The new 120-foot long, two-lane dock has a state-of-the-art ice machine capable of holding 110 tons of ice and has five offloading terminals, up from two on the old dock that became unsafe late last year. (more…)
Washington Governor Jay Inslee visited the Hoh, Quileute and Makah tribes Friday and heard a number of environmental concerns. See the article in the Peninsula Daily News.
The treed cougar flattens his ears as the howls of professional hunting dogs mix with the shouts of Makah tribal wildlife biologists in a snowy forest in the hook Game Management Unit near Neah Bay.
While February’s snow on the North Olympic Peninsula was unwelcomed by many, it’s exactly the kind of weather conditions needed to successfully track and collar cougars.
“Without the snow, it’s hard to track cougars, even with dogs,” Rob McCoy, wildlife division manager for the Makah Tribe said. “But snow makes fresh tracks easy to find and we can get the dogs on the proper track.” (more…)
The tribe is conducting several research projects to better understand the numbers of elk calves and black-tail deer fawns born each year and how many of them survive to maturity.“Without this kind of specific knowledge, it can be easy to over-estimate the expected rate of increase in a population and make mistakes in harvest management plans,” said Rob McCoy, wildlife division manager for the Makah Tribe.
"There's no good season for an oil spill," said Chad Bowechop, marine manager for the Makah Tribe's Office of Marine Affairs.
The Peninsula Daily News posted a story about an oil skimmer joining an oil spill rescue tug on the Makah reservation in Neah Bay. The oil skimmer Arctic Tern heas…
It happened again Dec. 3: Another near grounding of a cargo ship off the Washington coast at our home in Neah Bay. Forty-foot seas powered by 90 mph winds knocked out the main steering on the 720-foot Mattson Kauai near the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Waves shattered all of the windows in the ship’s wheelhouse as the vessel wallowed offshore. Thankfully, the ocean rescue tug Gladiator was on station and able to tow the Kauai to safety. Sadly, neither the state nor federal government will commit to financing placement of a rescue tug year-round in Neah Bay. Close calls like the Kauai don’t make much of a splash in the news, and they happen more often than you know. In the past eight years, the part-time rescue tug at Neah Bay has assisted more than 30 ships in distress. Every year more than 2,000 cargo ships enter the Strait of Juan de Fuca bound for Puget Sound.
The Seattle Times today reports on the culvert case ruling and the challenges of replacing fish-blocking culverts:
More than 1,676 culverts from Neah Bay to Walla Walla block more than 2,377 miles of potential salmon habitat. And those are just the culverts owned by the state Department of Transportation. Pipes owned and maintained by other state and local agencies add to the problem.
It’s been a well-known problem for years. But culverts recently became a big, costly liability for the state.
Last summer, U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo S. Martinez agreed with 20 of the state’s Indian tribes that the state has a duty to fix problem culverts because they diminish salmon runs, and that violates the tribes’ fishing rights guaranteed by treaties signed in the 19th century.
NEAH BAY (December 23, 2003) Tribal and federal marine biologists gained valuable information about the endangered sei whale as a result of a necropsy (animal autopsy) that was performed on…
NEAH BAY (September 16, 2003) The rescue tugboat Barbara Foss began its first day of duty of the 2003-2004 winter season today. The Neah Bay- based tug received a rousing send-off in Seattle Monday from Makah tribal council members, state legislators and other guests.
Unlike past years, the tug’s funding is firm for the next five. “This is a great step – to have the commitment from the state for multi-years and with bi-partisan support,” said Nathan Tyler, Makah Tribal chairman. “We are very grateful for that support and we hope to get the federal support to have that protection year-round, not just in the winter months,” he said.