PUD Commissioner: Grid stability underlies our quality of life

Time to build local power generating capacity?Bernard urges public to get involved. Image by Laurseum from Pixabay By Paula Hunt Peninsula Daily News  Clallam County Public Utility District commissioner Phyllis Bernard urged residents and business leaders to take a more active role in shaping the countyโ€™s power future, saying public participation is essential as the PUD plans long-term …

Wildfire Pretense Logging: The Trojan Horse Destroying Public Lands

Image byย James De Mersย fromย Pixabay What do these recent actions on public lands have in common? The Orwellian โ€œFix Our Forestsโ€ Act. Trumpโ€™s executive order to expand American timber production. The rescinding of the Roadless Rule. โ€œEmergencyโ€ designation across 112 million acresโ€”59% of National Forests. All of themโ€”unprecedented in scale and scopeโ€”push industrial logging under the …

News roundup: The Gates of Doom

Climate scientists take Bill Gates to task. Image by Augusto Ordรณรฑez from Pixabay First off, thank you to everyone who joined last weekโ€™s virtual event, where four leading climate scientists shared about Bill Gatesโ€™ controversial climate memo. If you couldnโ€™t make it, theย full video is here. Rather than summarize the entire discussion, here are a few useful quotes …

Farewell to Bob Lynette

OCA founding board member dies at 88 Engineer, entrepreneur, social activist, visionary, and environmental hero Bob Lynette died on September 30 in the company of his loved ones. On top of a jet-propelled career in aerospace and wind energy, Bob combined a love of the outdoors--he could still outhike most folks into his 80s--with a …

Sun Day asks: Can our common ground be based in the sky?

What's the path forward given today's politics? Image by Ben Kerckx from Pixabay With the national Sun Day event approaching,ย includingย here on the Olympic Peninsula on Sept. 21, organizers Bill McKibben and Jamie Henn ponder where we can go from here when 35 years of climate activism seem to be stymied. Is it time to tone down the ideologies …

Republican Bill Bryant: Save Doc Holliday and other legacy forests

Image of Doc Holliday Timber Sale byย Scott F McGee /ย forest2sea.com Logging trees next to an Olympic Coast campground and cutting a century-old forest above the Strait of Juan de Fuca shows why Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Commissioner Dave Upthegrove was right to pause new logging contracts. Unfortunately, his decision came too late to save …

The Other Side shares our concerns — Can we hear them?

Image byย Zdeno Kittlerย fromย Pixabay When we hear the underlying concerns of those who oppose our views, Dr. Renรฉe Lertzman shows how opportunities to communicate and connect improve. She is a leading climate psychologist, strategist, advisor, and trainer. For over 20 years, she has partnered across sectors and political affiliations, with communities, leaders and organizations around the …

Oppose the rollback of the Roadless Rule

June 23, 2025 Climate Forests Campaign Responds to Trump Administration Rollback of the Roadless RuleLongstanding Rule Protects More Than 58 Million Acres of Forestlands  SANTA FE โ€“ Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced on Monday a rollback of the Roadless Rule, a policy that has protected more than 58 million acres of our National Forest System against …

‘Active Managementโ€™ Harms Forests โ€” And Itโ€™s About to Get a Whole Lot Worse

Forest management approaches promoted as โ€œresilience,โ€ โ€œrestoration,โ€ โ€œfuel reduction,โ€ and โ€œforest healthโ€ often degrade natural systems and reduce carbon stocks. Image byย hagenstaadtย fromย Pixabay Deciding what's best for our forests depends on who is making the decisions. Logging practices have swung from clearcutting to many forms of selective logging. Increased logging is now being justified because it …

Controlled burns reduce wildfire risk, but they require trained staff and funding โˆ’ this could be a rough year

Image byย PublicDomainImagesย fromย Pixabay "When careful, evidence-based forest management is replaced with a heavy emphasis on suppressing every fire or clear-cutting forests, I worry that human lives, property and economies, as well as the natural legacy of public lands left to every American, are at risk." -- Laura Dee Read More From the Conversation

Value the legacy forests for the life that is there

A walk through the Upper Rutsatz forest โ€” saved from logging afterย advocacy action in 2022ย โ€” underscores how legacy forests differ from plantation forests; a commentator explains why that understanding is vital. -- Sattva Photo "What industry wants to โ€œclean upโ€ looked to me like wildlife habitat. And rather than forests โ€œfalling into disrepair,โ€ what I …

More Options for State Forests

ย Reijo Telarantaย fromย Pixabay County commissioners and city council members are questioning the decisions of the Department of Natural Resources and the Legislature to log mature forests. The benefit to rural communities is often less from logging than most people know. Read the story from the Seattle Times Op-Ed.

Forest Service: your “greatest good” goal right now should be to protect our older forests

By Jim Furnish and Renรฉ Voss, The Missoulian Kai deSilva --Pixabay In the early 20th century, Gifford Pinchot, the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service wrote what is now considered the agencyโ€™s mission statement: Where conflicting interests must be reconciled, prioritize โ€œthe greatest good of the greatest number in the long run.โ€ This approach …

I Pledged $1 Million to Plant New Trees. My Money Could Have Been Better Spent.

Clayton Cotterell for The New York Times I asked the Forest Service to guarantee that the saplings planted using my money would not grow up only to be logged later by the timber companies. The agency declined. But overcome, I suppose, by pie-in-the-sky do-gooderism, I pledged the money anyway. Over the next few years, over …

LETTER:Cut elsewhere

We need more loggers, not less.We gathered earlier this year on the banks of the Elwha River.An Indigenous elder welcomed everyone to their lands.They called on us to not be divided, thanked us for caring for the forests and river.Asked us to be grateful, to forgive.Environmentalists, loggers, tribal people were all there with families.Port Angeles …

Support both our older forests and our timber economy

Kaylee Galloway, Whatcom County Council - Bellingham Herald, 4/12/23 Whether you are traversing trails surrounded by old growth trees or cheering in the stands of the Deming Logging Show, forests have long been at the core of our Whatcom County culture and economy.In recent months, residents across Whatcom County have turned to their state and …

Save our mature forests for climate, wildlife, water

"Working Forests" do little for our climate Editorial by John Talberth, Center for Sustainable Economy Everett Herald, April 8, 2023 A recent commentary (โ€œKeep stateโ€™s working forests in climate change fight,โ€ The Herald, March 18) gets it dead wrong: Forests that are left to grow, big, tall, and old capture and store far more carbon …

Carpe Diem Moment on Forests and Climate Policy

"Include mature forests โ€ฆ not just old growth" "Nationwide MOG protections would establish U.S. leadership on the Paris Climate Agreement (natural sinks and reservoirs) and the Glasgow Forest Pledge to end deforestation and forest degradation. It would demonstrate progress toward 30 x 30 and present a global model for effective forest and climate response. "Most …

Paul Stamets Supports Legacy Forests

Paul Stamets at Elwha River overlook "Our old growth forests are undervalued โ€“ we should not be deceived that short term gains in selling lumber accurately reflects the value of the intact biodiversity resident within these ancient stands. In particular, varieties of  Agarikon (Fomitopsis officinalis aka Laricifomes officinalis) are now known to have potent antiviral properties. But …

One Final Meeting for City of Port Angeles’ Climate Resiliency Plan

Three years in the making, the Port Angeles Climate Resiliency Plan is finally ready for prime time! OCA Steering Committee member Bob Vreeland wrote a compelling letter to the PDN about the proposed Climate Resiliency Plan for the City of Port Angeles. Bob was also quoted in a comprehensive article by PDN's Ken Park in …

Save Washingtonโ€™s legacy forests to save ourselves

Board members of theย Center for Responsible Forestryย (to whom OCA donated $5000 last month to continue their excellent work) just published this piece in the Seattle Times. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR), announced it is setting aside a small amount of older forests for carbon storage instead of timber harvest. At the same time, the …

Ed Fallon Report — Here come the migrants

Dear Friends, Click here for this week's podcast (details below) ... including my conversation with Des Moines City Council candidate, Marcus Coenen (click here). The highlight of my week occurs every Thursday at 8:00 a.m. Sadly, it's not a good highlight. That's when the National Drought Mitigation Center releases its update about conditions across the US. Sure, I …

Letter to the Editor: Climate Assembly as Cooperative Example

Peninsula Daily News | January 19, 2021 Democracy depends on our ability to cooperate.As the nation confronts an ugly national divide, we must remember that the only way forward is together, and as hard as that way might seem right now, it starts with people talking and listening to one another.Here in Washington, residents from …

More about the complex history of our past economic recoveries

Although COVID-19 emerged as a new challenge, the disproportionate impacts of crises such as COVID-19 on black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) are not new. Rather, disproportionate health and economic impacts on BIPOC communities directly correlate to a history of structural and institutional racism. From housing segregation to community disinvestment to the criminalization of …

Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness;

A Short List of People in America Who Were Not Freed in 1776 By Arleen Jenson (โ€œJenson,โ€ย They/Them)Farm Manager and Co-Owner, SisterLand Farms Independence Day celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independence in particular, but has become a holiday celebrating American freedom in general; complete with patriotic merchandise, eating outdoors, the wearing of nationalist symbols, …

Greta Thunberg: Humanity has not yet failed

Sommar & Vinter i P1 | Jun 20 - 75 min. https://open.spotify.com/episode/7E2Wz3C5XwtEw3Pi96tLQA?si=gOHyk4gOSMGxKcgdaoc4lg Spotify URL - https://open.spotify.com/episode/7E2Wz3C5XwtEw3Pi96tLQA?si=gOHyk4gOSMGxKcgdaoc4lg Episode Description Climate activist Greta Thunberg urges world leaders to do more. Doing our best is no longer good enough. We must now do the seemingly impossible, Thunberg says in the Swedish Radio show Summer on P1 where she …

A Novel Approach to Climate Action at the State Level

By Cindy Jayne An effort is afoot to bring an ancient Athenian democratic process to Washington State โ€“ a Citizenโ€™s Assembly, where a representative group of randomly chosen Washington State residents would come together to make recommendations on how the state could address climate change. Citizen Assemblies have been happening all across the world to …

Subaru: Stop Helping the Trump Administration Make Cars Less Efficient

Updated with NEW Letters The Union of Concerned Scientists (Winter 2020) reports that Subaru is in a group of automakers trying to fight California's right to keep a higher emission/efficiency standard while the Trump administration is rolling back the national standards. OCA member Janis Burger is a Subaru owner and she's written a letter to …

COVID-19, Capitalism, and Climate Disruption

How will the coronavirus change perceptions of climate change By Krestine Reed Iโ€™ve become interested in how COVID-19 sequestration (a.k.a. social distancing and shelter-in-place) may effect GHG and other factors contributing to climate change. There is much being written that acknowledges just how little time is required to make a significant visible and measurable change. …

DNR: Adopt a forest carbon policy

By consensus at our Oct. 6 meeting, OCA has sent the following letter to the State Board of Natural Resources and Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gShz1QaPB3YwDD97ElLv5L9Yk48SeQa4/view?usp=sharing Excerpt: The Washington State Public Lands Commissioner has a legal obligation to investigate and consider all reasonable, foreseeable mitigation and adaptation measures related to climate change. The DNR …

Leviathans in the Harbor

More and bigger cruise ships are crowding coastal destinations. When is enough, enough? Who gets to decide? by Brian Paytonย ,ย August 27, 2019, Hakai Magazineย 'Knoll Lowney, the lawyer representing the three plaintiffs who claimed they were victims of Carnivalโ€™s environmental violations, said, โ€œTime and time again, Carnival has shown its contempt of environmental laws and the …

Democratic primary voters overwhelmingly prefer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal to Joe Biden’s climate plan

Democratic primary voters overwhelmingly prefer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal to Joe Biden's climate plan Eliza Relman & Walt Hickey 'Democratic primary voters much prefer the more ambitious plans to fight climate change proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee over former Vice President Joe Biden's relatively less aggressive proposal, according to …

โ€˜And a Child Shall Lead Them,โ€™ or: How This Boomer Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Green New Deal

โ€˜And a Child Shall Lead Them,โ€™ or: How This Boomer Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Green New Deal Ross Macfarlane 'I am talking to my peeps: those of us who get the science, care deeply about the environment and the need for climate action, and are filled with both disgust and determination at …

I work in the environmental movement. I donโ€™t care if you recycle.

I work in the environmental movement. I donโ€™t care if you recycle. Stop obsessing over your environmental โ€œsins.โ€ Fight the oil and gas industry instead. By Mary Annaise Heglar Updated Jun 4, 2019, 9:33am EDT 'When people come to me and confess their green sins, as if I were some sort of eco-nun, I want …

DNC silences climate debate

DNC tells Inslee it won't host climate debate DNC won't host a climate debate, and if another org holds one any candidate who participates can't be in DNC debates. I can only assume they haven't read this: New Report Suggests โ€˜High Likelihood of Human Civilization Coming to an Endโ€™ Starting in 2050

The Three Causes of the Worldโ€™s Four Big Problems

Deep Transformation, or What Londonโ€™s Climate Change Protests Teach Us About the Future umair haqueApr 22 - from Medium.com It was a perfect spring day. I was trying to get home to Camden Lock from Oxford Circus, after meeting a few friends for coffee downtown. A sirenโ€™s blare cut through the noisy crowds. Soon enough, police …

Glaciers and Arctic ice are vanishing. Time to get radical before it’s too late – Bill McKibben

Bill McKibben -- Wed 10 Apr 2019 06.00 EDT No one should be annoyed when schoolkids start leaving class en masse or surprised that Green New Deal advocates call for dramatic overhaul of American society. We should be grateful. @billmckibben 'The respectable have punted; so now itโ€™s up to the scruffy, the young, the marginal, the …

โ€œFalterโ€: In New Book, Bill McKibben Asks If the Human Game Has Begun to Play Itself Out

All three parts of the interview can be accessed from this page link. Thousands are taking to the streets in London today to demand radical action to combat the climate crisis. Protesters with the group Extinction Rebellion have set up encampments and roadblocks across Central London and say theyโ€™ll stay in the streets for at …

How Google, Microsoft, and Bit Tech are Automating the Climate Crisis

Author: Brian Merchant Source: Gizmodo 'These deals, many of which were made just last year, at what may be the height of public awareness of the threats posed by climate change, are explicitly aimed at streamlining, improving, and rendering oil and gas extraction operations more profitable.' Full Article:ย How Google, Microsoft, and Bit Tech are Automating …

Fantastic Thread On a Green New Deal

Rhiana Gunn-Wright addresses the question of whether the GND is simply a "Progressive laundry list". https://twitter.com/rgunns/status/1094048679667924993 https://twitter.com/rgunns/status/1094048685841879040 https://twitter.com/rgunns/status/1094048689088282624 https://twitter.com/rgunns/status/1094048692204724225 https://twitter.com/rgunns/status/1094048695300046848 https://twitter.com/rgunns/status/1094048698596818944 https://twitter.com/rgunns/status/1094048701549551616 https://twitter.com/rgunns/status/1094048704963710976 https://twitter.com/rgunns/status/1094049076885315585

Green New Deal reality check

From: Post Carbon Institute <newsletter@postcarbon.org> COULD A GREEN DEAL SAVE CIVILIZATION?by Richard HeinbergIs there a set of policies that could actually avert climate catastrophe while saving civilization? Yes, at least in principle.ย  READ MORE 

Dr. Guenther Twitter Thread

On talking about climate change https://twitter.com/DoctorVive/status/1089899109509672965 https://twitter.com/DoctorVive/status/1089900347433328647 https://twitter.com/DoctorVive/status/1089901090898878464 https://twitter.com/DoctorVive/status/1089902486159278080 https://twitter.com/DoctorVive/status/1089903691795218432 https://twitter.com/DoctorVive/status/1089904734339846144 https://twitter.com/DoctorVive/status/1089906253793501186 https://twitter.com/DoctorVive/status/1089907595652067328 https://twitter.com/DoctorVive/status/1089908959631343618

Conservation International Presents

Nature is Speaking Featuring short films personifying Nature, narrated by folks we know well. JOAN CHEN is SkyPENELOPE CRUZ is WaterHARRISON FORD is OceanLIAM NEESON is IceEDWARD NORTON is SoilLUPITA NYONGยดO is FlowerLEE PACE is MountainROBERT REDFORD is RedwoodJULIA ROBERTS is Mother NatureIAN SOMERHALDER is Coral ReefREESE WITHERSPOON is HomeSHAILENE WOODLEY is Forest