Sound Bites: Bite-Sized Bits of News From Around Puget Sound

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Farmed Salmon Boycott: Several dozen West Coast restaurateurs and retailers are supporting a boycott of farmed salmon started in British Columbia in protest of existing aquaculture techniques, according to the Associated Press. From the Northwest to New England, salmon farming’s critics contend the operations contribute to ocean pollution, compete unfairly with wild fish and spread disease. A group called the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform is aiming a “Farmed and Dangerous” campaign directly at consumers, who can now get salmon year-round. Aquaculture was a $37 million business in Washington state in 2001, composed primarily of Atlantic salmon and oysters. In British Columbia, it’s a $300 million-a-year (Canadian) business with at least 85 salmon farms. More than 85 percent of the fish is exported to the United States. (See this issue’s story on the salmon debate.)

Attorney Challenges Salmon Count: In a case with far-reaching implications for endangered species listings, Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Russ Brooks charged the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) with manipulating counts of allegedly “threatened” salmon by refusing to count hatchery Chinook salmon. Instead, the NMFS counted only “naturally spawned” salmon, in violation of the Endangered Species Act. “Chinook salmon are abundant,” said Brooks. “In fact, we’re currently seeing record returns. Yet, NMFS refuses to count Chinook salmon born in hatcheries in order to keep Endangered Species Act counts artificially low and the listing validated.”

No Ads in the Schoolroom: Bainbridge Island parents are asking their school board to regulate what they call “cradle to grave” brand identification in island schools. The encroachment of corporations into public schools has been the subject of debate nationally for several years. In an era of scarce public funding, many districts have bitten at the grants, software or instructional materials that bait commercial hooks. But, as one parent suggested, relying on corporate dollars absolves the government of its mandate for funding education, creating a vicious circle. Board member Bruce Weiland conceded to the Bainbridge Island Review that he couldn’t promise the district will never look to corporate dollars, if funding becomes scarce. But the board will consider some administrative guidelines next spring. How restrictive those guidelines will be is uncertain.

Loggers Aid Finds Better Use: When logging virtually stopped on Northwest national forests to protect the spotted owl and salmon, timber towns around the Northwest shared $1.2 billion in government aid to help them adapt to a changing economy, according to the Associated Press. A new study concludes that money spent putting unemployed loggers to work was only marginally successful, but real progress came where timber towns used the money to develop local leadership, community pride and a vision of the future. Contrary to popular belief, the study also found that many of the mill shutdowns and economic woes affecting timber towns began years before environmental lawsuits and the Northwest forest plan sharply reduced logging on national forests.

Best Little Golf Town: Golf Digest recently ranked Bellingham the seventh best little golf town in America. The study was based on afforability, star rankings of golf courses and, incredibly, the number of nice-weather days to play golf!

Corporate Charity Goes Paperless: In 2001-2002, United Way of America raised an estimated $5 billion in charitable contributions. With such a large base of donors, the costs associated with processing each pledge, including the physical distribution and collection of pledge cards and managing the campaign account, were substantial. To automate this information, the United Way turned to Microsoft technology to build an “e-philanthropy” program to facilitate corporate giving via the Internet and bring more efficiency to its fundraising efforts.

Puget Sound’s Forgotten Prairies: The Center for Biological Diversity announced in December that a coalition of environmental and scientific organizations had filed petitions with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to put 12 Puget Sound-area species on the federal endangered species list. The petition suggested that prairies are Puget Sound’s most endangered yet most forgotten ecosystem. Among the species listed on the petition are the horned lark; the island marble butterfly, which was thought extinct until rediscovered on San Juan Islands in 1998; and eight pocket gophers, three of which may already be extinct.

Mystery of the Decapitated Bighorn: In December, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife was offering a reward of at least $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for killing and decapitation of a female bighorn sheep in the southeast corner of Washington. The killing of a big game animal during closed season is a gross misdemeanor subject to criminal penalties of up to $1,000 and a year in jail, plus civil penalties of $4,000. Local residents found the Rocky Mountain bighorn ewe’s body, minus the head, on Nov. 22 in the Grande Ronde River. WDFW officers reported that the sheep’s body was evidently dropped into the river from the bridge. The bighorn sheep population in southeast Washington is rebuilding from severe losses due to disease in the mid-1990s. The loss of a ewe is biologically significant to a herd relying on lamb production for recovery, the WDFW reported.

Protecting the Environment Too Difficult for Some: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently issued a permit allowing wetlands to be filled for the proposed third runway at Sea-Tac Airport, according to the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce. But opponents of the development, who have been in battle with the airport for more than 10 years over the $773 million improvements, went to the U.S. District Court to appeal the decision. The port has many legal issues to resolve before they can resume runway construction, but the port argues that half the state Pollution Control Board’s conditions make construction of the 8,500-foot runway too difficult! §