A Not So Bad Whidbey Bluff

I took a short extra hike down a beach on the east side of Whidbey Island as the tide was way out.

 

A few notes on this very high and steep bluff. Although steep enough to be a bit off putting this bluff has some positive aspects geologically. First, the bluff material is all highly compacted glacial drift sediment or glacial advance outwash. It stands up so steep because it so hard and compacted and is almost concrete like. Note also the vegetation growing at the toe of the steep slope and on the upper beach. This indicates that waves and salt water very rarely reach the toe of this slope (at least of late). Hence, water erosion at this bluff has been very low. I suspect that the current main bluff erosion force on this slope in recent years has been freeze and thaw causing the outer layers to ravel off or stones to pop off the bluff face adding to the well nourished beach.

So, a not so bad bluff. There certainly are worse bluff sites on Whidbey Island.

Notes on Lake Whatcom Stormwater Infiltration

I had a geology hazard assessment project that took me out to the Lake Whatcom watershed east of Bellingham. Dug a few test pits with some interesting results. Not completely unexpected, but not expected either. Besides the geology I got a chance to check out some of the ways home builders have addressed stormwater in this sensitive watershed.

 

Probable glacial drift

 

A policy vote took place in the Lake Whatcom watershed last week. The County Council passed new updated development regulations to minimize potential phosphorus run off from new development in the watershed. A fair bit of the new language was simply clarification of existing regulations and got rid of some exemptions. The goal: any new development will not release phosphorus from the site at levels greater than natural background conditions. Lake Whatcom has dissolved oxygen issues that are linked to excess phosphorus inputs.

 

The County has made several upgrades to stormwater regulations in the Lake Whatcom watershed in the past. However, previous efforts were done without the mandated phosphorus pollution reduction requirements that are required through the Clean Water Act being implemented by the Washington State Department of Ecology.

 

There was some interesting dialog on phosphorus sources and how Ecology has approached this problem during the debate before the new rules were voted on that might be worth a post, but in the end the simplest approach to phosphorus in stormwater is to get the stormwater  into the ground versus having it run off the site and that is in fact the primary goal of the new regulations and really not significantly different than what was already required. 

 

Infiltration of stormwater is often an easy thing to do on large lots, but it gets tougher on small lots or lots with soils that are resistant to infiltration. Thought ahead of time on design and layout will make it easier and save a lot of money. Stormwater infiltration is not unique to Lake Whatcom and if stormwater is considered at the very beginning of the design phase for a home versus as an after thought, costs will be much less or one can avoid major redesigns or complicated engineered stormwater treatment facilities.

 

While getting the lay of the land for my geology assessment, I observed numerous driveway projects that had been installed to meet the existing stormwater rules on small lots. Pervious pavement surfaces all designed to get stormwater into the ground versus delivering phosphorus via soil particles and organic material carried by surface water flow.

 

New pervious concrete 

 

Pervious pavers

Pervious pavers

 

Day Trip to Artist Point

Will and I took our visiting friend from New York up to the end of Highway 542 in the North Cascades of Whatcom County. The road ends at Artist Point a high pass between the Nooksack drainage on the north and the Baker River drainage on the south. The road end is located between Mount Shuksan to the east and Mount Baker on the west. And there are other great peak views in the distance. We took a short hike out to Coleman Pinnacle enjoying sun and a light breeze that kept the flies in check. 

Mount Shuksan

Shuksan is a 9,000-foot plus summit of metamorphic rock that is part of the Northwest Cascades 

Summit of Mount Baker - the latest version of a volcanic center in this part of the North Cascades is a 10,000-foot strato volcano 

In between the summits of Baker and Shuksan is the remnants of a very violent eruptive center exposed in the incised headwaters of Swift Creek which drains towards Baker Lake in the distance

To get a grasp of the scale and intensity of that event it would be useful to take a field trip with the guy in the red vest:

Dave Tucker happened to be leading a field right where we began our hike

Mount Baker Volcano Research Center

 Driving back down the mountain slopes we stopped to admire the columnar jointing.

Between Kendal and Deming the Racehorse Creek landslide was lit in a manner that stood out well.



Lorquin's Admiral

Limenitis lorquini lorquini

Earlier in July, Five Acre Geographic did a write up on Lorquins admiral (lorquins-legacy July 4 post) as well as the butterfly's namesake. A few days later I encountered several dozen Lorquin's Admirals while hiking back to my point of origin along a road through a Douglas fir-western hemlock-western red cedar.

Route where I saw the butterflies

The day was sunny but cool, and outside the protection of the forest very windy. For the most part the butterflies appeared to be sunning themselves on the road surface and gave me a chance to sneak close for a few decent pictures.

Less Fog in Bellingham

I started a post that I titled "Fog Free Bellingham", but this morning let me down as Bellingham turned foggy after I woke up this morning.

GOES WEST at 8:00 this morning

As can readily be seen, the Pacific Ocean off our coast is foggy. With an onshore push of air the fog rolls in through the low gaps south of the Olympics, flows up the Columbia River and into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This morning it partly filled into Puget Sound and had pushed up into the mountain valleys of the Cascades. By 11 this morning the fog was gone from all but the outer coast.

GOES WEST at 11:45 this morning

Yesterday the surge of fog was thicker and lingered longer, but Bellingham was fog free.

GOES WEST July 22, 2013, 12:00 pm

Cliff Mass had a nice write up on why the fog was so thick and wet last Saturday in Puget Sound, July 20, 2013 (cliffmass.blogspot). But Bellingham was mostly fog free Saturday. 

GOES WEST image via Cliff Mass



Both the Saturday image via Dr. Mass and the one I pulled up from Monday show Bellingham (my town) fog free. I left off labeling the images assuming the reader will know or can figure out where Bellingham is.

Bellingham being fog free in the summer is one of the peculiar micro climates of western Washington. The stratus clouds push in during the evening and night and filled in essentially the entire western Washington low land except Bellingham. This is commonly the case for Bellingham (but not this morning). While walking to work on Monday I could see the fog bank just to the west of town, but we were sunny all day while to the south the lowlands were in the gloom. 

I suspect Bellingham's less frequent fog has to do with the local topography. There is essentially a mountain range extending from the Cascades out into the San Juan Islands just south and west of Bellingham. The range is by no means a solid mountain front, and the peaks are modest in height compared to the Cascades and Olympics, but they are high enough to distrupt the low level air flow. And even when the fog does penetrate into Bellingham, Bellingham is on the edge of the fog with the nearby slopes fog free and thus the fog burns off in Bellingham sooner than cities to the south that are further distance from the fog edge.

I have not done a statistical analyses of this observation. But have experienced the difference often enough to be convinced. The fog issue is of some note to my work. I will sometimes fly to the San Juan Islands, and learned from experience to check the weather before heading to the airport as in the summer the airports in the San Juans will be fogged in while the sun shines in Bellingham. And even between downtown Bellingham and the airport (where the Bellingham weather station is located) there is often a fog bank as the airport is located out away from the Chuckanut Range that abuts the rest of Bellingham.

The Homeless Landscape

I visited a proposed redevelopment project site that involved some early stage recon work. The site is fully within a city and has been within the city for well over 75 years. The site was previously developed, but the original development has been long gone and the site has been vacant for at least 30 years. That said, the site has been and is being utilized as residential property - just not the kind planners typically think of.

The site has lots of cover and is hidden, but being in the city has access to services. I was fairly sure I would encounter some encampments at this site before going. I have learned to recognize the features that attract the homeless. This site was better than others I have seen and in the summer not so rough. 

Tempertaure Gradient form Quilcene to Port Townsend

Gravel/cobble beach, Toandos Peninsula with view of Olympics

 

I took a hike around Oak Head at the south end of the Toandos. It was a hot hike along the heated up gravel and cobbles with the temperature in the mid 80s. The 500-foot climb back up to the road brought a good sweat. 

 

I have noted before that this is a bit of a hot spot for western Washington. A comparison of weather stations:

               Average Maximum Temperatures
                                        June   July   August  Sept.
Seattle                              69      72       73         67
Port Townsend             66      70       71         67
Bellingham                     66      71       72         68
Quilcene                          72      77      79         73

Quilcene (near Oak Head) is significantly warmer than my town of Bellingham as well as Seattle during the summer. The name Oak Head at the south end of the Toandos might be in reference to the fact that there is a fair bit of poison oak on the exposed slopes - I have not dug deep enough into the original naming.

After my hike I headed up to the shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and experienced a big temperature gradient in a few miles. On the Strait a strong marine flow was blowing through the strait and the temperature was much cooler requiring a sweater. A kite boarder in a dry suite was taking advantage of the gale.

Catching wind in the Strait of Juan de Fuca with Whidbey Island and Mount Baker in the distance

This sculpted tree suggest that the wind is a regular part of life on this shore

Wave and water erosion are not the only force acting on shoreline bluffs. This bluff slope was actively being eroded during my visit with sand flowing down the slope and accumulating in a pile at the top of the beach.