Current Stories
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Salmon Crisis Threatens Ecology and Culture
Vancouver Sun
05/12/2008
Salmon don't hit the headlines as often out here on the West Coast as they did in the 1980s and '90s, when they were being overfished.
They ought to again, though, given what's now happening out in the Pacific Ocean and this region's rivers.
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Residential Schools Haunt Many
NPR
05/12/2008
For the government, it was a possible solution to the so-called Indian problem. For the tens of thousands of Indians who went to boarding schools, it's largely remembered as a time of abuse and desecration of culture.
The government still operates a handful of off-reservation boarding schools, but funding is in decline. Now many Native Americans are fighting to keep the schools open.
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Jumbo squid swims north, imperilling B.C. hake
Toronto Globe and Mail
05/12/2008
When British Columbia's hake fleet sets off to trawl the deep ocean off the West Coast later this month, crews will be on alert for a strange, voracious squid that is invading the north Pacific.
The Humboldt, or jumbo, squid is usually found off the coast of Mexico, but there is a heightened alert on the B.C. fishing grounds this year because the species has been making its way up the coast of North America, devastating hake stocks as it goes.
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Seattle fish-egg auctions net hundreds of millions
Anchorage Daily News
05/12/2008
The roe is considered a delicacy in Korea and Japan.
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Reservoirs low, despite heavy snows
Tacoma News Tribune
05/12/2008
Our mountains are our reservoirs. In Washington, as elsewhere in the American West, it’s axiomatic. A deep mountain snowpack equals plentiful downstream supplies of water for fish, irrigated crops, municipal drinking water and hydroelectric generators.
But what if the mountains don’t deliver on schedule? What if persistent cool weather holds snow on Cascade Mountain peaks weeks longer than normal? And what if spring rainfall falls short?
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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.
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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.
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Views: Kudos to Sightline's 'Seven Wonders'
Vancouver Sun
05/08/2008
Save the planet, wear a condom. Kind of catchy, don't you think? But it's not a slogan I ever expected to see.
Yet the humble prophylactic gets star billing in a new slim volume from Sierra Club Books, Seven Wonders for a Cool Planet.
The book by science writer Eric Sorenson and the staff of the Seattle-based Sightline Institute celebrates seven ordinary things that ascend to the status of the fabled hanging gardens of Babylon in the context of climate change.
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Cascadians: Shared Cultural Traits, Values
Vancouver Sun
05/07/2008
Residents of the region have a subtle separatist streak, and a passion for outdoor activity.
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Dream of Cohesive Cascadia Never Dies
Vancouver Sun
05/06/2008
Most advocates for Cascadia don't seriously think about creating a separate, free-standing nation. But they do talk a lot about what could come of closer political, cultural and economic ties.
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Ghosts of the Selkirks
Coeur d'Alene Press
04/28/2008
Idaho Fish and Game biologists try to unravel mystery behind shrinking Mountain Caribou population.
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Bad Beetles Move South of the Border
Boise Idaho Statesman
04/28/2008
After ravaging the Sawtooths, the insects threaten the Boise forest. Little can be done to stop them.
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Portland 'citizen scientist' coordinates online whale shark database
Portland Oregonian
04/28/2008
The photo identification system helps track the whereabouts of the mysterious species half a world away
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Commentary: Tuesday Is Earth Day: The drops of life
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
04/21/2008
Next year, the United Nations will release its assessment of global access to water in a report titled "Water in a Changing World." Here's an early headline: Forget oil. In part, because of global warming, future wars will be fought over water.
We tend to dismiss such talk in the Pacific Northwest; we take water for granted. For now.
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Bio-dynamic Farming Catching on in the Pacific NW
KUOW
04/11/2008
You might have noticed a new term on wine labels ... it's called bio–dynamic. The technique involves planting with the cycles of the moon, making nettle teas to spray on the vines and burying animal parts in the field. More than a dozen Northwest wine makers have adopted the unusual farming style. But other growers are skeptical it will yield better wine.
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Chinook Allocation Down 48 Percent
Juneau Empire
04/10/2008
The Pacific Salmon Commission allotted Southeast troll, seine, set and gillnet, and sport fishermen 170,000 king salmon, also known as chinook. The number is based on the abundance of fish. It is a reduction of about 48 percent from last year and the smallest allowable catch since the 1999 start of the Pacific Salmon Treaty, which the commission implements. The treaty covers British Columbia, Oregon and Washington, as well as Alaska.
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Deformed beaks mean slow starvation for region's birds; cause a mystery
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
03/31/2008
This "long-billed syndrome" has been recorded in about 160 birds by a Skagit County researcher, mostly in Western Washington and southern British Columbia and mostly since 2000. It's also documented in more than 2,100 birds in Alaska, where the phenomenon seems to have started affecting lots of birds in the early 1990s.
Researchers say the weird beaks appear to be concentrated in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, although reports are coming in from farther south -- from Southern California in one case earlier this month.
What's the cause? That remains a mystery. A small band of puzzled, poorly funded scientists is scrambling to find answers. Could it be chemicals? Something genetic? A disease? Maybe a combination?
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Sky-High Fuel Costs Hit Some Extra Hard
Seattle Times
03/20/2008
The struggle between staying competitive and making a profit is forcing many business owners to raise prices, turn down distant jobs or find creative ways to cut gas consumption.
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U.S. Pacific Fishing Industry Braces for Severe Salmon Restrictions
Prince George Citizen
03/18/2008
U.S. fisheries officials say a "bare bones" sport and commercial salmon fishing season is the best the West Coast can hope for this year.
Fisheries managers say they've already been forced to cancel the early season for chinook salmon fishing off the coast of Oregon and northern California because of a collapse of stocks in California rivers.
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North America's Indians Gather in Mexico in Bid to Save Planet
Indian Country Today
03/18/2008
Indians from Mexico, the United States and Canada gathered before dawn March 10 to light incense, pray and sing in the shadow of ancient Mayan pyramids, asking the contaminated earth for forgiveness.
More than 200 leaders from 71 American Indian nations were joining in this jungle town at a conference to offer indigenous wisdom about ways to save the polluted planet.
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When is a Tree Dead?
Eugene Register Guard
03/17/2008
A federal appeals court panel is deciding a question pivotal to salvage logging: When is a tree dead?
A lawsuit raising the question is pitting environmentalists against the U.S. Forest Service and could decide how the government is allowed to log old growth conifers burned by fire.
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Who's your city?
Toronto Globe and Mail
03/15/2008
Where we live matters more than we may think, says the man who made the “creative class” part of the lexicon. In his new book, Who's Your City? , Richard Florida examines how “mega-regions” are driving the global economy and how each one is informed by its own distinct personality. Where we choose to live, argues the director of the University of Toronto's Martin Prosperity Institute , is crucial not only to how we live and who we share our lives with, but also to what kind of career we end up having.
In this passage, he describes how this “geographic clustering” is dictated by five basic personality traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.
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NW national parks reel from storm damage
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
03/17/2008
Hundreds of trees blown down by winds exceeding 100 mph. Roads and campgrounds washed out by swollen rivers, leaving a foot-deep layer of silt and mud. On the backcountry trails, unknown scars to be repaired.
Winter storms have battered the Pacific Northwest's national parks each of the past two years, with damages in the millions of dollars. After last year's massive repairs to Mount Rainier National Park, the latest victim is Olympic National Park, where craggy alpine peaks, forested lowlands and miles of Pacific coast offer visitors the trifecta of a wilderness experience. (AP)
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Government will study protection for smelt
Tacoma News Tribune
03/14/2008
Federal officials plan to put together a scientific team to consider whether runs of smelt, a tiny fish that enjoys almost iconic status in Southwest Washington, deserve special protection.
A decision on whether to recommend listing smelt as vulnerable to extinction under the Endangered Species Act is expected in November, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
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