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Washington State Department of Natural Resources bans all outdoor burning

With dangerously hot and dry weather driving fire danger to a new high, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is expanding the current statewide burn ban to cover all outdoor burning on all DNR-protected lands, with no exceptions, the agency announced today.

“All indicators are that we’ll continue to have high heat, low humidity, and storm systems with winds and lightning. That means huge potential for wildfires,” said Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark. “We need to do everything we can to minimize danger to people, homes and habitat.”

Hot and dry conditions since early summer have caused very high fire hazard conditions throughout the state. These conditions have caused fires to spread rapidly and challenged firefighting efforts. More than $91 million has been spent so far battling wildfires in 2014, and more than 350,000 acres have burned across the state. There are many weeks to go in this year’s fire season, which usually runs into October.

All outdoor burning on DNR-protected lands is prohibited under this ban, including recreational fires in campgrounds or anywhere on DNR-protected lands. Fireworks and incendiary devices, such as exploding targets, sky lanterns, or tracer ammunition, are illegal on all DNR-protected lands. Charcoal briquettes are also not allowed.

In addition, DNR urges extreme caution around any activity that may cause a fire to start. Under these severe fire-hazard conditions, logging operations, land clearing, road and utility right-of-way maintenance, use of spark-emitting equipment, and other activities that create a high risk of fire ignition should be drastically curtailed.

Those who negligently allow fire to spread or who knowingly place forestlands in danger of destruction or damage are subject to possible civil liabilities and criminal penalties under state law. DNR, as well as anyone harmed by such a fire, may pursue damages that include loss of property and fire suppression costs.

The statewide burn ban will run through September 30, 2014. It applies to all lands under DNR fire protection, which does not include federally owned lands.

Keystone XL will cause more pollution than originally estimated

By: Sara Palmer, Climate Connections

The U.S. state department claimed that the Keystone XL pipeline would increase world carbon emissions by 30 million tons. However, a recent study released by scientists from the Stockholm Environment Institute shows that number could be off – way off. Seth Borenstein writes in an article published by the Portland Press Herald:

The researchers estimate that the proposed pipeline, which would carry oil from tar sands in western Canada to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast, would increase world greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 121 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.,

The U.S. estimates didn’t take into account that the added oil from the pipeline would drop prices by about $3 a barrel, spurring consumption that would create more pollution, the researchers said.

Other scientists and organizations seem to be shrugging of this quadrupled number. The American Petroleum Institute (go figure) claimed that the study was pointless, because the pipeline itself would have nothing to do with the increase. Tar sands oil will reduce the price of oil per barrel, they claim, therefore increasing oil usage regardless of how it is transported. In his article, “Study: Keystone carbon pollution more than figured,” Borenstein interviews other scientists and academics all to happy to chime in their opinions:

Lower prices may be appealing at first, but there needs to be a balance between consumer happiness and environmental happiness, said Wesleyan University environmental economist Gary Yohe, who applauds the study’s findings.
A glass-half-empty perspective came from University of Sussex economist Richard Tol, who believes that 121 million is a “drop in the bucket” when compared to the 36 billion tons of carbon emissions released on 2013.
Ken Caldeira, Carnegie Institution of Washington, rode the fence, agreeing that 121 million tons is relatively small, but believes that we should be moving away from activities that boost carbon dioxide no matter the amount.
And, finally, independent energy economist Judith Dwarkin in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, blew off the study entirely, claiming that consumption of oil drives the price, not the other way around.

Whether millions or billions of carbon emissions, the Keystone XL pipeline will also damage a multitude of other environments. We need to see more studies that illustrate the whole impact of the pipeline and look at them as all interconnected, instead of relevant or irrelevant.

Native Americans rally to protect the Salish Sea

10341663_532813593514925_802681978943181012_n — Supporters raise their fists in solidarity to protect our Salish Sea, our Puget Sound waters. Photo: K. Kalliber

By Kim Kalliber, Tulalip News

Crowds of peaceful supporters came together at Seattle’s Sculpture Park on Monday, August 11, standing in solidarity to protect the Salish Sea and decrease oil train traffic in the Northwest. Proposed terminals include Cherry Point, located on the Lummi Nation’s sacred grounds.

After welcoming friends that arrived from water and land, members of the Duwamish tribe led the group in a healing song for the waters.

Native Americans, environmental groups and concerned citizens joined in the opposition with singing, dancing, prayer and strong words.

Water is one of the first things to go,” said Michael Evans, Snohomish Tribe of Indians Chairman. “We’ve already noticed that some of the fish are starting to die. If the fish can’t live in the fresh water, neither can man. We really need to pay attention to what we are doing to ourselves and to the land, it all affects the Salish Sea.”

One young supporter at the event said it was “all about Indian solidarity” and stressed the importance of standing together to oppose the increase of fossil fuels in our Puget Sound waters.

Monday’s rally was organized by Idle No More Washington, 350 Seattle, Protect the Sacred and Backbone Campaign.

How Ocean Chemistry Threatens The NW Oyster Industry

By: Kathryn Batstone-Boyd, Ben Stone, and Karina Ordell, OPB

NETARTS BAY, Ore. — Mark Wiegardt steps slowly through knee-high water, pausing over some jagged lumps of brown-gray shells with a bent flat-head screwdriver.

He picks up a clump of oysters and rests it on his thigh, stabbing and wrenching until the shellfish crack apart.

The creatures inside are more valuable than ever, so Wiegardt tries his best to make them look nice by bashing off the sharp edges.

Oysters are biologically simple. But nothing is simple about the water in which they live. The Pacific Northwest’s ocean chemistry is changing. A phenomenon known as ocean acidification has shocked the Northwest oyster industry, causing farmers and hatchery owners to modify decades-old ways of cultivating oysters and to reconsider the murky future of their industry.

“Our business has definitely been altered by this changing water chemistry,” Weigardt said.

He understands the concern surrounding ocean acidification better than almost anyone. Wiegardt’s a fourth-generation oyster farmer and one of the managers of Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery in Netarts Bay, Oregon.

Like many hatcheries on the West Coast, Whiskey Creek grows Pacific oysters — a Japanese species introduced to America in the early 1900s. Farmers grow oysters in enclosed waters connected to the ocean, known as estuaries. But the coastal waters of the Northwest are too cold for Pacific oysters to spawn naturally. So, oyster seed suppliers like Whiskey Creek act as incubators.

Whiskey Creek houses huge vats of seawater that serve as swimming pools for young oyster larvae to develop. When the larvae are mature enough, the hatchery packs them in balls of paper towels before sending them to independent oyster farmers along the coast.

The farmers take the oyster “seed” to their nurseries and dump it into giant tanks, where the larvae “set” onto vacant oyster shells. When they are mature enough, the farmers remove the shellfish from the tanks and chuck them into the bay. The oysters will stay here for a couple years, fattening up by filtering algae and other nutrients out of the water. Eventually, the farmers will return and gather their harvest so the full-grown oysters can be bagged and sold.

Why Are The Larvae Failing?

In the late summer of 2007, the oyster larvae at Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery didn’t make it to the bay. Without warning, the larvae began to fail by the millions inside the vats.

“Everything was dying. The larvae were pink. Every larva in the place was not feeding,” said Sue Cudd, owner of Whiskey Creek.

Whiskey Creek couldn’t supply its customers with seed. No one could understand why the larvae were dying.

Read: Acidifying Water Takes Toll On Northwest Shellfish

“The changes were so dramatic, we thought there was a very strong possibility that we were going to go out of business,” Wiegardt said.

A year after the first die-offs, Whiskey Creek engineer Alan Barton scrambled for clues explaining why Whiskey Creek’s methods were suddenly not working. Barton discovered that an upwelling of ocean water with unusually high acidity was corroding the oysters’ shells, causing the larvae to die while trying to form an exoskeleton. He was eventually able to stem the die-offs by adapting simple aquarium chemistry to equalize the pH in Whiskey Creek’s tanks.

Since then, Whiskey Creek has learned to sustain healthy brown larvae in its vat water with a system that constantly buffers the water. However, the effectiveness of buffer chemicals is limited to hatchery tubs.

The die-offs made 2007 a defining year for West Coast oyster farmers.

Hedging Bets In Hawaii

Kathleen Nisbet, a manager of Goose Point Oyster Company in Willapa Bay, saw the die-offs as a signal to change. In 2009, Goose Point began constructing its first oyster hatchery in Hilo, Hawaii, in order to lessen its dependence on hatcheries like Whiskey Creek, which draw water from the Northwestern tides. Though the Nisbets had long done business with Whiskey Creek, and still do, they felt they had to set themselves apart geographically to insulate their business from the acidic waters.

“I employ 70 employees; I’m responsible for 70 families. That’s a big deal to me,” Nisbet said. “I can’t just say, ‘We’ll figure it out.’ I’ve got people I have to feed and it was our responsibility to look at what we needed to do.”

But even as one crisis seems resolved, another one looms. There’s a new concern that mature oysters may soon be at risk. Roberto Quintana, an engineer at Ekone Oyster Company on Washington’s Willapa Bay, has begun to see health defects in oysters out in the bay that he can’t correlate with natural events.

“Last year was when I first heard some of the old-timers from around here who were like, ‘We don’t know what the hell happened,’” Quintana said.

There is no consensus on what to do if water chemistry in the bays turns inhospitable for mature oysters. Quintana says there are a few options: genetically engineer a more hardy oyster species; try to apply buffer chemicals directly into the bays; or perhaps just give oysters more time in their safe nursery tanks.

Can The Oyster Industry Survive?

But for some, the thought of such dramatic changes to old farming techniques makes them question the long-term survival of the Northwest oyster industry.

“Those are big, philosophical questions,” Jambor said. “Do you get out of this business because you think it’s going to go down in 30 years? I don’t know.”

Whiskey Creek’s Wiegardt, however, is not about to idly watch the Northwest oyster industry go down in his lifetime. In the last few years, he has travelled many times with other Northwest shellfish producers to Washington, D.C., to tell their stories and ask lawmakers to pay for monitoring stations that would measure the water’s acidity.

“Farmers in general, I think we all like to complain a little more than we should,” he said. “[But] any time you know a little bit about something that may have a huge impact, you need to communicate that.”

Wiegardt thinks he has been well received in the Capitol, and he accepts these trips as his responsibility to the small community of Northwestern oyster farmers who know each other by first name.

“It’s not all doom and gloom,” Wiegardt said. “We’re solving a problem here as we speak.”

Kathryn Batstone-Boyd, Karina Ordell and Ben Stone are students in the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication. This report was produced as a class project. Video produced by Batstone-Boyd; photography by Ordell; article written by Stone.

New Wave of GMO Crops Poised for Approval Despite Public Outcry

By: Leah Zerbe, Rodale News

Despite its own admission that it will cause an up to seven-fold increase in chemical pesticide use, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is poised to approve a new type of genetically engineered seed built to resist one of the most toxic weedkillers on the market.

USDA suggests approval of new GMO corn and soy seeds. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

Now, total approval hinges on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. If that federal body approves the new genetically modified organism (GMO), farmers will be free to plant corn and soy seeds genetically manipulated to live through sprayings of Dow’s Enlist Duo herbicide, a chemical cocktail containing both glyphosate and the antiquated, toxic chemical 2,4-D. Ironically, in the ’90s, chemical companies said the development of GMOs would eliminate the need to use older, more dangerous chemicals like 2,4-D. But as GMO use ramped up over the last few decades, chemical use increased, and many weeds are no longer responding to glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, and the current chemical of choice for GMO farmers. This has created a “superweed” crisis, creating millions of acres of U.S. fields infested with hard-to-kill weeds.

With this week’s USDA final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) suggesting approval of the new GMO, many public food and safety experts say the American public faces unprecedented risks. After all, current chemical use is so high that foods now actually contain “extreme” levels of glyphosate. Because it’s systemic, it actually winds up inside of food. Adding 2,4-D to the mix is even more concerning, given its ties to cancer.

“USDA’s announcement is an outrageous abdication of USDA’s responsibility to protect our health and our food supply. The Obama Administration has ignored the interests and demands of millions of Americans, Members of Congress, and scientists, farmers and health professionals,” says Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of Center for Food Safety.

Farmers are upset about the decision, too. “Weed resistance is a major problem for farmers and we need a solution. This decision shows that the only options USDA is willing to consider are ones that lead to increased profits for chemical companies. We need to get off the pesticide treadmill, not increase the speed,” says George Naylor, Center for Food Safety board member and Iowa corn and soybean farmer.

Suggested approval comes despite USDA’s acknowledgment that Dow’s crops will trigger a three- to seven-fold increase in agricultural use of 2,4-D, foster 2,4-D resistance in weeds and inhibit farmers’ use of non-chemical weed control methods. “USDA’s decision represents a huge setback for farmers and sustainable agriculture. Independent scientists have linked 2,4-D to cancer, Parkinson’s disease and other maladies,” says Bill Freese, science policy analyst at Center for Food Safety. “Introduction of 2,4-D- resistant corn and soybeans will dramatically increase use of this toxic herbicide, leading to more disease, environmental harm and increasingly intractable weeds for farmers.”

The adoption of this new generation of GMOs also threatens farmer’s market favorites like tomatoes, peppers, grapes (and wine!) and potaotes. Any 2,4-D drift could cause these crops to become mangled and deformed, or even outright kill them.

For more reasons to reject GMOs, check out the biggest GMO myths, busted.

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White students no longer to be majority in school

This photo taken July 21, 2014 shows Kennett Consolidated School District Superintendent Barry Tomasetti meeting with young students in teacher Jane Cornell's summer school class at Mary D. Lang Kindergarten Center in Kennett Square, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) — This photo taken July 21, 2014 shows Kennett Consolidated School District Superintendent Barry Tomasetti meeting with young students in teacher Jane Cornell’s summer school class at Mary D. Lang Kindergarten Center in Kennett Square, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

By KIMBERLY HEFLING Associated Press

KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. (AP) – The cheerful sign outside Jane Cornell’s summer school classroom in Pennsylvania’s wealthiest county says “Welcome” and “Bienvenidos” in polished handwriting.

Inside, giggling grade-schoolers who mostly come from homes where Spanish is the primary language worked on storytelling with a tale about a crocodile going to the dentist. The children and their classroom at the Mary D. Lang Kindergarten Center, near both mushroom farms and the borough’s bucolic red-brick downtown, are a subtle reminder of America’s changing school demographics.

For the first time ever, U.S. public schools are projected this fall to have more minority students than non-Hispanic whites enrolled, a shift largely fueled by growth in the number of Hispanic children.

Non-Hispanic white students are still expected to be the largest racial group in the public schools this year at 49.8 percent. But the National Center for Education Statistics says minority students, when added together, will now make up the majority.

About one-quarter of the minority students are Hispanic, 15 percent are black and 5 percent are Asian and Pacific Islanders. Biracial students and Native Americans make up a smaller share of the minority student population.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan called the changing population a seminal moment in education. “We can’t talk about other people’s children. These are our children,” he said.

The shift creates new academic realities, such as the need for more English language instruction, and cultural ones, meaning changes in school lunch menus to reflect students’ tastes.

But it also brings some complex societal questions that often fall to school systems to address, including issues of immigration, poverty, diversity and inequity.

The result, at times, is racial and ethnic tension.

In Louisiana in July, Jefferson Parish public school administrators reached an agreement with the federal government to end an investigation into discrimination against English language learners.

In May, police had to be called to a school in the Streamwood, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, to help break up a fight between Hispanic and black students after a racially based lunchroom brawl got out of control.

Issues of race and ethnicity in school can also be more subtle.

In the Kennett Consolidated School District, Superintendent Barry Tomasetti described parents who opt to send their kids to private schools across the border in Delaware after touring diverse classrooms. Other families, he said, seek out the district’s diverse schools “because they realize it’s not a homogenous world out there.”

The changes in the district, about an hour southwest outside of Philadelphia, from mostly middle-to-upper class white to about 40 percent Hispanic was driven partly by workers migrating from Mexico and elsewhere to work the mushroom farms.

“We like our diversity,” Tomasetti said, even as he acknowledged the cost. He has had to hire English language instructors and translators for parent-teacher conferences. He has cobbled together money to provide summer school for many young English language learners who need extra reading and math support.

“Our expectation is all of our kids succeed,” he said.

Private schools nationally are changing as well, seeing a smaller number of white students and a greater number of Hispanic students in their decreasing pool of children.

The new majority-minority status of America’s schools mirrors a change that is coming for the nation as a whole. The Census Bureau estimates that the country’s population will have more minorities than whites for the first time in 2043, a change due in part to higher birth rates among Hispanics and a stagnating or declining birth rate among blacks, whites and Asians.

Today, slightly more than 1 in 5 kids speaks a language other than English at home.

But even as the population becomes more diverse, schools are becoming more racially segregated, reflecting U.S. housing patterns.

The disparities are evident even in the youngest of black, Hispanic and Native American children, who on average enter kindergarten academically behind their white and Asian peers. They are more likely to attend failing schools and face harsher school discipline.

Later, they have lower standardized test scores, on average, fewer opportunities to take advanced classes and are less likely to graduate.

Duncan said the disparities are unacceptable, and the country needs to make sure all students “have an opportunity to have a world class education, to do extraordinarily well.”

As the school-age population has become more nonwhite, it’s also become poorer, said Patricia Gandara, co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA who serves on President Barack Obama’s advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.

Roughly one-quarter of Hispanics and African-Americans live below the poverty line – meaning a family of four has nearly $24,000 in annual income – and some of the poorest of Hispanic children are dealing with the instability of being in the country illegally or with a parent who is, Gandara said.

Focusing on teacher preparation and stronger curriculum is “not going to get us anywhere unless we pay attention to the really basic needs of these children, things like nutrition and health and safety, and the instability of the homes,” she said.

This transformation in school goes beyond just educating the children. Educators said parents must feel comfortable and accepted in schools, too.

Lisa Mack, president of the Ohio PTA, encourages local leaders to include grandparents and replace events such as a sock hop with one with a Motown theme that might be more inclusive or to provide opportunities for people of different ethnic groups to bring food to share at monthly meetings.

“I think one thing that’s critical is that schools and PTAs and everyone just need to understand that with changing demographics, you can’t do things the way you’ve done them before,” she said. “That you have to be creative in reaching out and making them feel welcomed and valued and supported in the school system.”

Some schools are seeking teachers to help reflect the demographics of their student population.

Today, fewer than 1 in 5 of the public schools teachers is a minority. “It is an ongoing challenge to try and make our teacher population reflect our student population,” said Steve Saunders, spokesman for the Adams County, Colorado, school district outside Denver that has seen a large shift toward having Hispanic students.

The New America Foundation, in a recent report, suggested teacher prep programs have at least one class for teachers on working with non-native English speakers and that education programs embrace bilingualism.

Andrea Giunta, a senior policy analyst at the National Education Association who focuses on teacher recruiting, retention and diversity, said you can’t assume that teachers are a good match just because of their background.

“Just because you speak Spanish doesn’t mean you speak the same Spanish your students are speaking and communicating with,” she said.

This comes as the NEA, the nation’s largest union, just elected an all-minority leadership team in July. The new president, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, is Latina, and the vice president and secretary-treasurer, Rebecca S. Pringle and Princess Moss, are black.

In Kennett Square, superintendent Tomasetti said Hispanic students in his district are performing at levels, on average, higher than their peers statewide. One recent graduate, Christian Cordova-Pedroza, is attending Harvard University this fall. Cordova-Pedroza is one of five children of a mushroom farmer from Mexico.

Cordova-Pedroza credited the motivation instilled by his parents combined with access to a variety of educational opportunities for his success, including an after-school program that included tutoring and help with college applications. He also was active in a Latino leadership club that helps provides translation services in the community and participated in summer programs at Penn State and Princeton.

“Certainly, I had to work hard to get there, but I feel like at every opportunity that I had a chance of participating in or doing that, I was always like, ‘Yes, I want to do that,'” he said.

Nearby, at El Nayarit Mexico Grocery Store, owner Jaime Sandoval, a native of Mexico with six kids, said he’s been pleased with the education his children have received. His 9-year-old daughter, he said, wants to be a teacher.

“She loves to read and all that stuff,” Sandoval said. “She always has good grades on English and she loves it much.”

It’s Time to ‘Bridge the Gap’ Between Indigenous Peoples and Countries, UN Says

UN Photo/Devra BerkowitzLeft, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and right, Grand Chief Edward John, Hereditary Chief of Tl'azt'en Nation and head of the First Nations Summit, as well as Vice Chairperson of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, in 2012. — UN Photo/Devra Berkowitz
Left, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and right, Grand Chief Edward John, Hereditary Chief of Tl’azt’en Nation and head of the First Nations Summit, as well as Vice Chairperson of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, in 2012.

Indian Country Today, 8/9/14

It’s International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, as decreed by the United Nations 20 years ago, and First Nations in Canada are taking stock.

This year’s theme is “Bridging the gap: implementing the rights of indigenous peoples,” the UN said in a statement commemorating the August 9 event, occurring during the second consecutive International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People, as decreed by the international body in 2004.

It’s not solely about rights for their own sake, as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and indigenous leaders pointed out. Indigenous Peoples can be “powerful agents of progress,” Ban Ki-moon said in a statement commemorating the occasion.

“In order for them to contribute to our common future, we must secure their rights,” Ban Ki-moon said. “Let us recognize and celebrate the valuable and distinctive identities of indigenous peoples around the world. Let us work even harder to empower them and support their aspirations.”

The UN counts an estimated 370 million indigenous people in about 90 countries, constituting “15 percent of the world’s poor and about one third of the world’s 900 million extremely poor rural people,” the international body said. “Practicing unique traditions, they retain social, cultural, economic and political characteristics distinct from those of the dominant societies in which they live.”

Back on Turtle Island the call was reiterated and rebroadcast, with renewed exhortations to uphold the treaties.

“The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples is a time to celebrate the strength, resilience and resurgence of Indigenous peoples and nations around the globe,” said Assembly of First Nations National Chief Ghislain Picard. “At the same time, it is an opportunity to reflect on this year’s theme—‘Bridging the gap: implementing the rights of Indigenous peoples’—and the long-overdue and necessary work that we still must do here in Canada to give life to First Nations rights, Treaties and title. This year marks the 250th anniversary of the Treaty of Niagara between Indigenous Nations and Great Britain that reaffirmed our nation-to-nation relationship. This relationship has existed for centuries but we must move now and work together to honor and implement the principles of that relationship.”

Now in particular the notion of bridging the gap is extremely important in Canada, said Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) Chief Perry Bellegarde.

“The theme of ‘bridging the gap’ between Canada’s First Nations and non-First Nations people through the implementation of inherent and treaty rights has never been more relevant, or more important, than right now,” said Bellegarde in a statement. “The time for rhetoric and assurances of future actions by the Government of Canada has come to a close. It’s time for concrete steps that will positively impact the day-to-day lives of all First Nations people in Canada – in their homes, at their jobs and with their families.”

He also noted that within Canada, First Nations are rated 63rd in the UN Human Development Index when their collective statistics are assessed—even as the country as a whole ranks sixth.

“This is concrete evidence of the gap in living standards in Canada,” Bellegarde said. “It’s also sad commentary that a country with Canada’s economic strength would allow this to continue.”

The Chiefs of Ontario said the lack of a national inquiry into unsolved murders and disappearances of nearly 1,200 indigenous women over the past few decades was another indication of the gap.

“Unfortunately, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Rights is constantly being undermined here in Canada with the ongoing attack on First Nation rights,” said Regional Chief Stan Beardy of the Chiefs of Ontario, in a separate statement. “Internationally, Canada has been criticized for its human rights record and in particular its rejection of the UN call for a review of violence against aboriginal women.”

As of Saturday morning, Prime Minister Stephen Harper had not commemorated International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, though he had released a statement noting it was National Peacekeepers Day in Canada.

“Today we celebrate Canada’s long and proud tradition of contributing to international security,” Harper said in his statement. “Since the mid-1950s, Canada has participated in dozens of international security missions around the world, helping to prevent or contain conflicts and contributing to global and regional stability.”

John Ashe, president of the UN General Assembly, said relegating Indigenous Peoples to the fringes was still a prevalent practice worldwide.

“The historical marginalization of indigenous peoples is still an unfortunate reality in today’s world and in many places, daunting obstacles are a part of daily life,” Ashe said in a statement. “There is still a long way to go in the journey towards the concerted and decisive action.”

BC Mine Dam Break Threatens Northwest Fisheries

Silty water from the breached Mount Polley Mine dam floods a downstream creek and road Monday. | credit: Photo courtesy Cariboo Regional District Emergency Operations Centre

By: Ed Schoenfeld, Alaska Public Radio; Source: OPB

A dam break at a central British Columbia mine could threaten salmon fisheries in the Pacific Northwest.

Mount Polley is an open-pit copper and gold mine roughly 400 miles north of Seattle. A dam holding back water and silt leftover from the mining process broke Monday. It released enough material to fill more than 2,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Government regulators have not yet determined its content. But documents show it could contain sulfur, arsenic and mercury.

Imperial Metals, the mine’s owner, issued a statement that only said the material was not acidic. Emergency officials told residents not to drink or bathe in water from affected rivers and lakes.

The spill area is in the watershed of the Fraser River, which empties into the Pacific Ocean at Vancouver, B.C. The river supports a large sport and commercial fishery in Washington state.

Brian Lynch of the Petersburg, Alaska, Vessel Owners Association says some of those fish also swim north.

“The United States has a harvest-sharing arrangement for Fraser sockeye and pink salmon through provisions of the Pacific Salmon Treaty. So any problem associated with salmon production on the Fraser will affect U.S. fishermen,” he says.

Imperial Metals did not respond to requests for comment. Its website says the mine is closed and damage is being assessed.

Provincial officials have ordered the corporation to stop water from flowing through the dam break. Imperial could face up to $1 million in fines.

Environmental groups in Canada and Alaska say Mount Polley’s dam is similar to those planned for a half-dozen mines in northwest British Columbia.

They say a dam break there would pollute salmon-producing rivers that flow through Alaska.

That could also affect U.S.-Canada Salmon Treaty allocations, including for waters off Washington state.

Foes blast M’ville fireworks; a few speak out for them

By: Steve Powell, Marysville Globe

MARYSVILLE – Despite evidence to the contrary every July 4, more residents favor a ban on fireworks than support continuing them.

That is according to an unscientific survey taken the past week by The Marysville Globe. After the City Council discussed options, including a ban, July 28, the Globe asked readers for their opinions.

By a wide margin, respondents favored a ban, but the few in opposition were just as passionate.

No ban needed

“I am very much against the fireworks ban,” said Ralph Woodall, who even had his front yard burned up by a safe and sane firework this year. “We enjoy them every year.”

Amy Burt added: “One of the events that the kids in our neighborhood look forward to every year is July 4th. It’s one day a year. I think it’s good for the community as it brings everyone together to share in the fun. We always clean up afterwards, too.”

Maribeth Woodall said it’s only once a year, and many organizations benefit from the sales of fireworks. “Let’s not ban all just because of a few,” she says. “It’s a special time, and we and many friends love the beauty and even the noise. I would hate to see it end.”

Pam Salas says: “The 4th of July is an American celebration of freedom, and one of the few times a year we get to feel like we have freedom. The 4th of July fireworks in Marysville bring families and neighbors together in celebration. My family, for example, had not celebrated a holiday together in 10 years. What the ability to have our own fireworks display did was bring my family from around the country together. They enjoyed it so much that we all want to make it a yearly event.”

Lance Van Winkle got upset with some council members not wanting to get public input on the issue. He said he sometimes gets irritated by it all.

“Then I realize it’s once a year. It’s a celebration of our country’s freedom, and it maybe means more than it seems on the surface,” he says in an email. “Your ban rant seems ridiculous” considering all of the fireworks sold in the area.

Van Winkle said the council should focus on more important things.

“Why not focus your limited resources on things like panhandlers, drug dealers, thieves, vagrants and the like that we citizens put up with every day, not just once a year. Let people ‘blow off’ a little steam,” he says.

Most favor ban

But a wide majority of the almost 30 respondents agreed with Shelly Baker.

“Every year on the Fourth of July it is literally like a war zone around here. And these are not the safe and sane ones – we know they were all at Boom City buying theirs. The mess left behind that nobody seems to think is important to clean up (and this is a nice neighborhood), the trauma to pets, and not being able to go to sleep until sometimes well after midnight is a problem for many.”

Baker said a ban would be hard to enforce. “At the very least it would likely curb some of it, but I am skeptical that it will ever go away,” she wrote in an email to The Globe.

Donna Trevino had similar sentiments.

“It’s like a war zone all around my house with people at almost every home, out in front of their house shooting off fireworks, with no knowledge of what they are doing. Some are shooting off sideways, barely missing people and children. If you have a fireworks display from one place in Marysville, where people could go and watch, that would be fine. But this FREE-FOR-ALL has got to STOP.”

Other respondents had many reasons for wanting a ban.

“I get asthma from the smoke. My dog has to take medicine. In my neighborhood the fireworks start on June 23 and go to about July 6,” Joanne Thorleifson says.

Royann Almond’s email says: “All fireworks should be banned for the safety of our city! Since the houses being burned down cannot be traced back to origin, outlawing all, could solve noise, air pollution, bodily harm, frightened animals and property!”

Morgan Magaoay says: “These are no longer just firecrackers, they are bombs. There is no regard to property and safety for people and the suffering of animals.”

Goes on too long

Other respondents focused on singular issues. Many say they can handle fireworks on the Fourth, but not weeks before and after.

Jeri Williams said fireworks are shot off illegally long before and after the 4th. “They shoot them off day and night,” Williams says, adding she also supports a ban to ease the enforcement load on the fire and police departments.

Wendy Clark said she doesn’t like fireworks going off June 15 to July 15, nor from Dec. 1 to Jan. 15.

“We are forced to sedate our dog on many of these evenings as she becomes so stressed and emotionally frantic that nothing short of knocking her out gives her any relief,” Clark’s email says.

She says this year’s Fourth far exceeded the prior three years’ noise, “booms” and acrid smell. The magnitude in amount, duration, scope and intensity was “injurious, unfriendly, inconsiderate and very unfortunate.”

She added, “Boom City was not responsible for ALL of this objectionable hullabaloo.”

“Our Independence Day and New Year’s Eve holiday celebrations should include more than terror and fear. Maybe we need to encourage more focus on the TRUE meanings behind these celebrations: our independence, the service of the men and women in the military, the dedication of our veterans, and the many freedoms and liberties we enjoy by living in the United States of America,” she says.

Others said the true meaning of the holiday is being lost.

Kathy Franzwa says, “Most of them are not celebrating our freedom–-they’re looking for an excuse to make obnoxious noise with callous disregard for our veterans and animals. There were many times this summer when the cannon-like explosions seemed to be in my back yard.”

Phyllis and Bob Mennenga say: “Some people just don’t know when to quit. Go to a fireworks show if you like them so much.”

Others said illegals fireworks on the Tulalip Reservation should be banned. However the city does not have jurisdiction over the reservation.

Ed Mohs says: “Ban the illegal, Tulalip Tribe Boom City-type fireworks. People in general are disrespectful and light fireworks at all hours of the night prior to and after the Fourth.”

Sheri and Pat Boober say: “I believe that Marysville should ban the Tulalip Indian fireworks stands being able to sell unsafe fireworks,” their email says. “There simply is no reason for people to have to have their houses shake for practically the whole month of July.”

John Muller says Marysville should ban fireworks like other cities have. “Just think about the peace of mind and the funds that could be saved to use on other projects within the city,” he says in an email. He added that the cost to the city each year is great, with fire department calls, injuries, aid cars and property damage. “The local indian tribe would not welcome any ban, but so be it,” Muller says. “They may do as they wish on tribal land, even open a fireworks park.”

Going to extremes

Some respondents go to the extreme to avoid problems.

David Bartos says: “We are forced to leave town over the 4th, not only because we do not like the excessive fireworks but one of our two dogs is absolutely terrified the entire time.”

Bartos said the lasting effects of the 4th are ridiculous.

“We heard some booms close to our house as recently as Aug. 1, four weeks after the 4th!” he says in his email. “Also in several areas within a five-block radius of our house, the mess in the street is terrible; it is still there, and no one cleans it up.”

Kay Anthony said: “I live in fear every year that my house will catch fire. I pray for rain every year, and most years it is very dry. I should not have to worry about my house burning down and tranquilize my pet for irresponsible people to get an expensive few minutes of thrill.”

Anthony added that since there are organized fireworks shows nearby, the city should not waste its money on a local display. “Funds can be better spent,” she says in an email.

Still others take it even further.

“It has made us think about moving,” Linda Hughes Freeth says. “It was so bad we spent the night in a hotel as it was too stressful to be at home.”

It wasn’t any better when she returned.

“On the 5th, we had to deal with all the debris on our lawn and cars. Even today, as I walk our dog in the neighborhood, I am still seeing remnants of the fireworks strewn on the sidewalks, lawns and street.”

She recommended that the city work with the Tulalip Tribes to have a show on the reservation.

Other respondents said they would be open to a show or having certain areas where people could shoot off personal fireworks.

Fred Schiefelbein wouldn’t mind a few designated spots where people could shoot them off with supervision. “I have seen my share of fireworks with three tours in Vietnam, and when people start shooting off a week before and a week after the fourth it gets a little old.”

Barbara Turpin says she stays at home on the Fourth to protect her house from fireworks. She says illegal fireworks should be banned. “I think the council is afraid to ruffle feathers; law should be law, illegal is illegal,” she says. For the future, “Maybe not doing fireworks at the (Strawberry) festival and making a combined celebration with fireworks on the 4th,” she says in an email.

Along with shooting them off too many days, the other big issue was people not cleaning up after themselves.

Don’t clean up

Dan Hennessey says: “Every year the block next to mine has a huge neighborhood ‘display’ that lasts for a few hours on the night of the 4th. The ‘carnage’ of fireworks litter is absolutely incredible the following morning. One elderly couple’s home had their yard so covered in this litter the green grass was barely showing through as they were out raking and bagging all the leftovers their considerate neighbors donated. I asked them if this was recurring, and the answer was six years ongoing.”

Bonnie Stevens says: “Each 4th of July our trees and home are covered with dangerous fireworks! This year we found a balloon-type object hanging in one of our trees (it comes with a candle attached).”

Herman Moya says: “We do not mind the safe and sane fireworks but not the quarter stick of dynamite ones. They just shake the house. The next morning I have to clean up the spent fireworks from my driveway, front yard and back yard. I have to use a roof rake to remove them from my roof. I am 75 and too old to get on my roof. I have to remove them from my rain gutters. The local kids started two weeks before the 4th: Bang, bang, bang for hours. I called the Marysville police, and they immediately came and talked with the kids. They stopped but were at it again in a few days.”

Carol Whitney said the Marysville Police Department would not enforce a ban if one was passed.

“What we need to do is hold the MPD accountable to enforce the ban/limited use law already on the books. If they took that law seriously then the fireworks would not be the huge problem that they are right now.”

Mary Anne Jones did a great job of summarizing the issue: “I am certainly all for showing our love of country, but here in Marysville, I think, some have gone beyond that. Even tonight, I hear the bang of fireworks. They have been blasted around in our area since June 6 every evening until about midnight, keeping my nerves on end and my dog shivering under the bed until wee hours of the morning. My husband often has to drive to a quiet park away from Marysville so that the little dog will go potty.

“I wonder, though, in this day and age, could we really enforce a ban? So many don’t care about what is legal. It is about what they want. I guess I would like to see the ban on private fireworks and police action to back it up properly. I think a community firework display on the 4th of July could be a good answer.”

Fatal Attraction: Ospreys In A Bind With Baling Twine, Fishing Line

This is how ospreys' unhealthy affinity for baling twine can kill. Idaho Fish and Game biologist Beth Waterbury rescued this osprey in the nick of time.Beth Waterbury Idaho Fish and Game — This is how ospreys’ unhealthy affinity for baling twine can kill. Idaho Fish and Game biologist Beth Waterbury rescued this osprey in the nick of time.
Beth Waterbury Idaho Fish and Game

By Tom Banse, NW News Network

Osprey nests are a common sight near rivers, lakes and bays in the Northwest. If you look closely with binoculars, you might notice some of these large raptors like to line their nests with discarded baling twine or fishing line. The problem is it can kill them.

Now wildlife biologists are working with ranchers and at boat ramps to keep the attractive nuisance out of the ospreys’ clutches.

University of Montana professor Erick Greene has surveyed osprey nests in his home state and parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming. In all those places, he discovered nests festooned with brightly colored plastic twine.

“Basically, wherever you’ve got agriculture, hay fields, livestock — which is a lot of the West — you have baling twine, which is used to tie up hay bales, and you have ospreys,” Greene explained.

Greene said for unknown reasons, the fish hawks are particularly fond of soft, frayed twine. They use it in place of lichens or grasses in their nests.

“Ospreys have a jones for this baling twine,” he said. “I wish they didn’t.”

It’s sometimes a fatal attraction.

Preventing Death By Twine

“It looks as if anywhere between 10 to 30 percent of osprey chicks and adults in some areas that are particularly hard hit are killed by this baling twine,” Greene said.

The entangled raptors can suffer gruesome deaths by strangulation or starve because they can’t fly off to fish. That is, unless someone comes to the rescue — or better yet gives a nest what Greene calls a preventive “haircut.”

Last month, Greene enlisted a bucket truck and a crew of linemen from the Missoula Electric Cooperative to clean up a nest with chicks that sat on top of a power pole in the middle of a ranch by the Clark Fork River.

“This is a nest I’ve been worried about for years,” he said. “It has killed a lot of ospreys over the years. This is going to be a good one to clean up.”

Lineman George Porter and I went up to the nest with scissors. Strands of orange string draped from the wide bowl of sticks like Christmas tinsel.

It appeared as if the ospreys tied knots in the nest.

“That’s basically what it looks like, all tangled,” Porter said. “Yeah, they definitely use it to hold everything together.”

We found multiple kinds of twine in the nest, including a piece of black nylon rope. In the background, you could hear the osprey parents squawking. But they circled at a distance and did not interfere with the quick cleanup of their nest.

Out Of Sight, Out Of Nest

The preferable solution of course would be to keep twine and fishing line out of nests in the first place. In Idaho, the state Department of Fish and Game along with local partners are placing periscope-shaped recycling bins for fishing line at boat ramps.

Idaho Fish and Game wildlife biologist Beth Waterbury also worked on setting up a baling twine pick up and recycling program in her area, the upper Salmon River valley.

“It’s a logical solution and I think it is going to make a difference for the incidence of entanglement,” she said.

In western Montana, student researcher Amanda Schrantz did public outreach to farm groups and individual ranchers. She said many of her contacts didn’t have any idea about the lethal effects of discarded twine or the pressing need to collect and store it out of sight.

“Ospreys will go great distances to pick up this baling twine,” Schrantz explained. “Even though we don’t know why, they are. You kind of have to have 100 percent cooperation with this.”

Schrantz said if just one ranch or dairy leaves twine in its fields, the ospreys will find it. In Oregon’s Willamette Valley, a private plastics recycler accepts used baling twine and hay wrap.

“We recycle about a quarter million pounds per month of baling twine,” co-owner of Agri-Plas, Allen Jongsma said. He added used twine can be melted down to make new baler twine or automotive parts.

A different company, fishing tackle maker Berkley, recycles recovered monofilament fishing line into artificial reef pieces.