Cascadia today: West coast states ally on vaccines + record sockeye return + new book on salmon & trees
West coast states create vaccine alliance
Defending the sovereign right of states to protect the health of their residents, Oregon, Washington and California today announced a pact to work together on science-based vaccine policy the New York Times reports – as the fed-run CDC descends into chaos under Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The alliance was created in part to deal with increasingly confusing CDC guidelines regarding COVID vaccines.
Cascadia needs to plan now about how to defend the health of its residents, and create a plan to replace funding for Obamacare if the GOP fails to renew health plan subsidies later this year. Take a moment to read more about the movement to create a system of universal health care in Washington and Oregon.
First Nations welcome return of sockeye
As the Fraser River sees a return of sockeye salmon estimated at 6 million fish – the best run in twenty years – members of the Tl'azt'en First Nation are able to smoke their own fish in numbers they haven't seen in decades, CBC reports.
"I feel like a woman again! A real Dakelh woman! Everyone up here is very happy with the salmon coming back." – Louisa Alexis, Tl'azt'en First Nation
Meanwhile, Chinook and steelhead in the Snake River are moving toward extinction, Oregon Capital Chronicle reports in a detailed feature. The main culprit? Dams on the lower Snake River. Sign a petition to remove the dams at Columbia Riverkeeper.
Seattle overdose center fills a need
The Urbanist looks in depth at Seattle's new Opioid Recovery & Care Access (ORCA) center, which is designed to help those who've experienced an overdose to recover and seek treatment if they want to. In related news, OPB looks at Oregon's mixed results from re-criminalizing drug use, as well as efforts to increase treatment options amid the plateauing of fatal overdoses – which still remain at a high level.
Idaho botches effort to eradicate mussels
Columbia Insight reports on what happened when Idaho wildlife officials attempted to eradicate invasive quagga mussels with 40,000 pounds of poison on three stretches of the Snake River near Twin Falls. You can guess what happened next: the copper-based toxin killed most every living thing in the river but the invasive mussels are still there. The invasive mussels take over quickly and can be a hazard to boats and dams.
A chat with author Lynda Mapes
Longtime Seattle Times environmental reporter, who recently retired, speaks with KNKY about her new book The Trees are Speaking: Dispatches from the Salmon Forests. The book looks at the ways trees and salmon are ecologically intertwined.
So the trees help the salmon, and the salmon help the trees. It's a beautiful reciprocal relationship, which, if allowed to, will go on forever. --Lynda Mapes
--Andrew Engelson
