Mark Mulligan / The Herald Terrance Patterson, 22, of Stanwood, skates off of the new ramps recently installed in the skatepark at Heritage Park in Stanwood on Tuesday afternoon.
The Daily Herald
STANWOOD — The city’s skate park got a makeover this month, with the older wooden ramps replaced by modular-style steel ones.
“It’s a lot more interesting and a lot more fun,” said Nate Brown, 19, of Stanwood, who was one of several people testing out the new ramps this week.
“It flows really good,” said Terrance Patterson, 22, of Arlington.
The Vito Z Memorial Skate Park NW features a mix of these ramps around a two-step concrete platform and skate rail. The skate park is open from dusk to dawn and is located in Heritage Park at 9800 276th St.
The city paid $60,000 for the new ramps, which were installed by the American Ramp Co. over a couple of days earlier this month.
Christie Connors, director of the Community Resource Center, helped organize a meeting about the project in March with local skaters. She was one of the original park organizers in the late 1990s.
“These improvements are long overdue,” Connors said. “I’m glad the city stepped up to provide skaters and others with a safe and healthy place to play in town.”
The Vito Z Memorial Skate Park was opened in 2000 by a group of Stanwood students and adults. The park is named in honor of Vito Zingarelli, a 1-year-old, who drowned in 1993.
The park can be reserved for private parties through the city’s Streets and Parks Department.
Reservations
For more information about the park and reserving it for events go to the city’s website at www.ci.stanwood.wa.us or contact public works assistant Lisa Noonchester at 360-629-9781 or lisa.noonchester@ci.stanwood.wa.us.
Honeybees are holy. They are matriarchal powerhouses, spiritual catalysts . . . and they’re dropping like flies.
It’s a phenomenon that’s become known as Colony Collapse Disorder. While its causes are contested and debated, it’s largely agreed that the bees are dying from some sort of a combination of exposure to pesticides (in the field and in their hive), and of exposure to pathogens and viruses. All of which may potentially be caused, and prevented, by commercial beekeeping practices. This is a big deal because it’s estimated that we rely on bees for up to 40 percent of our food—bees are the pollinators that make our food happen!
It’s been attributed to Einstein, but someone once said that if the honey bee goes extinct, we humans will follow four years later.
FOUR years later.
So what can you do? Well you can buy your honey locally for starters. Big operation beekeepers often harvest all of the honey in their hives and give the bees high fructose corn syrup to live off of during the winter. They also buy pre-fabricated honeycombs to speed the honey-making process up and to make the slats of honey produce more uniformly. The honeycomb is where the Queen bee lays her eggs. There are generally two sizes of honeycomb in a hive: large and small. These different sizes create different kinds of bees, which lends biodiversity to the hive, creating a healthier, stronger, hive. For example: the smaller honeycombs create bees that are disease tolerant, while the larger honeycombs create bees that are tolerant to the cold. That means that if there is a sudden cold snap, some of the disease-resistant bees might die, but there would be plenty of cold-resistant bees left to keep the hive going and to help regenerate it. And vice versa.
The problem in most commercial operations is that they slip in pre-fabricated honeycombs to save time and to get the bees producing honey faster. These combs are also reusable and disposable—easier and cleaner to work with. However, these combs are also only come in one size: large. That means large commercial productions for honey have a lot of cold-resistant bees and not many disease-resistant ones, which may be one reason so many honeybees have died in the last few years. This then leads commercial beekeepers to use antibiotics and pesticides in their hives— which is bad for the bees and bad for us when we ingest their honey or use the beeswax.
Another bonus to buying your honey locally: the honey will be infused with local pollens (from the pollen-collecting process) and over time this exposure to local pollens will help reduce or eliminate your seasonal allergies.
What else can you do to help the bees out? Become a beekeeper! It’s really pretty simple and inexpensive to get into beekeeping. I recommend finding a local beekeeper and asking her for some tips on getting started. You can also check out area beekeeping organizations for classes on beekeeping and other sources for getting everything you need to get started. You can also check out websites like BackYardHive.com Also be sure to check with your city or county ordinances—sometimes you can get a property tax break for having a hive on your land.
If you’re not a beekeeper, but still want to help the little beauties out, plant a diverse selection of flowers in your garden to help attract bees and consider not using chemical applications on your plants and soil. The bees will thank you for it.
Darla Antoine on a recent visit to Washington State.
Darla Antoine is an enrolled member of the Okanagan Indian Band in British Columbia and grew up in Eastern Washington State. For three years, she worked as a newspaper reporter in the Midwest, reporting on issues relevant to the Native and Hispanic communities, and most recently served as a producer for Native America Calling. In 2011, she moved to Costa Rica, where she currently lives with her husband and their infant son. She lives on an organic and sustainable farm in the “cloud forest”—the highlands of Costa Rica, 9,000 feet above sea level. Due to the high elevation, the conditions for farming and gardening are similar to that of the Pacific Northwest—cold and rainy for most of the year with a short growing season. Antoine has an herb garden, green house, a bee hive, cows, a goat, and two trout ponds stocked with hundreds of rainbow trout.
Dan Bates / The Herald A bald eagle prepares to leave its perch on Smith Island near I-5 and the Snohomish River in January.
Noah Haglund, The Herald
EVERETT — Biologists see Snohomish County’s Smith Island project as their best chance to revive threatened chinook salmon in the Puget Sound basin.
Others consider it a threat to their livelihood.
The project is a massive undertaking to breach an old 1930s dike along Union Slough north of Everett and build new dikes farther from the water. By flooding more than 300 acres, the county hopes to bring back some of the salmon habitat converted to farmland after settlers arrived here in the 1800s.
“The Snohomish River basin is the most important chinook-producing river in the Puget Sound area, second only to the Skagit River system,” County Councilman Dave Somers said. “Rebuilding the Snohomish River is a very top priority for the entire Puget Sound.”
By sheer size, the Smith Island proposal is the second largest estuary-restoration project in the region after the 750-acre Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge in the south Puget Sound.
It will come at a price: $18 million, most of it from grants. The total includes $2 million from the city of Everett.
That’s an awful lot to pay, some argue, for a project estimated to restore 900 or so spawning adult chinook per year to the Snohomish River and its tributaries.
There’s more to the cost than what the county will pay. A neighboring lumber mill and tree farm worry that resulting changes to the estuary could put them out of business. At a minimum, they want to see the county conduct more thorough studies.
There’s also a vocal contingent of farmers dead-set against what they view as needless destruction of what is now agricultural land. State law, they correctly point out, requires the county to protect farmland, even as federal law often spells out conflicting steps to protect salmon.
You can expect to hear more about Smith Island in the coming months — and beyond. After years of study, the county on June 10 issued a final environmental impact statement. That’s a precursor to seeking permits.
Balancing the competing needs of farmers and fish is one of the trickiest feats governments in Western Washington are asked to perform. It’s why Snohomish County convened the nonpartisan Sustainable Lands Strategy three years ago to seek equilibrium.
In Snohomish County government, it’s easy to find leaders on both sides of the fish-farmer teeter-totter.
Somers, who worked as a fisheries biologist for the Tulalip tribes before joining the County Council, said there’s solid science behind the Smith Island project and its benefits for salmon.
The county arrived at this point after more than a decade of study, he said. Nobody was forced from the land.
“We bought the land from a willing seller,” he said. “We have not condemned any land.”
Councilman John Koster, a former dairy farmer, is staunchly opposed because once saltwater floods the ground, it will become unfarmable.
“The bottom line for me is it’s taking out in excess of 300 acres of farm ground when we have people looking to farm and (it flies) in the face of our mandate to conserve farm ground,” he said.
While opposed to the project, Koster can’t see any way for the county to back out. To sell the land, the county would have to repay grants used for the purchase years ago.
“This is a freight train running down the track and I don’t know that it’s even possible to stop it,” Koster said.
The fate of the Smith Island project, from here on, won’t necessarily rest with the County Council.
With a final environmental impact statement issued, people can ask Snohomish County to consider any unanswered concerns.
The county must submit a shoreline development permit, among others, before breaching dikes or any construction. That permit can be appealed after it’s issued, likely late this year. The appeal would go to a state hearings board.
Smith Island sits between Union Slough to the east and the main stem of the Snohomish River to the west.
The county project involves the part of the island east of I-5 and north of Everett’s sewage treatment plant.
Buse Timber, on the west side of I-5, is one of the businesses that could be affected. Originally founded in 1946, Buse has about 70 workers and is now employee-owned.
“We’re not opposed to the project, we just need some assurance,” said Mark Hecker, Buse’s recently retired president and a former commissioner with the local diking district.
The company has two concerns: being protected from floodwaters and being able to use Union Slough to float logs to the mill.
“We’ve never had any flooding as long as those dikes have been there,” Hecker said. “So they’re pretty strong.”
Buse wants the county to make commitments about dredging the slough if the new dike system causes it to silt up.
“That channel is pretty critical for us,” Hecker said. “If that were shut off, it would seriously impact whether we could run or not.”
Another nearby business facing potential effects is Hima Nursery, an 80-acre organic farm on the east side of I-5. Owner Naeem Iqbal worries that tampering with the dikes would prevent his land from draining properly and allow saltwater to seep in, potentially wiping out his nursery.
On Friday, Diking District 5, which is comprised of local landowners, voted to appeal the county’s final environmental impact statement. They’re asking the county for further examination the issues business owners have raised.
“Negotiations with the county have been going on for two and a half years and some of those issues aren’t resolved yet,” attorney Peter Ojala said.
If not for the fish-habitat plans on Smith Island, some farmers would like to grow crops there.
Ken Goehrs, of Everett, represents a Mount Vernon farmer who’s had trouble finding good cropland in the Snohomish Valley.
As Goehrs sees it, the county is looking to spend millions to destroy ag land. If farmed, that same land could provide jobs for dozens of agricultural workers.
“There is not enough farmland here to start with,” he said. “It’s going to destroy farmland. It’s going to take jobs out of the valley and it’s going to take taxes out of their (the county’s) coffers.”
The Smith Island project was spawned by the 1999 Endangered Species Act listing of the chinook salmon.
The Smith Island property, by 2001, already had been identified the best of a dozen places in Snohomish County for re-creating salmon habitat, according to a report from the county’s Public Works Department. The other sites would have carried similar costs for realigning dikes.
Federal studies have identified two distinct populations of naturally spawning chinook salmon in the Snohomish estuary: Skykomish chinook and Snoqualmie chinook. Several environmental factors, including habitat loss, have driven those populations to about 3 to 6 percent of historical levels, respectively.
The Puget Sound Partnership, which consists of government agencies, businesses and the public, said the spot near the mouth of the Snohomish River has importance beyond those two groups of salmon.
“This project potentially benefits all 22 populations of chinook in Puget Sound, including Nisqually fish leaving Puget Sound that may use the Snohomish estuary as well,” spokeswoman Alicia Lawver said.
If completed, the Smith Island project would satisfy about a quarter of the goals for restoring salmon habitat in the Snohomish River basin.
The supermoon of 2012 rises over Entiat, Wash., in this photo by skywatcher Tim McCord snapped on May 5, 2012. (Tim McCord)
Joe Rao, Space.com
The largest full moon of 2013, a so-called “supermoon,” will light up the night sky this weekend, but there’s more to this lunar delight than meets the eye.
On Sunday, June 23, at 7 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT), the moon will arrive at perigee — the point in its orbit its orbit bringing it closest to Earth), a distance of 221,824 miles. Now the moon typically reaches perigee once each month (and on some occasions twice), with their respective distances to Earth varying by 3 percent.
But Sunday’s lunar perigee will be the moon’s closest to Earth of 2013. And 32 minutes later, the moon will officially turn full. The close timing of the moon’s perigee and its full phase are what will bring about the biggest full moon of the year, a celestial event popularly defined by some as a “supermoon.”
You can watch a free webcast of 2013 supermoon full moon on SPACE.com on Sunday at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 June 24), courtesy of the skywatching website Slooh Space Camera.
While the exact time of the full moon theoretically lasts just a moment, that moment is imperceptible to casual observers. The moon will appear full a couple of days before and after the actual full moo most will speak of seeing the nearly full moon as “full”: the shaded strip is so narrow, and changing in apparent width so slowly, that it is hard for the naked eye to tell in a casual glance whether it’s present or on which side it is.
During Sunday’s supermoon, the moon will appear about 12.2 percent larger than it will look on Jan. 16, 2014, when it will be farthest from the Earth during its apogee.
Supermoon’s big tides In addition, the near coincidence of Sunday’s full moon with perigee will result in a dramatically large range of high and low ocean tides. The highest tides will not, however, coincide with the perigee moon but will actually lag by up to a couple of days depending on the specific coastal location. [The Moon Revealed: 10 Surprising Facts]
For example, for New York City, high water (6.3 feet) at The Battery comes at 8:58 p.m. EDT on Sunday, or more than 12 hours after perigee. From Cape Fear, N.C., the highest tide (6.5 feet) will be attained at 9:06 p.m. EDT on Monday, while at Boston Harbor a peak tide height of 12.3 feet comes at 12:48 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, almost 2 days after the time of perigee.
Any coastal storm at sea around this time will almost certainly aggravate coastal flooding problems. Such an extreme tide is known as a perigean spring tide, the word spring being derived from the German springen, meaningto “spring up,” and is not — as is often mistaken — a reference to the spring season.
Spring tides occur when the moon is either at full or new phase. At these times the moon and sun form a line with the Earth, so their tidal effects add together (the sun exerts a little less than half the tidal force of the moon.) “Neap tides,” on the other hand, occur when the moon is at first and last quarter and works at cross-purposes with the sun. At these times tides are week.
Tidal force varies as the inverse cube of an object’s distance. We have already noted that this month the moon is 12.2 percent closer at perigee than at apogee. Therefore it will exert 42 percent more tidal force at this full moon compared to the spring tides for the full moon that will coincide with apogee next January.
Huge moon at moonrise Usually the variation of the moon’s distance is not readily apparent to observers viewing the moon directly.
Or is it?
When the perigee moon lies close to the horizon it can appear absolutely enormous. That is when the famous “moon illusion” combines with reality to produce a truly stunning view. For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, a low-hanging moon looks incredibly large when hovering near to trees, buildings and other foreground objects. The fact that the moon will be much closer than usual this weekend will only serve to amplify this strange effect.
So a perigee moon, either rising in the east at sunset or dropping down in the west at sunrise might seem to make the moon appear so close that it almost appears that you could touch it. You can check out this out for yourself by first noting the times for moonrise and moonset for your area by going to this website of moonrise times by the U.S. Navy Oceanography Portal.
Her son, Kyle Lohse, who has a World Series ring and is a starting pitcher with the Milwaukee Brewers, may get most of the national headlines, but Leslie Lohse is one of the most successful businesswomen in California and a prominent tribal leader. And her leadership is being recognized and utilized.
On June 18, California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced the appointment of Leslie Lohse to the California State Athletic Commission.
Lohse, of Glenn, is a Board Member of the California Tribal Business Alliance and tribal council treasurer and assistant administrator for the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians since 1998. She is a member of the Rolling Hills Clinic Board of Directors and member of Tehama County, Girls Inc.
Lohse was chair of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Central California Agency Policy Committee, vice president at the National Congress of American Indians, board member of Northern Valley Indian Health, member of the Bay Delta Public Advisory Committee and served on the National Indian Health Services Budget Committee.
“Representing the Governor on the California State Athletic Commission is very much an honor,” Lohse said. “This is in line with my commitment to support and promote a vibrant California. Our Governor and the Legislature are working hard to ensure California is flourishing. I’m happy to be part of the team moving our state forward.”
Although this position requires Senate confirmation, that legislative formality is expected to be taken care of quickly and affirmatively.
Leslie Lohse’s son Kyle was signed as a free agent by the Brewers before the start of the season.
In addition to business and tribal work, Lohse has worked tirelessly to help women and girls succeed. She is a founding board member of the national non-profit organization Girls Inc. in Tehama County.
“Today’s women are faced with many decisions that our moms did not, or were not encouraged to deal with from a position of strength,” Lohse told Global Gaming Business in 2011. “Therefore, it is imperative to show our young girls and women that it’s OK to speak up from a position of knowledge and strength.”
Lohse learned this lessen on her own based on her family dynamic growing up. Being the 12th of 14 children and having six older brothers, she learned at an early age how to hold her own.
“I knew it was important for them to understand there wasn’t always one way,” she todl GGB, with a laugh. “I may not have been as physically strong as they were, but I definitely could compete and do well, even win sometimes due to my ability to think outside the box.”
Lohse was also named the 2012 Woman of the Year for California’s Second Assembly District.
“Leslie is a passionate and dedicated citizen who ably serves her revered and historic Nomlaki tribe, her community and her state through her selfless leadership,” said Assemblyman Jim Nielsen. “Her energy and abilities have ensured a bright future for generations now and yet to be born in the north state.”
Leslie, as Treasurer of the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Band of Indians, participated in putting together the Tribe’s purchase of over 2,000 acres near Corning, and was instrumental in bringing about the construction of the 70,000-square-foot Rolling Hills Casino that includes three restaurants. She also played an active role in the tribe’s success in bringing about two new hotels next to the casino, the John Daly Signature links-style Sevillano Golf Course, and a private hunting club to the tribal lands. The tribe recently opened the Rolling Hills Clinic, on in Corning and one in Red Bluff, to provide medical and dental services for the county.
The health clinic is especially important to Leslie, who is an active community advocate dedicated to making Tehama County a safer, healthier, and more prosperous community.
Lohse and her husband, Larry, live in Willows. In addition to Kyle, they have a second son, Erik, and four grandchildren.
Chilkoot Indian Association, Menominee Tribal Enterprises win grants to support clean, renewable energy projects, help reduce the risk of wildfire and provide economic opportunities to their rural communities
U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell today announced the award of nearly $2.5 million in grants to 10 small businesses and community groups for wood-to-energy projects that will help expand regional economies and create new jobs.
“These grants help grow new jobs, support clean energy production and improve our local environments, especially in reducing fire threats,” said Tidwell. “Communities from Massachusetts to Alaska will benefit from the program this year.”
The projects will use woody material removed from forests during projects such as wildfire prevention and beetle-killed trees, and process woody biomass in bioenergy facilities to produce green energy for heating and electricity. The awardees will use funds from the Woody Biomass Utilization Grant program to further the planning of such facilities by funding the engineering services necessary for final design, permitting and cost analysis.
In fiscal year 2012, 20 biomass grant awards from the Woody Biomass Utilization Grant program totaling approximately $3 million were made to small business and community groups across the country. This $3 million investment leveraged more than $400 million of rural development grants and loan guarantees for woody biomass facilities. The program has contributed to the treatment of more than 500,000 acres and removed and used nearly 5 million green tons of biomass at an average cost of just $66 per acre. Grantees also reported a combined 1,470 jobs created or retained as a result of the grant awards.
The program helps applicants complete the necessary design work needed to secure public or private investment for construction, and has been in effect since 2005. During this time period, more than 150 grants have been awarded to small businesses, non-profits, tribes and local state agencies to improve forest health, while creating jobs, green energy and healthy communities.
Out of the 17 applications received, the Forest Service selected 10 small businesses and community groups as grant recipients for these awards. According to the requirements, all 10 recipients provided at least 20 percent of the total project cost. Non-federal matching funds total nearly $6.3 million.
The following are the 2013 woody biomass utilization grantees:
2013 Woody Biomass Utilization Grantees
Chilkoot Indian Association, Haines, Alaska $35,000
The mission of the U.S. Forest Service is to sustain the health, diversity and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. The agency manages 193 million acres of public land, provides assistance to state and private landowners, and maintains the largest forestry research organization in the world. Public lands the Forest Service manages contribute more than copy3 billion to the economy each year through visitor spending alone. Those same lands provide 20 percent of the nation’s clean water supply, a value estimated at $7.2 billion per year. The agency has either a direct or indirect role in stewardship of about 80 percent of the 850 million forested acres within the U.S., of which 100 million acres are urban forests where most Americans live.
More than 350 people attend the summit at the Sanford Center in Sioux Falls to discuss American Indian health research. Credit Kealey Bultena / SDPB
KealeyBultena, South Dakota Public Broadcasting
Partners in three states are working with Native American communities to focus on health in Indian country. A federal grant worth more than $13 million establishes a collaboration to research American Indian health in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota.
Researchers from one dozen health and education organizations meet with members and advocates of America Indian communities. It’s a break on day two of a major health summit in Sioux Falls, and a young woman chats with fellow college students at the conference.
“I’m Courtney Rocke. I’m part of the SURE program, the summer undergraduate research experience,” Rocke says. “I’m from New Mexico; I’m Lakota and Navajo, and I’m majoring in pre-med biology.”
The University of North Dakota junior wants to be an oncologist. She’s particularly interested in cancers found in women.
“Because there’s not a lot of data right now on Native American women and cancer, and that’s a really health disparity,” Rocke says. “The average age on these reservations for Native American women is 30-45, and that’s a really big problem.”
Rocke says her culture ties her to the reservation, which is why she plans on amassing knowledge and skills in higher education to establish her practice on reservations. The future M.D. says discussions surrounding collaborative research for American Indian health inspire her, and one particular speaker unexpectedly piqued her interest.
“I never really thought about public health, but how he spoke and was like ‘We have to change public health now and IHS, and if we’re not going to change it, it’s going to stay forever and people are going to keep getting sicker. Nobody’s going to do anything about it.’ That really touched me, so now I’m looking into public health after my undergrad,” Rocke says.
The breadth of possibilities collaboration offers tribes and non-Native people is unimaginable. That’s according to educator Gene Thin Elk. He’s a Lakota man from Rosebud Sioux Tribe who says all cultures are returning to “indigeniety.” He says that may not be a real word to most people, but it is to Thin Elk.
“It’s this process of indigeniety I talk about,” Thin Elk says. “It’s that there are people actually returning back to common sense, returning back to teachings of the earth, the mother earth.”
“I think this is the time. It should have been the time a long time ago, when our first surgeons and our first MDs from Indian Country came out.” -Courtney Rocke
He says people recognize that embracing the lessons of the past is the way forward. Thin Elk presents at the conference, and his speech examines how tribal nations can be legitimate partners in research to identify health challenges and develop real solutions.
“Research is not new. They used to be able to look out and watch and observe and learn, and as the people observed and learned, to look at it and push in that direction so we can find the things that we need to find out. good, bad or indifferent, and we learn from those,” Thin Elk says.
Thin Elk says he’s been to 454 indigenous nations in the last three decades. His view is that teachings of American Indian culture can benefit people around the globe, but non-Native practices also prove helpful for Native communities. Thin Elk says that symbiosis is desirable – but not at the expense of sovereignty. He notes that protecting intellectual and physical property used in research, elements like genetic codes, blood and tissue samples, is a paramount value.
Russ Zephier from Pine Ridge is a committee member on the Oglala Sioux Tribe Research and Review Board.
“If there’s any individual, group, whatever wants to come onto the Pine Ridge reservation to do research in the health field or whatever it might be in diabetes or heart disease, whatever, they have to come through our board first to get our approval before they can do this,” Zephier says.
That means the Sioux people have standing to allow or disband research, that the committee has a right to know what studies researchers conduct, how they perform those trials, and what the experts find. Zephier says the tribes are open to more collaboration, but money is a significant hurdle in Native health care.
“They have something that they call contract health. If an individual is injured, if they can’t provide that service in Pine Ridge or any of the hospitals on the reservations, then they can send them out to Rapid City or Sioux Falls or wherever, but those funds are limited, so they go on priority stuff,” Zephier says. “If someone has real major issues, then they do it.”
Zephier says he hopes funding issues don’t stand in the way of research and discoveries in mental and physical Native health, particularly incidence of obesity and diabetes.
Native American educator Gene Thin Elk says that’s where the latest generation asserts itself. He says this segment of young people who’ve become educated in health practices possesses the resources for change which spreads up the societal hierarchy.
“We have this generation of elders and traditional healers who are saying, ‘Okay, we’re open to collaboration now and we’re more willing to do that,’ because we have those younger people who can articulate for us and watch out for those things, because they’ve been educated in the process,” Thin Elk says.
“I think this is the time. It should have been the time a long time ago, when our first surgeons and our first MDs from Indian Country came out,” Rocke says. “There’s more now, and it’s growing as time goes on. And we’re learning that everything we were told through assimilation and genocide isn’t true, that we can accomplish whatever we want.”
Pre-med student and Native American woman Courtney Rocke says the new research initiatives offer her cultures a chance at improving health community-wide. She says that’s because people are now actively working to change the situation instead of musing that somebody should.
Health systems, universities, and tribes from three states are part of the Collaborative Research Center for American Indian Health. Specific projects for research in Native American health are currently working through federal approval.
Gaspar Ramos, 16, watches the meter on the datasonde, a water quality measurement tool that gives information about factors such as temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen, while Jonah Black, 19, records the results on the Dickey River near LaPush. The two students receive high school science credit doing work through the North Olympic Skills Center Natural Resources program in cooperation with Quileute Natural Resources and the Quileute Tribal School.
Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
Gaspar Ramos, 16, strides confidently to the edge of the Quillayute River and drops a hydrolab datasonde that measures water quality parameters into the water. The Quileute tribal member has worked with the water quality equipment enough to look like he has been doing it for years.
Ramos might one day have a job just like it if the introduction by the Quileute Natural Resources and the North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center Natural Resources program creates an interest in pursuing education needed for natural resources work. The Skills Center offers project-based field science classes and work on real-world projects in local ecosystems. The Quileute Tribe provides the jobs for the two tribal students to shadow as well as do project work.
The ideal pathway is that the next step is an internship, that provides paid education awards through AmeriCorps, followed by college or a job,” said Dan Lieberman, the coordinating teacher for the Skills Center Natural Resources, headquartered in Port Angeles.
The students spend half a day a week, outside of regular class hours, working with the tribe and the Skills Center Natural Resources program. Ramos and Jonah Black work on water quality and job skills assignments with Nicole Rasmussen, water quality biologist for the Quileute Tribe. They also are introduced to other jobs and shadow other biologists in tribal natural resources.
We’ve always had a core mission to attract tribal students to working in natural resources jobs,” said Frank Geyer, assistant director of Natural Resources for the Quileute Tribe. “We’re happy to have the Skills Center Natural Resources program as another partner in our efforts of getting tribal students out to see what jobs are available here and how it applies to their treaty rights.”
The Skills Center Natural Resource program has been working in the Forks area for less than a year, but began in Port Angeles five years ago. It now serves all five school districts in Clallam County and provides students opportunities to obtain high school and sometimes college credit by working with a variety of natural resource organizations like tribes, Olympic National Park, Olympic National Marine Sanctuary and area timber companies.
For students like Ramos, the work provides an opportunity to design their own scientific questions and methods to answer them on the job. He has been measuring the salinity levels of various spots in the Quillayute River system and making predictions based on the results. “It’s interesting. When I was little, I would always see people on the river doing experiments, so I asked them what they were doing. They told me they didn’t like sitting in the office much and that their job allowed them to be outside a lot,” Ramos said. “That sounded like a good idea to me, too.”
If the Legislature can’t reach a deal by Sunday, state parks would close, state workers would be laid off and the lottery would halt
Jerry Cornfield, The Herald
OLYMPIA — As legislative leaders insisted Thursday that they are nearing agreement on a new state budget, the governor’s office offered a preview of what might occur if they fail and a partial government shutdown ensues.
State parks will close, the lottery will halt, and most convicted criminals will be monitored less closely outside prison walls if Washington is forced to cease many of its operations July 1.
Those are among the hundreds of programs and services which would be halted or scaled back, according to an analysis released by the Office of Financial Management.
In all, 34 state agencies would be completely shut down and 24 others would incur a partial cessation, said Mary Alice Heuschel, chief of staff for Gov. Jay Inslee. Twenty-five agencies would continue operating because they are funded wholly or in large part from sources other than the state’s general fund.
Meanwhile, the leader of the state Senate predicted the Legislature can be done Sunday, one day before layoff notices are sent to thousands of state workers.
“We are going to finish on Sunday and there will be absolutely no shutdown of state government,” said Senate Majority Leader Rodney Tom, D-Medina, who is a member of the Majority Coalition Caucus ruling the Senate.
Senate and House budget negotiators said Thursday they are making steady progress but are at least a day away from achieving an agreement in principle that can be written up and voted on. House Speaker Frank Chopp declined to say if he thought a budget could be passed by Sunday.
Planning for the shutdown won’t stop until the Legislature acts on a spending plan for the biennium that runs from July 1 though June 30, 2015.
Among those agencies that can expect to be shuttered include the Lottery Commission, Public Disclosure Commission and Liquor Control Board.
Washington’s largest agencies, such as the Department of Social and Health Services and Department of Corrections would curtail some activities while community colleges, universities and the court system will stay open.
Also, the Washington State Patrol and Washington State Ferries will operate because those are funded through the state transportation budget, which has been signed in law.
Only once before has the Legislature come this close to forcing a government shutdown. That occurred in 1991 when the House and Senate approved a budget early June 30 and Gov. Booth Gardner signed it shortly before midnight.
Here is a sample of what might happen:
•Most community supervision of ex-convicts would be halted;
Prisons would not accept new inmates;
Offenders in local or tribal jails for violating probation as of June 30 would be released;
Licensing and regulation of real estate brokers, home inspectors, barbers, cosmetologists and many other professions would be suspended;
The State Patrol would halt involvement in Snohomish County Auto Theft Task Force;
No lottery tickets would be sold or drawings conducted;
Horse racing at Emerald Downs would be halted;
State parks would be closed and camping reservations for early July canceled.
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