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
Happy New Year from The Exchange
||| FROM THE EXCHANGE ||| Happy New Year from The Exchange! 2024 was a great year at The Exchange—we reused and recycled more material than ever, saved a ton of carbon emissions thanks to our
Land Bank to meet
||| FROM SAN JUAN COUNTY LAND BANK COMMISSION ||| The San Juan County Conservation Land Bank Commission will hold a regular monthly meeting on January 17, 2025 from 8:30am – 11:15am via Zoom. The meeting will
Local Power Generation | Why the Bailer Hill Microgrid: Part 2 of 3
||| FROM KRISTA BOUCHEY for ORCAS POWER & LIGHT COOPERATIVE ||| The Bailer Hill Microgrid project on San Juan Island is a future Community Solar and battery storage site. Community Solar is a local solution
Reflecting on wildfire risk in the islands in wake of devastating So. California fires
||| FROM BRENDAN COWAN for DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ||| Lea este documento en español: https://www.sanjuancountywa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/31654/250109-Wildland-Fire-Awareness-ESP Fellow Islanders, The news of the catastrophic fires near Los Angeles is heart-wrenching. As we witness from afar the magnitude
A rare alignment of planets is about to take place in the sky
||| 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
Southern Resident orcas face uncertain future despite groundbreaking research efforts
||| FROM KOMO TV ||| It’s a race against the clock for scientists and researchers to learn more about two Southern Resident whale calves and their mothers. One calf, J61, was only a few days
Barcelona uses its tourist tax to tackle the effects of climate change
||| FROM CBS NEWS ||| After wide scale anti-tourism protests over the summer, Barcelona is trying to turn a negative into a positive by spending some of the money raised from the city's tax on visitors
La Niña has officially arrived. Here’s what that means for western Washington
||| FROM KOMO NEWS ||| After months and months of anticipation, we have officially entered the La Niña climate pattern we've been waiting for. La Niña is the opposing end of the spectrum from El
2025 Marine Naturalist Training Program Opens Registration
||| FROM CONOR AGNEW for THE WHALE MUSEUM ||| The Whale Museum has opened registration for the 2025 spring and summer sessions of the Marine Naturalist Training Program! This hybrid program is an intensive multi-day
It’s tick time again
||| FROM RUSSEL BARSH for KWIAHT ||| Native Blacklegged Ticks are questing again; in fact, they began their search for fresh hosts in the islands nearly a month earlier this year, presumably due to this
Health experts rally for ‘call to arms’ to protect children from toxic chemicals
In new paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, leading researchers to propose action to protect kids ||| FROM THE GUARDIAN ||| Children are suffering and dying from diseases that emerging scientific research has
‘The Santa Anas’ by Joan Didion
||| BY JOAN DIDION ||| There is something uneasy in the Los Angeles air this afternoon, some unnatural stillness, some tension. What it means is that tonight a Santa Ana will begin to blow, a
Washington State bans net-pen aquaculture
||| FROM NATIONALFISHERMEN.COM ||| Commercial finfish pen aquaculture appears finished in Washington State, after the Board of Natural Resources voted Jan. 7 to ban the industry. The vote was a victory for Washington State’s Commissioner
Why local power generation is important | Part 1 of 3
||| FROM KRISTA BOUCHEY for ORCAS POWER & LIGHT ||| OPALCO has been providing reliable power to the islands since 1937. Electricity is an essential and critical component to the modern-day lifestyles powering our hospitals,
Gas pains
||| BY LIN MCNULTY, theORCASONIAN EDITOR ||| As of Aug. 10, 2023, it cost $4.056 for regular gasoline in Idaho, according to AAA. In Washington, regular gasoline cost is $5.017. That’s a price difference of
