Puget Sound Region

Tribes to gather water quality info during Canoe Journey for second year

Tribal canoes are participating in a water quality study in partnership with the USGS for a second year. Five canoes will tow water quality probes during the annual Tribal Canoe Journey, which culminates at Suquamish Aug. 3-8.

The Daily Herald:

To learn about what happens on and in the water, one of the best places to be is in the belly of a canoe — about a foot away from the surface, moving more slowly than most other vessels. That’s why federal scientists have asked tribal canoeists, for the second year in a row, to help them find out more about the health of the water in the Puget Sound region. (more…)

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Tribes to gather at treaty site

The Seattle Times and the P-I both reported on a historic gathering of the Point Elliott Treaty tribes tomorrow in Mukilteo.

The Seattle Times:

More than 150 years ago, Native tribes from across the Puget Sound region signed a treaty in Mukilteo giving up their land in exchange for reservations, cash and tribal fishing and hunting rights.

(more…)

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Puget Sound Treaty Indian Tribes, Shellfish Growers Reach Pact

OLYMPIA (May 18, 2007) – Puget Sound treaty Indian tribes and commercial shellfish growers have finalized an agreement that will protect and enhance the resource while resolving legal issues from a federal court ruling that re-affirmed treaty-reserved tribal shellfish harvest rights. The pact resolves lingering legal issues from a 1994 federal court ruling that upheld the tribes’ treaty-reserved shellfish harvest rights. The agreement preserves the health of the shellfish industry, recognizes the importance to the tribes of their shellfish harvest rights and provides greater shellfish harvest opportunities for everyone in the state.

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The Healing Path

There is only one path that leads to the healing of Puget Sound, and it is one that we all must walk together. Puget Sound is sick. It’s becoming filled with poison and starved of oxygen. The eelgrass and other plants that support life in the Sound are dying. Orcas and salmon are not far behind.

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Strong Laws Will Protect Salmon

November 1, 2004

We need good, strong laws to protect salmon.

King, Pierce and other counties surrounding Puget Sound are strengthening habitat protection rules by updating their Critical Area Ordinances. These rules are required under the Growth Management Act. They protect water quality, prevent flood damage and make sure new development doesn’t harm salmon.

Making these rules stronger is a great idea. They will prevent trees from being cut down along salmon streams and keep oily water from running off our roads and into Puget Sound. They will protect what salmon need most, good habitat and cool clean water.

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On Earth And On Mars – Water Is Life

As the Mars Rovers scout the so-called angry red planet in search of ancient signs of life-sustaining water, it is good to be reminded of the critical link between life and this precious substance. We earthlings might even wonder if we’re getting a little glimpse of one of our own possible futures.

Is it even remotely possible that our lush blue and green planet could one day be like Mars, where oceans consist of dust and rock in place of deep waters swarming with diverse and magnificent forms of animal and plant life? Will explorers from some other world send rovers here one day seeking signs of primeval life on a planet that was once blessed with living and growing things?

Such a fate may seem too remote to ponder, but the fact is we’re already seeing signs that make such a scenario somewhat plausible.

(more…)

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