Here’s a thought…
“The competition between Nature and the economy is deep and broad.
In the short term, the economy usually wins. In the long term …?”
BILL APPEL
Public Meeting | Land Bank using prescribed fires to manage wildfire risks & restore ecosystems
||| FROM SAN JUAN COUNTY COMMUNICATIONS ||| A consortium of organizations is researching prescribed fire as a tool to reduce wildfire fuels in the San Juan Islands. Studies indicate that fire occurred every 6–15 years
Willow cultivation and crafting by Maria Bullock
||| FROM PERRI GIBBONS for ORCAS ISLAND GARDEN CLUB ||| Please join us on Wednesday, March 19th at the Orcas Center when the Orcas Island Garden Club welcomes Maria Bullock to speak about cultivating willow
4.5 magnitude earthquake strikes Orcas Island
||| FROM KOMO-TV NEWS ||| If you felt some shaking while making your Monday morning coffee, you weren't imagining things. People across western Washington felt it, too. At 5:02 a.m., a 4.5 magnitude earthquake struck
Bellingham taps Orcas glass sand
To take a valueless material and find a use for it! ||| FROM THE SALISH CURRENT ||| Orcas Island’s trailblazing project to divert heavy, discarded glass away from destination landfills and back to the productive
Updates from The Exchange
||| FROM ORCAS ISLAND RECYCLING/THE EXCHANGE ||| Household Hazardous Waste Clean-up in March Another Springtime tradition: Cleanout the toxins! On March 15 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. bring us your chemicals—everything from cleaning supplies
Forest Service loses billions subsidizing logging, not cleaning outhouses
||| FROM THE WILDLIFE NEWS ||| We have all read about the thousands of Forest Service employees Elon Musk laid off without cause in Trump’s reckless attempt to cut the Federal budget by $2 trillion.
Goodbye, El Capitan | Islands Oil Spill Association in action
||| FROM ELAINA THOMPSON and BILL SYMES for ISLANDS' OIL SPILL ASSOCIATION ||| The San Juan Islands’ miles of beautiful shoreline are amongst their greatest attractions to residents and visitors alike, but also one of
Rep. Larsen and Sen. Cantwell to Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration: Fund the Pipeline Safety Trust
||| FROM THE OFFICE OF REP. RICK LARSEN ||| BELLINGHAM, WA – Yesterday, Rep. Rick Larsen and Sen. Maria Cantwell sent a letter to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration Associate Administrator Ben Kochman expressing
A rare alignment of 7 planets is taking place in the sky this week
||| FROM SCIENCE ALERT ||| A very rare treat is about to grace Earth's night skies. On the evening of 28 February 2025, all seven of the other planets in the Solar System will appear
Wind gusts up to 50mph expected thru Tuesday morning
||| FROM NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ||| URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Seattle WA 227 PM PST Sun Feb 23 2025 San Juan County-Western Whatcom County-Southwest Interior-Western Skagit County-Everett and Vicinity-Tacoma Area-Admiralty Inlet Area-Hood
What does it mean to home harden?
||| FROM THE WILDLIFE NEWS ||| I have written numerous critiques of the current fire policies that primarily focus on hinterland fuel reduction by logging and prescribed burning. While some limited use of these strategies
After 10,000 years, let’s bury the plow
No-till farming reduces need for fertilizers and pesticides, and promotes soil health and biodiversity. ||| FROM WASHINGTON POST ||| Since the first farmers tilled the soil more than 10,000 years ago, the plow has been
90 dolphins stranded in Australia are being euthanised
Here's why they can't be saved ||| FROM SCIENCE ALERT ||| Wildlife rangers will Wednesday begin shooting 90 dolphins stranded on a remote Australian beach, saying the stressed creatures would be euthanised after attempts to
OPALCO candidates announced
Vote in OPALCO's election! Voters eligible to win prizes! ||| FROM KRISTA BOUCHEY for ORCAS POWER & LIGHT COOPERATIVE ||| The OPALCO election opens March 5 th and the Co-op will be hosting a Candidate
WWU receives grant to update and expand Health of the Salish Sea Ecosystem Report
||| FROM WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY ||| New research led by Dr. Aquila Flower will add climate change and landscape change indicators to a collaborative report on trends in the transboundary Salish Sea ecosystem. Climate change
