Northern Alligator Lizard Habitat at Discovery Bay

This south facing shoreline bluff at Discovery Bay had abundant lizards. Initially I did not really notice the scurrying of the lizards as I walked along. It wasn't until afterwards their presence registered.

 

The habitat is the result of a number of factors. The site had a south aspect, is in the dry rain shadow of the Olympic Range, had extremely well drained sandy soils from recessional outwash gravel and sand and a frequency of slope failures that was not too extreme to wipe out the habitat, but maintained open areas, and a built up beach with lots of drift wood for hideouts. Alas, I was not quick enough to get any pictures once I realized what I was seeing. But still a great example of geology, climate and landslides creating a unique critical (for lizards) habitat.  burkemuseum.org/herpetology/reptile/northern_alligator_lizard

 

 

Ecology's Coal Scope Non Precedent

Washington State Senator Doug Ericksen's (R-42nd) sent a letter to the Washington State Department of Ecology expressing concerns about the scope of the Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed coal terminal in Whatcom County. His view reflects the views of many coal terminal supporters. The letter and reply from Ecology has generated some fairly typical posturing (washingtonstatewire.com/ecology-on-hot-seat-about-coal-port-analysis-business-calls-it-bizarre-worrisome/).

The primary concern is about precedent regarding these scope items Ecology is requiring for the review:

• A detailed assessment of rail transportation on other representative communities in Washington and a general analysis of out-of-state rail impacts.
• An assessment of how the project would affect human health in Washington.
• A general assessment of cargo-ship impacts beyond Washington waters.
• An evaluation and disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions of end-use coal combustion.

However, despite coal terminal proponents protestations, the scope of review Ecology is seeking may not really be all that much of a precedent in the larger picture of environmental impact statements for similar projects. A rail project from the Powder Basin to the upper Midwest was required to review transportation impacts and noise impacts. The initial EIS process assessed impacts to traffic and emergency vehicles and which led to a project mitigation requirement to have in place two new grade separated crossings to address emergency vehicle delays. (Note there was an interesting geology component to the rail routing in the EIS that led to expanding use of the existing rail line through potential traffic problem areas)

And upon appeal a limited further review of noise was required and a review green house gas emissions was required (ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/03/10/021359P.pdf).

In the opinion the Court stated that indirect effects must be reviewed and that "Indirect effects are defined as those that are caused by the action and are later in time or further removed in distance, but still reasonably foreseeable. It is reasonably foreseeable - indeed, it is almost certainly true that the proposed project will increase the long term demand for coal and any adverse effects that result from burning coal. We believe that it would be irresponsible for the Board to approve a project of this scope without first examining the effects that may occur as a result of the reasonable foreseeable increase in coal consumption."

In the context of the similar scale coal terminal project at Cherry Point and the 8th Circuit opinion, Washington State Department of Ecology is being responsible. But not everyone agrees. 

Change in the Weather Music

I've been a bit hooked on First Aid Kit I think in part due to the weather change that is coming. Their song Emy Lou starts with the line "The bitter winds are coming in and I am already missing the summer". First Aid Kit are from Sweden so no where near the cold in western Washington as in essentially all of Sweden. That said, it will not be long and our northwest Washington temperatures will stop reaching 60 and we will have that long chilly stretch of weather that requires a bit of tolerance. The second line of the song is "Stockholm is cold, but I've been told that I was born to endure this kind of weather". 

Our winters are not severe, but we do go a long time with no warm weather. A cold front is moving in late today and another with wind on Sunday. We may get some more dry warm weather late next week so a little early fall warm still might be left.

Another First Aid Kit song that brings some nostalgia as well as a reminder of a current loved one has a wonderful line regarding what the living in the north is like, It always takes me by surprise how dark it gets this time of year". Our days are getting very rapidly short, but Sweden still beats us on that particularly in the north of the country.

Lummi Dry Dock and Island Mountains

Every September the Lummi Island ferry goes to dry dock for maintenance and very often repairs. In a past period I was always up on the latest hull repair costs to the old boat, but I had never experienced dry dock directly. I have had an ongoing project on Lummi so I had my chance recently. Passenger only ferry service is provided by the Salish Sea during dry dock. As I have been going walk on anyway the difference for me was how I had to park from the ferry landing on the main land side. 

 

On my walk back to the car, I had nice views of the two highest island peaks as a frontal system began to arrive.

Mount Constitution on Orcas Island with the northern part of Lummi in the foreground 

Lummi Peak, the mountainous south half of Lummi Island

Don't Know Much About Mushrooms

Jon Krakaeur, author of Into the Wild has an update on his theory on the death of Chris McCandles (http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/09/how-chris-mccandless-died.html). Something to think about when it comes to western Washington wild food.

My wild food diet is rather restricted - particularly when it comes to mushrooms. I was reminded of that last week while coming across a fair number of wild mushrooms in the field. I have limited my mushroom consumption to only two kinds and suspect that I am missing out on a variety of others. I did sprinkle some cut up chantrelle mushrooms on my Sunday pizza, but otherwise I mostly find the sudden explosion of fall mushrooms as a nice surprise in the forest and I reminder of how little I know.

Fog and Ship Traffic

Friday last week was very fogy at least where I was (Bellingham was apparently sunny most of the day). I enjoyed the view of fog and boat traffic from a bluff in Port Townsend while discussing slope issues. There were two fog layers - one on the water and the higher marine stratus. The ships in the fog disrupted the conversation even for the locals: the view was simply too cool to discuss geology.  

Kennewick heading out to Keystone. Tree covered horizon is Marrowstone Island 

A once common view in Port Townsend

A tall masted ship heading out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca

A Note on Syria: An Exponential Case Study?

Been a bit hard not think about Syria. There have been a spat of articles regarding the pre civil drought in Syria. The drought caused a great deal of economic hardship and brought about significant internal and external refugee pressures. Sometimes climate does cause societal shifts. This idea is not new, but it will be very worthwhile to look back and wonder at what might have been done differently from a national security perspective. NASA was tracking the drought very early on.

The USDA recognized in 2008 that what was happening in the north of Syria was likely a bigger problem than Syria could handle. usda.gov/2008/05/Syria_may2008.htm

And the early consequences were being published widely by 2010 (nytimes.com/2010/10/14/syria.).

Besides the drought anther factor that sometimes gets mentioned in discussions of the Middle East is the population of the Middle East doubled between 1950 and 1980 and since 1980 it has doubled again. The population increase combined with the lack of social mobility due to small boundaries, tribal issues, cultural issues and simply a lack of anywhere else to go set Syria up for a crisis that the country simply could not handle.  

Predicting the future is a tough business. But when the US military cites global climate change as a major threat to US security, they may now have an all too real recent example to point to. And add to that population increases and what that really means when up against a resource (food) subject to climate disruption.

Kurt Kobb, an energy and oil resources writer brings attention to Al Bartlett's lecture on exponential function and population and energy with the statement, "The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function."