Thursday July 9, 2009, 7:00PM-9:00PM at The Mountaineers - "Crossroads on the Columbia"

The film Crossroads on the Columbia chronicles
a community’s response to private energy
investment companies’ proposals to build
controversial Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)
receiving terminals on the lower Columbia River
near the historic town of Astoria, Oregon. The
passion and power of grass roots activism set
against the backdrop of the beauty, heritage
and history of the Columbia Pacific Region
make this a compelling story of America at the
crossroads of fossil fuel dependence,
renewable energy and decisions over who
controls our air, water and economy.

After the film, join Dan Serres, Conservation Director of
Columbia Riverkeeper, to discuss the details of
LNG projects targeted for our region. Learn about
the impacts of importation terminals and pipelines
to our forests, rivers, and communities and how
you can take action and join the movement:

• LNG projects would drastically increase
Washington’s greenhouse gas emissions

• LNG competes with a clean, renewable
energy future

• Cowlitz Co. WA is threatened with pipeline
development that could use eminent
domain

July 10, 2009 - Ice Caves Trail on Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest Reopens

Help celebrate the opening of the Ice Caves Trail Bridge with a ribbon cutting ceremony. Washed out by floods in 2006, the bridge accesses one of the most popular trails on the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

When: FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2009 at 10:00AM.

Where: 25 miles east of Granite Falls along the Mountain Loop Scenic Byway, park at the Big Four Picnic Area lot. Overflow parking available half mile up the senic byway at the Ice Caves Trailhead. Follow connector trail back to the Big Four Picnic Area.

Saturday July 11th - Team Up with the North Cascades Conservation Council for a Plant Restoration Day at Diablo Lake Overlook

Join the volunteer work party to help restore a native plant community at the Diablo Lake Overlook on State Route 20. Volunteers and National Park Service staff will remove non-native invasive plants in the morning and collect seed from native plants in the area in the afternoon. We will plant some of the seed where they have pulled weedy species and some will be propagated in the park nursery for future use.

Plan to camp at Newhalem Creek Campground for the NCCC-sponsored evening program (see below). A group campsite has been reserved for volunteers. Please RSVP by email to: ken@skookumpeak.com, or call 360-733-7014.

July 11, Saturday – Evening program on NCNP Newhalem Creek Campground Amphitheater Slide program on the “Wilderness Alps.” Come hear the story of how North Cascades National Park came to be — as told by some of those who were there in the 1950s and 1960s working to create the new park. Presented by the NCCC.

June is National Rivers Month!

June is National Rivers Month! American Rivers is presenting their popular "National River CleanupTM Program" again this year. If you would like to participate, you can find an American Rivers sponsored cleanup event near you by linking to the American Rivers website here

Kick Off of the Completion of North Cascades National Park Campaign held at The Mountaineers May 15th

Check out the front page Seattle Times article on the American Alps Legacy Campaign to complete North Cascades National Park here

Sign Up to Conduct Invasive Plant Surveys in the Middle Fork Snoqualmie Valley

Do you like to hike and look at plants? Would you like to help stop the spread of invasive plants into one of the most pristine wilderness areas in King County? If so, we welcome you to join our team of weed watchers looking for invasives in the Middle Fork Snoqualmie Valley.

Volunteers are needed to survey trails throughout the Mid Fork Valley from Mt. Si to Dutch Miller Gap in the heart of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. By finding the new invaders early, we are able to quickly move to stop them and protect the relatively pristine upper watershed. To do this, we need many eyes out there on the trails watching for invaders. It helps to know common northwest plants, but we will train you to identify the key invasives, so you don't need to be an expert to be a weed watcher.

To find out more about the Mid Fork Snoqualmie Invasive Weed Project, visit our website here and read past reports about what we have done. (We may also expand the project to selected Wilderness trails along the South Fork.)

To join our team, come to an orientation meeting and practice day of surveying on Sunday, June 14, 2009. We will meet at the Snoqualmie Ranger Station in North Bend at 9:00 a.m in the meeting room behind the main building. After a short meeting and weed ID workshop, we will head up the Middle Fork Road to get some hands on practice surveying for invasive weeds and pick our trails for summer surveys. We should be back to North Bend by 5:00 p.m. or earlier.

For more information or to sign up, please contact Mark Boyar (mboyar@q.com) or Sasha Shaw (sasha.shaw@kingcounty.gov or 206-263-6468).

Global Warming a Threat to Human Health: EPA Hearing in Seattle May 21st

The EPA is holding hearings on the threat to human health posed by global warming in only two cities. Seattle is one of them.

Stopping global warming isn’t just a challenge, it’s a huge opportunity. It’s an opportunity for us to be at our best – Americans have proven time and again that given a chance, we’ve got the ingenuity and grit to tackle just about anything.

On May 21st Seattle will host one of only two EPA public hearings in the entire country. The EPA is seeking public input on their decision that global warming pollution is a threat to human health, the first step in establishing new rules to reduce global warming pollution.

A broad base of conservation, recreation, business and faith groups are planning a big rally outside the hearing, because it’s time for all of us to say with one strong voice: It’s time to tackle climate change!

Rally for Climate, Clean Energy, and Public Health

When: Thursday, May 21st at Noon
Where: Outside of Bell Harbor Convention Center, 2211 Alaskan Way, Pier 66, Seattle Waterfront
Who: Washingtonians who want action on climate change

There is power in numbers and that’s why we need YOU to be there
We need to make it crystal clear to our state and national leaders: the people of Washington want bold action on climate change! Washington is being given a huge opportunity to impact our country’s global warming policies.

American Alps presentation on May 15th, 2009

Dear Mountaineers:
I just want to remind all about the American Alps presentation at the clubhouse at 6:00 PM, Friday, May 15th, 2009. Leesa Wright has worked for many months with Jim Davis of the North Cascades Conservation Council (NC3) on proposals to expand North Cascades National Park, and this gathering will give all Mountaineers members an opportunity to hear about Jim's proposals and hear concerned and informative speakers, including the P-I's Joel Connelly, discuss the importance of expanding the park's boundaries. The Mountaineers has a long and distinguished history of working to establish our national parks in Washigton State, and this meeting will continue that tradition.

Hope to see all of you there!

Cheers,

Michael Shurgot

CEC Chair

The Dam Issue

The Mountaineers has a history, over a decade old, of supporting removal of the 4 Lower Snake River Dams for the purpose of restoring and protecting wild salmon runs.

This, itself, has been an issue for nearly 2 decades, and fell dormant under the Bush administration. Hopes rose again last January and recent judicial decisions (see Ed Henderson's piece in the April magazine, page 4), while not specifically supporting Dam removal, have certainly pointed the finger at the Feds, and specifically the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) to get their act together to protect the fish.

I suspect nearly all Mountaineer Members are perfectly aware of the historical and cultural importance of the Columbia-Snake river basin salmon runs, which once were the greatest in the world, and logically would support any efforts to help the Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection of salmon in the Snake/Columbia.

The trouble is, questions are being raised, under the spectre of Global Warming, and while no one is "against" protecting the salmon, one could rightfully wonder what impact dam removal would have on the twin spires of CO2: energy and transportation.

Investigating the impacts of damn removal involves immersion into a morass of bureaucratic alphabet soup, the details of which I will spare you here. What matters, as usual, are numbers But first, history, courtesy of Ed:

"The dams were originally built, in the 60's & 70"s, to supply power to DOE/DOD at Hanford to make nuclear weapons. The local booster group "Inland Empire" in Eastern Washington wanted them for barge transportation. RR's already existed there, but they weren't government subsitdized. Only one dam, Ice Harbor, the lowest down the river, provides irrigation for some 35,000+/- acres. In the scheme of things that ain't much.
 
The Mountaineers and many other group's objections to the dams are based on saving salmon. Global warming/climate change didn't enter into the conversation over ten years ago. Advocacy groups such as NW Energy and SOS Believe that the power lost can and should be replaced by conservation and renewables.."

The 4 dams are rated at a maximum output of 3,000-3,7000 megawatts, which is a phantom number because they are really only capable of producing 1250-1400 MW, because they are "run of the river" dams with little or no storage capacity in their reservoirs, which also means maximum power potential is during the spring, when electricity demand is low.

(Its worth pointing out that the 1250-1400 MW the dams can provide is about that which the state's only coal-fired power plant, in Centralia provides, at the cost of 16% of the entire states CO2 emissions. This isn't to suggest the lost potential from the dams is necessarily going to be made up by coal, its just meant to offer perspective.)

Another thing the dams provide is a deep water port in Lewiston, and barge traffic down river to Portland is made up of 85% agricultural products, primarily wheat and barley (for export, or course)., The idea would be to replace this with rail traffic (all subsidized, of course) but the obvious concern is what impact this all might have on increasing the CO2-emmissions inefficient truck traffic factor.

Getting back to the Power issue, It's worth pointing out that the area, primarily the Columbia Gorge, is ripe for wind power. The BPA has a nice brochure on wind power, and there is certainly the potential to make up for the 4 Dams.

links:
these are from the BPA, so take them for what they are worth!
BPA factsheet (pdf)
Federal Columbia River Power System brochure

Navigational Concerns paper from UW (no info on CO2 impacts)

Wolves delisted...

... now what? Lawsuits? Wolf Hunts? Not much has happened yet.
Washington post article
read about Idaho wolf management:
http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/cms/wildlife/wolves/