December-2020
Squalicum Creek looking upstream from the pedestrian bridges just north of Sunset Pond Park. The stream is flowing from east to west.Photo: Courtesy of the city of Bellingham. by Giovanni Roverso Like their shoreline neighbors at the heart of the Salish Sea, Whatcom residents are fortunate to live [Read More...]
Compiled by Barry MacHale Action Taken at September 29, 2020 Meeting Shall the council: 160. Appoint Patricia Lulu to the Drayton Harbor Shellfish Protection District Advisory Committee? The committee advises the County Council on water quality issues in the Drayton Harbor watershed. At the 6/16/2020 meeting, vote #102, council voted [Read More...]
Compiled by Bill McCallum Action Taken at September 15, 2020 Meeting Shall the commission: 78. Authorize the executive director to award the low bid of $285,898 for repairs to buildings at the Teal Jones Lumber Services’ property in Sumas? At the 8/3/2004 meeting, vote #87, the commission approved a lease [Read More...]
The National Audubon Society’s annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) originated in 1900. It began as an alternative to the Christmas Side Hunt where people went out to see how many birds they could kill on Christmas Day. A small group of conservation-minded individuals across the country decided it would be [Read More...]
Short-eared owlphoto: Joe Meche by Joe Meche Throughout the Covid Summer of 2020 and into the fall, many of us have sought ways and means to deal with a world turned upside down by the ongoing pandemic. Before the great news from the recent election, we were still [Read More...]
Lorraine Loomis USEPA Photo by Eric Vance. Public domain image by Lorraine Loomis I wish there were better news in our 2020 State of Our Watersheds Report that will be released later this month, but at best we are treading water on a few indicators of the overall [Read More...]
Lorraine Loomis USEPA Photo by Eric Vance. Public domain image by Lorraine Loomis This fall marks the 50th anniversary of an event that sparked the landmark ruling by federal Judge George Boldt in U.S. v. Washington that upheld our treaty-reserved rights to hunt, fish and gather. It was [Read More...]
The light in a fiber-optic cable travels through the core by constantly bouncing from the mirror-lined walls (cladding), a principle called total internal reflection. Because the cladding does not absorb any light from the core, the light wave can travel great distances. Source: www.shireeninc.com/fiber-optics-and-its-importance/ Editor’s Note: The [Read More...]
North Fork of the Nooksack rapids at Horseshoe Bend photo: Ron Kleinknecht by Eric Hirst My January 2020 paper published in Whatcom Watch, “Nooksack River: Too Little Water, and it’s Getting Worse,” examined summer flows in the Nooksack River, measured at Ferndale, from 1967 to 2019.(1) These data [Read More...]
Boris Schleinkofer, poetrywatch editor “When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.” — John F. Kennedy Do You Enjoy poetrywatch? Artwork by [Read More...]