Salmon Cannon

If you have not been watching John Oliver's Last Week with John Oliver you should start. The reporting is very in depth and though delivered with ample humor is thought provoking. This clip is a bit of shout out to  a Washington State company Whooshh that has been developing a variety of creative solutions to work in Washington State. 



Managing salmon is a big job and the salmon cannon may reduce the work load, costs and be easier on fish. Salmon are transported around the lower the falls at Whatcom Creek via hand capture, wheel barrow and pipe.  

Notes on a Few Favorite Trees and Landscapes on my Commute

Over the years I have had various work commutes - most people do. My current commute is a 3/4 mile walk through my neighborhood and then along a bit of the perimeter of the edge of downtown. Not a bad way of starting the day. 

The tulip tree one block from home

This tulip tree planted long ago in the parking strip has long been a favorite. It is hugely tall for an urban tree within an area of small lots and it is massive. It is rapidly loosing its leaves this week after a fairly good fall show.

Tulip tree and its sequoia companions 

A number of sequoia's were been planted around Bellingham roughly 100 years ago and they have grown to be landmark specimens. This planing strip has two adjacent to the tulip tree.

The next tree, a cottonwood, is one I really enjoy because it likely started out as a volunteer and some how has managed to not be cut down. On windy days I give it a respectful detour as it is now the size that it routinely drops large limbs.

Puget Sound Energy has an electric switch yard that they recently greatly upgraded and are in the early stages of landscape work around the perimeter. I assume they have some strict criteria as to the types of plants and trees - a cottonwood at this location would be a really bad idea.

The laying in of extensive irrigation lines suggests a not very native approach and lots of expense. It would be a great project to replicate the landscape work done at this place cutting-edge-planting-at-padden-estuary. Some hairy manzinita would require much water and would be a nice screen between the street and the electric yard.   

Cheers for ESA and Rosetta

Space exploration is a cause of optimism for me. Everything about the ESA mission (Live_updates_Rosetta_mission_comet_landing) should be a cause of celebration. Really remarkable project. If you haven't seen the images from Rosetta and Philae:

  

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Philae's first panorama

A sense of scale

The United States of America Non States in 6 Minutes Plus

A quick tutorial on the non states of the United States from CPG Grey.

Veterans Day and The Green Fields of France

Originally Veterans Day was Armistice Day celebrating the end of Word War I on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. The day is still a day of remembrance in may nations. In the United States the day was was switched to Veterans Day in 1954 to honor all veterans. But is worth recalling a line from Woodrow Wilson's speech to Congress proclaiming Armistice Day, "Hunger does not breed reform; it breeds madness." Something to think about when contemplating Syria (a-note-on-syria-exponential-case-study).

We have entered to century mark since WWI. As time moves on our collective memory gets fuzzy. Its a good time to think back on WWI, but also to think about how we treat are veterans whilst creating more of them every year. Willie McBride was a veteran who did not come home (there were nearly a dozen W. McBrides that did not come home).

Port Discovery: Woodman Marsh and Old Driftwood

 

I have walked this shore reach a number of times in the past on the way to or from other sites on the coast of Port Discovery. Port Discovery is the large bay west of Port Townsend named by Vancouver for his ship. On this particular day the tide was not ideal for a shore walk as it was covering the entire sand and gravel beach and had reached the grass covered shore of this marsh.

This particular marsh is slowing shifting from wetland marsh to non wetland marsh as soil accumulates and vegetation builds up. The grassy swath along the outer edge is growing on piles of very old drift wood.

 

A review of historic aerial images shows that many of the along shore marshes of Port Discovery have accumulated large batches of driftwood from past high tides combined with storm surges. Some of the driftwood deposits are over 50 years old and date back to a particularly high tide storm surge event in the 1960s or an even larger and older one in the 1950s. These events caused flooding at low beach areas with lined with homes and hence were recorded in newspapers.

Tidal surge flooded Becket Point in Port Discovery

There may be some other factors regarding wood deposition. One might be the availability of drift wood along the shore. This image of the upper end (south) of the bay suggests a source of driftwood that is not so common today as it once was.

Upper Port Discovery and log rafts.

 

Random Encounters with Port Townsend's Water System

While on a forest slope above Discovery Bay I heard what I took to be a loud boat out in the water. But it turned out to be a pipe discharging a jet of water into the bay.

 

When I reached the shore I noted the sound and white water. The rock lined shore is rip rap associated with a former railroad to Port Townsend along the coast on this shore reach.

Water under high pressure shooting out of a steel pipe.

The pipe is a relief pipe for water that supplies Port Townsend with water from the Olympic Mountains. Water for PT is diverted out of the Big Quilcene River and to a lesser extent the Little Quilcene River. If there is too much water flowing in the system, the water overflows down the pipe from the slope above this discharge point several hundred feet in elevation above - hence the high pressure and noise.

Water diversions and route to PT

Given that in its early days Port Townsend suffered from a shortage of water, the city celebrated its new water source with a man made waterfall in Chetzemoka Park discharging excess water. An informational sign in the park has a blow up of a post card sent to Bellingham showing the waterfall as a message of plenty of water in PT.