Daily Digest: Cascadia farmers hit by tariffs, BC ponders election reform and remembering poet Martha Silano
Hope you all had a good weekend and a fun Cascadia Day! Cascadia Journal brings you a daily round-up of news and arts coverage from around the Pacific Northwest as well as a weekly essay on issues important to our bioregion. If you like what you're reading, please support me with a subscription. Thanks!
Cascadia farmers question Trump trade policies
KUOW reports on how farmers in central and eastern Washington – many of whom voted for Trump – are nervous about their livelihood in the wake of a trade war that could decimate their business. Montana Public Radio reports that farmers in Montana – not exactly a hotbed of progressive activism – are anxious about declining exports and the cost of tractor parts from Canada.
WA governor must OK budget by Tuesday
Washington State Standard notes that many people in Washington are wondering what governor Bob Ferguson will do with his line-item veto power for the two-year budget the legislature passed a few weeks ago. He needs to decide by Tuesday. Ferguson, a Democrat, has vowed to keep increased taxes to a minimum and push an austerity budget to deal with a $16 budget deficit. A whole lineup of corporations (including Tesla and Phillip Morris) are lobbying Bob to nix business taxes. We urge him to hold firm and next session help Cascadia build resiliency and prepare for the day when we rely less on the United States.
Will BC reform its election system?
The Tyee has a great, detailed look at proposals to reform British Columbia's voting system to use ranked choice voting, which a commission favored twenty years ago, but the majority parties never implemented. Cascadia is a leader in ranked choice voting, with Portland and various Oregon counties using the system, and Alaska voters ranking their preferences since they passed an initiative in 2020 (and defeated an attempt to repeal it last year). Seattle-based Sightline Institute has been pushing ranked choice voting for years, noting "Voters have more opportunities to vote for the candidates they prefer without having to worry about splitting the vote and causing their preferred party to lose."
A tree sit in WA and questionable timber sale in OR
A tree-sit blockade in a proposed timber cut in a mature forest in the Elwha Valley of Washington's Olympic peninsula began in early May and is continuing. The "Parched" timber property is not yet old growth but one of the few areas in the valley that could mature into old growth. Members of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe have urged the states' commissioner of public lands to prevent the cut. The Seattle Times has more on the protest. Meanwhile, Oregon Capital Chronicle has a detailed report on a 267-acre clearcut sale in Clatsop county that is now on hold because of questionable procedures, and has resulted in one member of the Board of Forestry resigning.
Remembering poet Martha Silano
University of Washington Magazine reports on the death of Seattle-based poet Martha Silano, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2023, and was a beloved teacher and mentor to the Pacific Northwest writing community. Shin Yu Pai has a lovely profile of Silano at UW Magazine, and Poetry Northwest has a detailed, loving review of Silano's volume of verse, This One We Call Ours. Martha was very kind, generous person who I knew and published when I was editing Cascadia Magazine several years back. She wrote with quiet passion about the climate crisis, but as reviewer Constance Hansen notes, Silano's poetry is much more nuanced and contemplative. “What one needs is a helping verb," Silano writes in one poem, "a word like does. / What one gets instead is a cosmic abyss.” She will be missed.
--Andrew Engelson
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