Teachers in the Marysville School District have voted to walk out of class Friday, becoming the 18th school district in northwest Washington to protest what they say is inadequate funding for the state’s public schools.
“Our members feel strongly that the time is now to get something done and, the lack of progress in Olympia is unacceptable,” Marysville Education Association President Randy Davis said.
The one-day walkout by the 670 members of the Marysville Education Association on Friday is an action solely against the Washington Legislature, and not against the local district or community, Davis said in a news release.
Local teachers unions in 17 other school districts have voted for a walkout or strike to call for better health-care benefits for school staff, more money to pay for voter-approved class-size reductions and higher cost-of-living raises than the state House or Senate has proposed, according to the Washington Education Association.
“We expect the Legislature to fully fund smaller class sizes in every grade level as required by voter-approved I-1351, and we need the state to fund competitive, professional salaries and benefits so we can continue attracting and keeping qualified, caring teachers for our kids,” Davis said.
The teachers unions in the following school districts have staged or plan to stage a walkout or strike:
Seattle billionaire Paul Allen is financing a campaign that could ask Washington voters to impose penalties for selling animal parts from certain endangered species.
The proposed ballot measure aims to protect 10 keystone species: elephants, rhinoceroses, tigers, lions, leopards, cheetahs, pangolins, marine turtles, sharks, and rays.
Conservation groups say they are among the most trafficked or poached species worldwide. They say illegal wildlife trafficking is the fourth largest transnational crime in the world, delivering ill-gotten profits of $20 billion annually.
Sandeep Kaushik is a political consultant for the initiative. He said it would place in state law tough penalties beyond those imposed by federal anti-trafficking laws. People caught buying or selling animal parts or products from the 10 species covered by the proposed law would face up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Backers of the initiative say the best way to protect these endangered animals is to cut off the market where poachers can profit.
“The problem has been getting worse and we’re seeing just in the last few years more species being put at risk,” Kaushik said.
Sam Wasser, director of the University of Washington’s Center for Conservation Biology, said this initiative would help reduce wildlife trafficking in Washington state. He said right now it’s hard to police trafficking once items cross into the U.S.
“In a state like Washington where it is such an important port for materials coming in from Asia, it’s really quite critical that our state agents have the ability to apprehend the ivory,” Wasser said. “Much of the laws now refer to ivory passing across international borders, but state borders — there’s nothing.”
Wasser said the U.S. is one of the largest markets for wildlife products in the world.
“One of the biggest things is trying to deal with the demand side,” Wasser said. “It’s very, very important to have steps all along the way to have steps to increase the consequences if you’re caught and to make it harder for you to get the product in the first place.”
Allen co-founded Microsoft. His conservation philanthropy has been brought into question in 2013 when a Seattlepi.com investigation and lawsuits said his sister, Jody Allen, made employees help her smuggle giraffe bones and ivory out of Africa.
More recently, a bill in the Washington Legislature to increase trafficking penalties for ivory and rhino horns was met with pushback from the National Rifle Association, the Seattle Symphony, and antique collectors, according to The Seattle Times, which reported Sunday on the initiative proposal.
The measure’s backers say they’ve written the initiative to protect trade for antiquities and estate sales, musical instruments, and scientific and research purposes.
“We made sure that this was about targeting those people that are really a part of this international poaching and trafficking problem that is really putting all of these animals at risk,” Kaushik said.
The Humane Society of the United States, the Seattle Aquarium and the Woodland Park Zoo have also endorsed the initiative.
Kosher said New York and New Jersey have also recently implemented similar laws, which have helped curtail ivory and rhino horn trafficking.
Petitioners for the initiative must gather 246,372 valid signatures by July 2 for it to qualify for the November ballot.
For Healthy Rivers, Farms, Communities in the Face of Climate Change
Written by Cathy Baker, Federal Director of Government Relations, April 21, 2015
Photograph by John Marshall
On the eve of Earth day, the White House recognized Puget Sound as a model for climate change adaptation, making it one of four places in the U.S. where increased cooperation will aid in preparation for the impacts of climate change –including sea level rise, drought, flooding and wildfires.
The Puget Sound region was showcased in the Resilient Lands and Waters Initiative for outstanding efforts in local, state, federal and tribal partnerships around Puget Sound recovery. The release highlights recent successes and builds momentum for efforts to restore floodplains, preserve farmland and reduce flood risk through the innovative Floodplains by Design program and Snohomish County’s Sustainable Land Strategy.
“We are living with the evidence of a changing climate,” said Mike Stevens, Washington State director for The Nature Conservancy. “Longer and more intense winter flooding, low river flows in the summer, and rising seas are affecting both cities and farmlands in the Puget Sound region. “
In Snohomish County, local leaders have developed the Snohomish Sustainable Lands Strategy which brings together Tulalip and Stillaguamish Tribes, government agencies, and local agriculture, and other interests to tackle these issues together.
“Thanks to Sustainable Lands Strategy partners, leadership by Snohomish County Surface Water Management, and the support of the Floodplains by Design program, the county has an assessment of risk and a plan to make the river valleys more resilient in the face of those risks, to the benefit of both people and nature,” Stevens said.
“We are trying to prepare for the future under changing climate conditions,” said Terry Williams of the Tulalip Tribes, a key partner in collaborative efforts underway in Snohomish County. “In the Snohomish River Delta we are getting 500-year-floods more frequently, early spring flooding, early drought. Eighty percent of the delta was diked 100 years ago, and we lost a lot of fish habitat. Mix that with land use that includes forestry, agriculture and urban development—all of that affects the landscape.”
“We’re figuring out how to address these landscapes, these changing conditions, and capitalize on them so we become stronger, rather than weaker,” he said.
“This designation speaks volumes about what we’ve accomplished,” said Tristan Klesick, of Klesick Family Farms. “It’s not easy work, but it’s valuable and important. We have to be stewards of the environment and the economy – we have to have a place for salmon and salamanders, corn, broccoli and milk, homes, schools and hospitals.“
“We look forward to engaging in this opportunity to build upon our efforts to bring government and our communities together to address the natural resource challenges we face,” said Snohomish County Council Chair Dave Somers.
The Nature Conservancy has contributed both science and leadership to this work.
(CN) – The 9th Circuit denied the Tulalip Tribes’ bid for additional licenses for video gambling machines, despite the tribe’s claim other members of the state gaming compact are being treated more favorably.
The Tulalip claimed Washington allows the Spokane Tribe to lease more lottery terminals at a better rates, contrary to a “most favored” tribe guarantee for the Tulalip.
The state regulates tribes’ operations of player terminals for a tribal lottery system under a Tribal-State Gaming Compact. The Tulalip can operate 975 terminals but may increase the amount up to 4,000 by purchasing allocation rights from any Washington tribe in the compact. The procedure is known as a terminal allocation plan, or TAP.
In 2007, the Spokane Tribe joined other tribes in the gaming compact. The state allowed the tribe to make payments into an inter-tribal fund to obtain additional terminals if it couldn’t secure the machines under the TAP procedure because “few, if any” machines were available for lease, according to court documents.
The Tulalip claimed the state gave the Spokane more favorable terms by allowing the tribe an additional way to obtain terminals and petitioned to have the same opportunity by amending its compact. After the state refused, the Tulalip filed a federal complaint in 2012 saying the state breached the compact and asking for an injunction amending the agreement.
In 2013, U.S. District Judge Richard Jones granted summary judgment to the state, saying the Tulalip wanted to “cherry-pick” the benefits of the inter-tribal fund provision. The Tulalip appealed to the 9th Circuit.
A three-judge panel ruled on Friday the state is not required to adopt the Tulalip’s amendment because it didn’t “mirror the restrictions” that were in the Spokane’s compact.
Writing for the majority, Judge M. Margaret McKeown said the inter-tribal fund method “carries with it interdependent conditions and consequences” that the Tulalip’s amendment failed to include.
“We hold simply that Tulalip is not entitled as a matter of law to the more selective set of terms in its proposed amendment. The most-favored tribe clause does not allow a ‘pick and choose’ arrangement. The district court correctly entered judgment for the State. Simply put, Tulalip’s proposal does not mirror the restrictions of Appendix Spokane, and those are the terms to which the State agreed,”
The panel did not determine whether the Spokane compact was more favorable, according to the opinion.
David Giampetroni, an attorney with Kanji Katzen PLLC, which represented the Tulalip Tribes, said in an email to Courthouse News that his client is disappointed in the ruling and “respectfully disagrees with the decision reached by the court.”
“The Tribe is evaluating its options,” the attorney said.
FILE — In this Jan. 26, 2004, file photo, Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, listens to testimony in Olympia, Wash. Washington tribes and the countrys largest American Indian organization say when a state agency recently stopped running criminal background checks for emergency child placement situations, they put children at risk. The groups are urging officials to reinstate the background check process or let tribes have access to the national database for these emergency situations. McCoy, a state Democrat who represents the Tulalip district, said the dispute is yet another problem tribes are having with access to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, administered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (AP Photo/Louie Balukoff, File)
Martha Bellisle, The Associated Press
SEATTLE — Washington tribes and the country’s largest group representing Native Americans are asking for state and federal help in getting background checks when a tribe needs to place a child with a foster parent in an emergency situation.
The state’s Children’s Administration, a division of the Department of Social and Health Services, had conducted the criminal background checks for the tribes for years. But Jennifer Strus, the agency’s assistant secretary, sent a letter to the tribes in June saying that service would no longer be provided effective July 1, 2014.
Following a parent’s arrest, injury or unexpected death, background checks would be conducted before a social worker placed a child in a foster home, said Robert Calkins, spokesman for the Washington State Patrol.
Strus told staff in a letter acquired by The Associated Press that the State Patrol informed the Children’s Administration that it was not authorized to provide the information to the tribes, and federal law prohibits the agency from providing the background checks.
“Therefore, Children’s Administration staff must not share the Record of Arrests and Prosecutions, RAP sheet, verbally or in writing (email) with any external entity,” she said.
Tribal officials say the state’s actions compromise child safety.
Sen. John McCoy, a Democrat and a member of the Tulalip Tribes, said child placement is just one area in which the tribes are hampered by a lack of access to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, administered by the FBI.
Another problem area was revealed after a high school student used his father’s gun to kill four friends and himself at Marysville-Pilchuck High School last year.
The father, Raymond Lee Fryberg Jr., was later arrested for illegally possessing a firearm. Fryberg was the subject of a domestic violence protection order issued by a tribal court, which should have caused him to fail a background check during a gun purchase. But the order was never entered into the criminal database, as it would have been if issued by a state court. He pleaded not guilty Thursday to the federal firearms charge.
The U.S. Department of Justice has announced it would host a meeting with tribes in August to try to fix that problem.
However, the emergency child placement problem is a reverse of that issue. Instead of not being able to enter orders into the database, tribes are not allowed to access information to make sure a person who is taking a child in an emergency situation does not have a criminal history involving children or domestic violence.
McCoy said both problems need to be fixed.
“I’ve been in communication with folks to try to resolve this for years,” McCoy said.
John Dossett, general counsel for the National Congress of American Indians, agreed, saying the federal criminal database system is a cooperative between the FBI and the states.
“It’s a national network, but it’s been hard for individual tribes to participate,” he said.
Calkins said the State Patrol discovered that the department was providing background checks for tribes when his agency conducted a routine audit. Since Washington law says only the state social and health services department can run criminal background checks for emergency child placements, the Children’s Administration was told to stop giving data to tribes.
However, tribal police can do the checks, Calkins said.
“We’re disappointed someone would imply that we had cut off tribal access to criminal history information without making clear that this is a very narrow limitation related to emergency child placement only,” Calkins said.
But Dossett said tribal police aren’t allowed access to the database for civil purposes, like the emergency child placement background checks. That information is critical when a child is transferred to foster care, he said.
The FBI allows states to define who has access to the data, and in Washington’s case, state statute restricts access to the “department,” which is the Children’s Administration, he said.
The Tulalip Tribes of Washington passed a resolution in March asking state officials to add new language to the statue that would allow “an authorized agency of a federally recognized tribe” to request a federal criminal history record check.
The National Congress of American Indians went further in an October resolution.
It asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to direct the Justice Department to work with the tribes to provide full access. It also asked the FBI to work with tribes “to encourage the state of Washington and other states to modify their statutes and regulations” to include direct access to the databases by the tribes.”
Without access, the resolution said, serious consequences could result “to a tribe’s most vulnerable population, its children.”
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was most frequently ‘challenged’ book in US libraries in 2014
Anti-family, cultural insensitivity, drugs/alcohol/smoking, gambling, offensive language, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group, violence’ … Sherman Alexie. Photograph: Anthony Pidgeon/Redferns
Sherman Alexie’s award-winning young adult novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian tops a list of the books readers tried hardest to remove from the shelves of America’s libraries last year.
Announcing the top 10 titles most frequently “challenged” in the US in 2014, the American Libraries Association said that it had been “tracking a significant number of challenges to diverse titles”, and that “authors of colour, as well as books with diverse content, are disproportionately challenged and banned”.
Winner of the National Book Award in 2007, the Native American writer Alexie’s semi-autobiographical tale was removed from the curriculum in Idaho schools last year. According to the Idaho Statesman, this story of a boy who leaves his school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to go to an all-white high school was criticised by one local for containing words “we do not speak in our home”, and because it makes “reference to masturbation, contains profanity and has been viewed by many as anti-Christian”.
Alexie said at the time that “book banners want to control debate and limit the imagination. I encourage debate and celebrate imagination.” The ALA said his novel was challenged for reasons ranging from being “sexually explicit”, to its “depictions of bullying”. It takes the top spot from Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants series, which was 2013’s most challenged book over its “offensive language [and] violence”.
Eight of 2014’s top 10 challenged books include “diverse content”, said the ALA. Second-placed was Marjane Satrapi’s acclaimed graphic novel Persepolis, about growing up during the Iranian revolution, cited for being “politically, racially, and socially offensive”.
Third was Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell’s picture book about two male penguins who rear a chick together, And Tango Makes Three, and fourth was Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, about a black girl who prays to have blue eyes like her classmates.
The ALA pointed to the author Malinda Lo’s analysis of its top 10 banned books over the last decade. Writing last autumn, Lo found that 52% of the books challenged or banned in the 10-year period included “diverse” content. “Books that fall outside the white, straight, abled mainstream are challenged more often than books that do not destabilise the status quo,” she wrote.
“This isn’t surprising, but the extent to which diverse books are represented on these lists – as a majority – is quite disheartening. Diversity is slim throughout all genres of books and across all age groups – except when it comes to book challenges. The message this sends is loud and clear: diversity is actually under attack. Minority perspectives are being silenced every year.”
The ALA’s office for intellectual freedom received 311 reports about “attempts to remove or restrict materials from school curricula and library bookshelves” in 2014. The number is equivalent to the 307 challenges recorded in 2013, and significantly down from 464 in 2012. Most challenges – 35% – came from parents in 2014, with the sexually explicit nature of a text the most cited (34%) reason for a challenge.
The top 10 also features Robie Harris’s guide to puberty and sexual health, It’s Perfectly Normal, in fifth place. The book, revealed the ALA, was challenged for containing nudity, and for covering “sex education”, for being “sexually explicit”, and “unsuited to age group”. It was also, said the libraries organisation, alleged to contain “child pornography”.
The list is completed with Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Jaycee Dugard’s A Stolen Life and Raina Telgemeier’s Drama.
The 2014 Top 10 Frequently Challenged Books
1. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: anti-family, cultural insensitivity, drugs/alcohol/smoking, gambling, offensive language, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group, violence. Additional reasons: “depictions of bullying.”
2. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Reasons: gambling, offensive language, political viewpoint. Additional reasons: “politically, racially, and socially offensive,” “graphic depictions”.
3. And Tango Makes Three Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Reasons: Anti-family, homosexuality, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “promotes the homosexual agenda”
4. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Reasons: Sexually explicit, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “contains controversial issues”
5. It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
Reasons: Nudity, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group. Additional reasons: “alleged child pornography”
6. Saga by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Reasons: Anti-Family, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group
7. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited to age group, violence
8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “date rape and masturbation”
9. A Stolen Life Jaycee Dugard
Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group
10. Drama by Raina Telgemeier
Reasons: sexually explicit
An agreement between Riverside Energy, Inc. and the port could initiate the development of the first refinery on the Columbia River and the first on the West Coast in 25 years. The refinery would have a capacity of 30,000 barrels per day and produce a mix of diesel, gasoline and jet fuel all primarily for regional use, according to the documents.
The oil would travel to the refinery by rail from the Bakken fields of North Dakota, creating an estimated traffic of 10 trains per month. The refined products would then travel by water.
Several trains carrying crude oil have derailed and exploded in recent years.
“This is shocking new information. Refineries are extremely polluting. Highly toxic air pollution,” Columbia Riverkeeper Executive Director Brett VandenHeuvel said. “And to combine a refinery with explosive oil trains — it’s the worst of both worlds.”
A presentation from Riverside Refining estimates the project would create more than 400 construction jobs and 150 permanent positions, with an average annual wage of $75,000. The refinery would use “state-of-the-art processing technology” and “will have a lower carbon footprint than existing West Coast refineries,” according to the documents.
The Port of Longview indicated it would make a public statement later Wednesday.
Geologists Dave Tucker (left) and Pete Stelling (right) at the Mount Baker hot springs in Washington’s Cascade Mountains. The Forest Service says the springs will not be disturbed, but they are within the large tract of federal land that could one day be open for geothermal development. Ashley Ahearn
The volcanic ridges of the Cascades have long been poked and prodded by people who want to know what kind of geothermal energy they’ll find beneath the surface.
But many of the Northwest’s hot spots are on public lands. And in some cases, federal land managers have prevented access by companies seeking to convert that magmatic force into clean electricity.
That could soon change. The U.S. Forest Service is pursuing plans to make more than 80,000 acres in Washington’s Mt. Baker/Snoqualmie National Forest available for lease to energy companies. A final decision on that is expected as early as this month.
Companies wanting to develop geothermal power on federal lands would then undergo a full environmental review for each proposed project. Those studies would take into account the potential seismic risk, vehicle traffic and transmission lines that could be associated with a geothermal power plant.
The development of geothermal power is under way in some parts of the Northwest, which the industry regards as a new frontier. Within that clean-energy frontier, Mount Baker is an outpost sentinel on its northern edge. Its steaming crater and the hot springs on the mountain’s eastern flanks are drawing attention from would-be geothermal developers.
Using steam from deep beneath the earth’s surface to spin turbines and generate electricity is not a new idea. But as more and more renewable energy comes on line, geothermal delivers in a way that intermittent sources like wind and solar do not: it provides a consistent source of what industry insiders call “baseload” power. That’s appealing to utilities like Snohomish PUD.
“A baseload renewable resource is something to treasure. We view it as a very attractive possibility,” said Adam Lewis with the Snohomish Public Utility District. The district has spent $5 million researching geothermal developments in Washington and is interested in building a traditional geothermal plant in the Mt. Baker/Snoqualmie National Forest to power roughly 20,000 homes.
The Forest Service’s move has raised concerns about negative impacts on natural ecosystems. Fifteen conservation groups have submitted a joint lettercommenting on the service’s proposed lease.
“We should be looking at everything but is this really where we need to be looking and if we are, we need to be real careful going up into wild rivers or intact forests,” said Tom Uniack, Conservation Director for Washington Wild.
The groups pushed for stronger protections on rivers and roadless sections of the forest, as well as certain forested areas that provide old growth habitat for northern spotted owls and marbled murrelets — two bird species that are protected under the Endangered Species Act.
How big is the Northwest’s geothermal potential?
California leads the world in geothermal power generation. Development has also grown in Nevada and Utah, but the Northwest lags behind.
Despite the region’s iconic volcanoes that rise up from the Cascade Range through Oregon and Washington, the geothermal potential in the region varies greatly. In Washington, hot spots appear to be limited to areas immediately surrounding volcanoes like Rainier and Baker.
Less than 5% of the total hydrothermal heat discharge from the Cascades occurs north of latitude 45N, according to research from the US Geological Survey.USGS
Research from the U.S. Geological Survey shows extensive hydrothermal heat discharge in large stretches of the Cascades in Oregon, an indication of geothermal potential, particularly in the state’s southern and eastern stretches. But those heat signatures drop off as you head north of Mount Jefferson and the Three Sisters peaks.
In Washington, the places that could provide geothermal power appear to be even scarcer. Steve Ingebritsen, a geologist with USGS, found that less than 5 percent of the total hydrothermal heat discharge from the Cascades occurs north of the Oregon/Washington border.
“Maybe that’s because the high rainfall and snowfall and snowmelt and fractures near the surface are allowing the water to percolate down and mask the geothermal indicators we’d be looking for,” said Pete Stelling, a geology professor at Western Washington University in Bellingham. “But we don’t really know. We’re still on the hunt right now.”
The Washington Department of Natural Resources has analyzed temperatures in more than 450 wells around the state and found similar results.
But that doesn’t mean it’s game over in the pursuit of geothermal energy in the Evergreen State.
“Although the geothermal potential of Washington is lower than other West Coast states, such as Nevada, Oregon and California, there are still areas of relatively moderate to high potential,” said Dave Norman, state geologist with DNR.
The DNR sampling highlighted hot spots at Mount Baker and the Wind River area as the best places for further geothermal exploration in Washington. (You can look at their mapped well data here.) There are currently no geothermal electricity generating plants in operation in the state.
In Oregon, geothermal energy provides heat for the city of Klamath Falls but geothermal electrification plants are still few and far between, despite a more extensive geothermal resource than that of Washington. There are two plants in operation – a small one in Klamath Falls at the Oregon Institute of Technology and another 30.1MW facility in Malheur County, which borders Idaho and Nevada.
A scene at Mount Baker Hot Springs, where litter and personal belongings can be found scattered on the ground. Ashley Ahearn
Retreating to nature vs. harnessing nature
Orange peels, beer bottles and discarded bras and bathing suits litter the Mount Baker Hot Springs when Dave Tucker, co-director of the Mount Baker Volcano Research Center, and Western Washington University’s Stelling arrive. This area is a hot spot for local college students as well as geothermal energy researchers.
“104.1, 104.3,” Tucker reads temperatures (in degrees Fahrenheit) off his sensor. A broken bottle crunches under his boot. “It’s not, certainly you wouldn’t generate any power from this thing but it’s an indicator that hot water can reach the surface here.”
The springs are within the area of national forest currently under consideration for potential geothermal leasing, though the Forest Service says that any development near the springs would undergo a comprehensive review and the springs would not be disturbed.
The faint rotten egg smell and warm surface temperatures in this pool are enough to interest energy companies and utilities in exploring this area further.
A few hundred yards up the hill from where the geologists scrutinize mineral deposits and algae growth around the murky pool, a tent peeps out of the trees. Four college students groggily make breakfast on their camp stove.
“Does anyone want bacon?” asks Nathan Sundyne, a student at Western Washington University.
Samantha Miller sits in a camp chair nearby.
Samantha Miller and Paul Bikis, students at Western Washington University, enjoy the Mt. Baker hot springs. “I think it’s cool the idea of harnessing natural energy,” Miller said, “but if it really compromises the integrity of the area that would be kind of sad.” Ashley Ahearn
“I think it’s cool, the idea of harnessing natural energy like that,” she says. “But if it really compromises the integrity of the area that would be kind of sad.”
“Do we destroy the habitat we have, that we get to sit around and enjoy, for energy for more houses and development – growth for the sake of growth?” Paul Bikis, a fellow student asks. “Or do we want to preserve the places that we cherish?”
As Tucker and Stelling hike out of the hot springs area, Stelling pauses to pick up a discarded beer bottle.
“People say ‘no [geothermal development] – it’s so pretty here,’ and then they leave this mess around,” Stelling said, frustration in his voice. He acknowledges that harnessing geothermal power does come with some local environmental impacts, but he says that we can no longer afford to be “hamstrung” by the “not in my backyard” approach to new clean energy projects.
“If we want to save the environment and be the environmentalists that we hope that we are, then we need to consider what we’re doing on a bigger scale.”
File photo of EPA Region 10 Administrator Dennis McLerran (left) meeting with Swinomish Tribal Council Chairman Brian Cladoosby at the Swinomish Reservation. Cladoosby’s tribe has filed a lawsuit to stop oil trains from traveling on its reservation. Ashley Ahearn
The Swinomish Tribe has filed a lawsuit against BNSF Railway to stop oil trains from traveling through its reservation.
BNSF train tracks cross the top of the Swinomish Reservation in Skagit County. In recent years they’ve been used to move oil from North Dakota to two refineries in Anacortes.
In 1990 BNSF and the Swinomish reached a settlement that required BNSF to regularly update the tribe on the type of cargo moving through the reservation. It also limited traffic to two 25-car trains per day.
Now, the tribe says BNSF is running several times that many train cars through the reservation each day (an estimated six oil trains of more than 100 cars per week).
The Swinomish Tribe says BNSF does not have permission for the increased oil train traffic and that the company is putting the tribe’s way of life at risk.
“We told BNSF to stop, again and again,” said Swinomish Chairman Brian Cladoosby. “Our signatures were on the agreement with BNSF, so were theirs, and so was the United States. But despite all that, BNSF began running its Bakken oil trains across the Reservation without asking, and without even telling us.”
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle. It seeks to stop BNSF Railway from moving oil through the reservation.
BNSF spokesperson Courtney Wallace says the company has received the complaint and is reviewing it.
The group hopes to convince President Barack Obama to put a woman on the $20 bill. But of the 15 candidates that were named as a replacement for president Andrew Jackson, none represented Indian Country up until now.
“Because of strong public sentiment that people should have the choice of a Native American to replace Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Nation Chief Wilma Mankiller, was added to the final ballot,” the group wrote on its website.
Ginnie Graham, a columnist for The Tulsa World, brought up Mankiller last month and called her the most suitable person for the bill. “A best statement would be to honor a Native American in place of the president who was called ‘Indian Killer,'” she wrote on March 18.
Louise Erdrich, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, added her voice in a short piece for The New York Times on March 20. “A descendant of the survivors of that cruel march where some 4,000 peaceful people died, Wilma Mankiller led her people with forceful calm,” the award-winning author stated.
Mankiller now joins Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt and Rosa Parks as the four finalists. Voting is open on the group’s website.
