Pop Quiz: What Do You Think of Sightline?
Sightline's annual impact survey is drawing to a close tomorrow, so it's your last chance to give us your input and have a chance at one of our fantastic prizes!
Each year, we ask our readers to give us their feedback on how we're doing and what we could do better. We take this feedback seriously and use it to guide our work in the coming year. All it takes is 10-15 minutes of your time.Plus, we're offering 16 prizes, including $100 cash, 5 subscriptions to 41pounds.org (the service dedicated to stopping junk mail), and 10 copies of our climate handbook, Seven Wonders for a Cool Planet.
So, what are you waiting for? Hurry up and let us know what you think!
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No Net-free Network For Oregon
Oregon's attempt to establish a network of marine reserves -- an excellent idea -- appears to have sorta belly-flopped. Instead of the 20 marine protected areas proposed by conservationists, the state's Ocean Policy Advisory Council is recommending just two.
Unfortunately, two does not a network make. That's a shame because it's a network of reserves that yields the most meaningfuly environmental and economic benefits. Networks of reserves, where fishing is prohibited, allow fish stocks to thrive. That's obviously a benefit for the ocean ecosystem, but it's also a benefit for the fishing industry. The evidence on this matter is, in fact, pretty solid: setting aside no-fishing areas can actually increase fishing yields. When fish populations have core places to sustain them, they end up being more plentiful both inside and outside the protected areas.
It's good stuff, or it ought to be. But good ideas can run afoul of bad politics. As the Oregonian editorial board put it:
Marine biologists have convinced environmentalists, politicians, government regulators and newspaper editorial boards. In Oregon, though, scientists have failed to convince the commercial fishing industry and vocal parts of the communities supported by it.
...Oregon communities along the coast, already leery of marine reserves after an earlier such attempt when John Kitzhaber was governor, became inflamed with opposition to Kulongoski's idea during months of public discussion of it.
It really may be that is was mainly a batch of especially vocal and influential folks who weren't convinced.
Sightline Seeking Editor for our News Service
Sightline's just re-opened the search for a Sightline Daily editor. The full job posting is here.
Please send it to anyone you think would be interested and fits the bill--thanks!
In brief, we're looking for an editor
to manage this site's news service
and contribute to this blog as well. The ideal candidate will have 3-5 years of professional editing and reporting experience (preferably with some online experience),
solid news judgment, a thorough knowledge of Pacific Northwest issues,
and a talent for turning policy issues into compelling prose. Being a self-described news junkie who likes working on deadline in the early morning hours is also a big plus.
Sightline offers a terrific, flexible working environment with a competitive salary and top-notch benefits package.
Sightline Daily, founded as Tidepool.org in 1997 and relaunched as Sightline Daily in 2008, provides a daily digest of the Northwest news that matters to thousands of influential citizens across Cascadia, covering topics from affordable housing to human health and from natural resource issues to green jobs
The full job posting is here.
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