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Marmot Pass in The Olympics, Photo by Peter Guerrero
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Protect the Peninsula's Future Annual Meeting--You're Invited!
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Join Protect the Peninsula’s Future (PPF) special guest speaker, Dr. Alexandra Morton, at PPF's (virtual) annual meeting, Thursday November 18, 7 PM. Dr. Morton, will talk about her decades of research, struggles, setbacks and successes to save salmon, the key food for Northern Orcas. Dr. Morton moved to a remote archipelago on the BC coast in 1984 to study orca, but became an expert on the devastating impact of industrial aquaculture on wild British Columbia salmon populations.
Canadian government policy maintained salmon farms were harmless, which allowed fish viruses, bacteria and sea lice to flourish on the farms. Morton published science on the impact of sea lice and viruses, took the industry to court five times and never lost, and finally occupied several salmon farms over 280 days with local First Nation members. Today, 38 salmon farms are closed or scheduled to close. She will describe how this happened, the damage by the industry and the work that lies ahead. RSVPs required.
PPF formed as a 501c3 nonprofit in 1973 and is based on the North Olympic Peninsula of Washington State.
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North Olympic Election Endorsement Results--Five for Five!
This year the North Olympic Group endorsed two candidates for the Sequim City Council, two candidates for the Port Angeles City Council, and a Port Angeles Port Commissioner who we had endorsed previously and was running unopposed.
Three of the four City Council candidates we endorsed were running against candidates backed by an organization whose endorsed candidates have either disavowed the existence of climate change or exhibited a lack understanding of the science underlying it.
We undertook, for the first time, a PAC funded mailing to our members and supporters drawing attention to the importance of these races and asking them to vote for our endorsed candidates. We sent over 500 mailings and it likely made a difference in at least two of the races where our endorsed City Council candidates in Port Angeles eked out victories, the winning margins being just over a hundred votes in one instance and a bit more in the other.
We are pleased to say that all 5 of our endorsed candidates were elected, they include:
- La Trisha Suggs, Port Angeles City Council
- Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin, Port Angeles City Council
- Vickie Lowe, Sequim City Council
- Lowell Rathbun, Sequim City Council
- Coleen McAleer, Port Angeles Port Commission
But of course it couldn't have been done without you, our members. Sierra Club members care deeply about the environment and consistently turn out to vote for candidates who share their interest in protecting our planet for future generations. Hats off to you! |
And, in the news:
The Puget Sound Partnership reports that after more than 10 years of reporting indicators and comparing them to ecosystem recovery targets for 2020, disturbing patterns emerge: Few indicators reached their 2020 ecosystem recovery targets, signaling that ecosystem conditions are not good enough to say the system is resilient or recovered. Taken all together, indicators send mixed signals about the health of Puget Sound.
The Chair of the North Olympic Group received a grant in 2021 from the National Sierra Club through its Grassroots Network Grant Program. The goal was to hire a professional engineer to review peer-reviewed articles on alternative technologies for handling the solids in sewage after the raw sewage is processed. The solids are typically mixed with other wastes such as food scraps and/or yard wastes, then composted, and then applied to farm fields, sold as commercial compost, spread on forest lands, or incinerated. All options have serious consequences since the solids still contain thousands of chemicals and even pathogens.
The Olympic Forest Coalition and colleague plaintiffs, Washington Environment Council and Conservation Northwest, and individual plaintiffs, were in the Washington Supreme Court October 21st. Their lawsuit seeks to remove a barrier to balanced and ecological forest management by giving DNR the discretion to pursue, in addition to timber harvests, other benefits including: carbon management and climate stability; protecting clean water, species and habitats; protecting against landslides and floods during extreme weather events; supporting the regrowth of older, complex forests for future generations; and providing for non-timber forest products, cultural and recreation values. The case centers on the interpretation of the Washington Constitution that states all public lands granted to the state are held in trust for “all the people”.
State Democrats Call for Breaching Snake River Dams: The Sierra Club and its allies have long called for the region’s elected officials to step up and take critical actions, including breaching four fish-killing dams on the lower Snake River, to support recovery of endangered salmon, steelhead and salmon-dependent orcas. With Democrats in control of both houses of Congress and Democratic NW members in key positions in House and Senate, influencing those key players is critical. That’s why some recent news is big news for our campaign. The Washington State Democrats Central Committee has overwhelmingly endorsed a call for breaching the dams. The Dems acknowledged the bipartisan leadership of Senator Murray, Governor Inslee and Idaho Representative Mike Simpson. “This action by Party activists from across the state sends a clear signal to elected officials that action to recover endangered salmon, steelhead and Southern Resident orcas is long overdue,” said Washington Sierra Club Chapter Vice-Chair, Marc Sullivan.
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How to Get Involved
Port Angeles has a public workshop on its climate resiliency plan coming up on November 17, 6pm. For more details click here:
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Port Angeles is holding a public hearing on draft changes to its zoning code to increase residential building capacity at the city council meeting on Tuesday, November 16. For more background, click here:
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Who uses 4 billion gallons of increasingly scarce water a year? Click here to find out if Port Townsend plans to address excessive water use by the Port Townsend Papermill. Key city council meetings are coming up: November 15 and in December. Plan on attending virtually to: (1) Ask the city to set rates that will encourage water conservation in light of climate change; (2) Limit any contractual agreement to no more than 10 years. Click here for staff's recommendation and the City Council's virtual meeting calendar:
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The North Olympic Group's website contains a blog that's updated to reflect current environmental issues and events. Members are encouraged to periodically check it out.
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