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News from BDSJS and Facing Climate Change
Oyster Country
Over the last month we’ve made three trips to the wet and windy Washington Coast for Facing Climate Change. Our focus is ocean acidification and how that is changing the operations of small, family farmers on Willapa Bay. (You can learn more about recent research in Craig Welch’s article in last week’s Seattle Times.) This story will be released as part of our new series on climate change in the Pacific Northwest.
A huge thanks to the folks at Goose Point, Harrolds Fish & Oyster Co, and Taylor Shellfish for all their help!
UPDATE: Here’s a fantastic article from Crosscut that explains the issue in more detail.
Back to Swinomish
Last week we were back in the field for Facing Climate Change. We’ve been chipping away on a climate change and coasts story with the Swinomish for the last year. On this trip we sat down with Larry Campbell, Brian Cladoosby and Ed Knight for closing interviews. We also spent time exploring the tribe’s economic development zone that’s perched just a few feet above sea level. We’ll release this story, along with seven others, this coming May. Thanks to our good friends Libby and Rusty for providing a perfect Skagit home base.
Back to Bell Rapids
Before the snow began to fall, I made a quick trip out to Hagerman, Idaho to revisit the Bell Rapids agricultural development for Facing Climate Change. Sara and I completed most of our fieldwork for that story in 2010, but it’s a tale of change in Big Sky Country and I knew I had to get above it. (Field notes from our first trip are here.)
Once again I turned to LightHawk for help. LightHawk is an organization that supports environmental initiatives with mission-based flights and this was our third collaboration for Facing Climate Change. With beautiful clear weather, pilot Dennis Fitzpatrick and I spent several hours in his Cessna working our way up the Snake River and over the 25,000 acres of abandoned fields.
What had been missing from our coverage – the scale of this economic shift and landscape-level change – was easily captured from the air. I made images of ghost pivots (the abandoned tracks of irrigation systems) under the shadows of new wind turbines, empty potato barns with their roofs blown off, and the Snake River winding its way through the dry plain.
A big thanks to Dennis and LightHawk and stay tuned for the release of this piece and the rest of our new climate change series later this year!
Paddle to Swinomish
In late July over a hundred tribes and First Nations from the US and Canada paddled towards the Swinomish reservation near La Conner, WA. The Tribal Canoe Journey takes place each summer in the Salish Sea, and this year the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community was the host. On the first day of the event, the host tribe formally grants the visiting canoes permission to come ashore to eat, rest, and share songs, dances and stories. Most of the canoes are paddled by youth, and for many of them the journey is an opportunity to learn and reconnect to the traditional ways of canoe culture.
Climate Change and Asthma
“What’s it like to try to breath on a high pollution day? Do ten jumping jacks, hold your nose, and breath through this.” Aileen Gagney from the American Lung Association handed me a thin bar straw.
For the human health story from our new Facing Climate Change series, we’ve been exploring how climate-related air pollution impacts people who have asthma. As temperatures rise, researchers project an increase in the number of days where ground-level ozone concentrations exceed regulatory standards. The ozone is created when sunlight reacts with emissions from vehicles and other sources, and it makes people who have asthma suffer more attacks. Those most likely to be hit hardest by health consequences like this include low-income families and seniors, another opportunity to consider climate equity.
We’ll be working with the King County Department of Health over the coming weeks to bring this issue to life. Check back soon for updates on our new stories.
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