrate
Everett Herald
05/09/2008
In July 2001, environmentalists, east Snohomish County residents and federal lawmakers marched along a path among old-growth trees near Troublesome Creek north of U.S. 2. It was a part of a tour to show off a wild area that some thought should be preserved forever.
On Thursday, most of those areas were added to Washington's protected areas.
Go to article.
Editor's Take: Top Story For May 08, 2008
Credit: murray.senate.gov
This Just In: Bush Signs Wild Sky
The Everett Herald breaks the news: Wild Sky Wilderness is a go! President Bush signed the bill into law this morning. It's the first new tract of wilderness -- 106,000 acres of it -- for Washington state in 24 years. Meanwhile, another wilderness plan is moving forward in Southern Oregon. Read about it in the Medford Mail-Tribune.
Editor's Top Picks
Your editor today is Kristin Kolb | View All Today's News
Bush Signs Wild Sky Into Law
Everett Herald
05/08/2008
President Bush signed legislation this morning to create the Wild Sky Wilderness, ending a nine-year political journey to provide tough federal protection on thousands of acres in eastern Snohomish County.
Go to article.
Soda Mountain Wilderness Bill Clears Committee
Medford Mail-Tribune
05/08/2008
A bill that would end cattle grazing while creating a wilderness area in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument was unanimously approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday.
Go to article.
Cascadia's Natural Environment Shaped Its Culture
Vancouver Sun
05/08/2008
Many say the Pacific Northwest is the home of the environmental movement.
It would be challenging to actually prove this claim, but the fact scholars and others think it suggests a lot about the power that the natural environment has had in shaping the culture of B.C., Washington and Oregon.
Go to article.
Free Energy Makeover in Missoula
Missoula Missoulian
05/08/2008
A plan to green up city blocks in Missoula will put some green in the pockets of residents, too.
The city will deliver to the power company eight blocks of customers ready to conserve energy. Instead of spending all its marketing money trying to reach those customers, NorthWestern spends some dough making those homes more efficient.
Go to article.
Victoria-area Plan Delivers Real Affordable Housing
Victoria Times Colonist
05/08/2008
Every 10th house built in suburban Victoria will be in reach of the average family under a new municipal affordable housing program.
Builders must construct one affordable house -- it must be sold for approximately $160,000 -- out of every 10 new houses built. That's in a market where single-family detached housing can't be found anywhere else in the region for less than $340,000.
Go to article.
Duwamish: We Are Not Extinct!
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
05/08/2008
The Duwamish -- the tribe of Chief Seattle -- is suing the federal government to reverse its determination that they are extinct as a people.
Go to article.
BC Natives Held Back from Growth
BC Local News
05/08/2008
First Nations on Vancouver Island -- and throughout British Columbia -- are getting restless. Everywhere there is prosperity, development, construction, high employment, except on their reserves. They want in, but are held back, they say, by the Indian Act and the slowness of land claims and treaty settlement, which combine to prevent access to the natural resources they believe are theirs.
Go to article.
German Solar Expert Sees Green Gaps in Oregon
Portland Oregonian
05/08/2008
When Gunter Erfurt left Germany to lead a solar company in Oregon, he left behind his biodiesel car, geothermal water heater and more. Now, ready to run a Hillsboro-based solar panel manufacturing plant, Erfurt sees how far behind Oregon lags.
Go to article.
Biomass Power: Grays Harbor Yay, Tacoma Nay
Aberdeen Daily World
05/07/2008
Offered the option of teaming up to be part of a new $100 million biomass generator that would burn wood waste, Tacoma Power decided against it.
The utility concluded that the risk of partnering with Simpson Investment Co. to be part of a new generator on the tideflats of Tacoma was too great and the power too expensive to add up to a benefit to the ratepayers.
Go to article.
Idaho Company Makes Millions from Toxic Waste
Boise Idaho Statesman
05/08/2008
The dump at Grand View, where tainted sand from Kuwait will be taken, stores hazardous material from government and industry.
Go to article.
Editor's Take: Top Story For May 07, 2008
Credit: Vancouver Columbian
Gas Prices and Transportation Choices
The Vancouver Columbian reports that traffic trends on local freeway bridges, consistently ticking upward for the past decade (8.5 percent over 10 years), dropped a startling 3.3 percent in March. At the same time, C-Tran ridership climbed 7.4 percent. Combining trips, carpooling, taking the train. The moral: Our driving habits are changing as gas prices rise.
Editor's Top Picks
Your editor today is Anna Fahey | View All Today's News
More Portland-Clark County Commuters Leave Cars Home
Vancouver Columbian
05/06/2008
With gas prices at record highs, Clark County and Portland drivers appear to have finally changed their habits.
Traffic across the Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 bridges, which has gradually ticked upward for most of the past decade, nudged down a fraction in February and dropped 3.3 percent in March, according to preliminary figures from the Oregon Department of Transportation.
Go to article.
Politicians Rethink Food-Based Ethanol
Christian Science Monitor
05/06/2008
Not too long ago, corn ethanol was being touted as the energy wave of the future for fighting global warming. It was said to be much better than coal and oil, those carbon-based sources of greenhouse-gas emissions.
But lately the drawbacks to this form of energy production have become more obvious, its critics more vocal, its supporters on the defensive.
Go to article.
B.C. Fish-Farm Critics Move Fight to Court
CBC BC
05/06/2008
Some of the most vociferous critics of fish farming on the West Coast say they will ask a B.C. court to prevent the provincial government from renewing leases on fish farms.
Alexandra Morton, a biologist, said she, an association of gillnetters and the Wilderness Tourism Association filed a petition Tuesday in B.C. Supreme Court.
Go to article.
800 More B.C. Mill Workers Out of Work
CBC BC
05/06/2008
Industry officials estimate 10,000 B.C. forestry workers have lost their jobs through mill shutdowns, down-time and lay-offs brought on by the downturn in the U.S. housing market over the past year.
Go to article.