Cascadia Daily Dec. 13, 2017

Environmental groups offer reward in illegal wolf poaching case

According to Lynda Mapes in the Seattle Times, two environmental groups are offering a $20,000 reward for information in the illegal killing of two wolves in eastern Washington. The groups have been in legal battles with the Washington Dept. of Fish & Wildlife’s lethal removal policy, which is aimed at protecting cattle rancher’s herds.

In other wildlife news, Crosscut reports on a program that surveys Seattle’s urban wildlife with remote cameras. And BC birders are flocking to get a glimpse of a rare summer tanager spotted in the Metro Vancouver area.

Will Oregon’s new pesticide safety rules protect farmworkers?

Northwest Public Radio reports that Oregon’s worker safety agency is preparing new rules regarding how the use of pesticides affects the state’s 300 farm worker camps. Activists worry the new rules won’t offer enough protections from “overspray” on workers’ living quarters.

Money for BC hydro dam could build 100 schools instead

Charlie Smith at the Georgia Straight examines the extremely high cost of British Columbia’s Site C dam, which the provincial government elected to continue building. For the $11 billion price tag, he claims BC could build 100 schools, twenty hospitals, or several light rail lines.

Even in progressive Cascadia, whites need “The Talk” about race

Black families have long had to have “the talk” to their kids about staying safe around police, but white people also need “The Talk” about racial inequality, writes Jon Greenberg in the South Seattle Emerald. In progressive cities like Seattle and Portland, whites still hold some deep-seated misconceptions, and this primer goes through the basics of inequality.

Portland dance performance honors life & art of Kathy Change

At Oregon Arts Watch, Elizabeth Whelan reviews a dance performance that tells the story of the brief life of artist and Asian-American activist Kathy Change. It’s a multi-layered piece that takes inspiration from the artist’s final words before she took her own life: “Call me a flaming radical burning for attention, but my real intention is to spark a discussion of how we can peacefully transform our world.”

Seattle poet & essayist Jane Wong wins Artist Trust award

Seattle poet and essayist Jane Wong has been awarded the James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award from Artist Trust. She’s the author of several poetry collections, and you can explore Wong’s cool interactive project, The Poetics of Haunting in Asian American Poetry. It features Wong’s poem “Our Barter,” her response to the work of artist Theres Hak Kyung Cha:
“If I ring a bowl of water, where will the sound go?
What light will carry us across these shores?
To wade, to wait upon, to wax and wan until we are wanted?
What have we forgotten?”


That’s all for today from Cascadia Daily world headquarters! –Andrew Engelson Photo credit: wolf by John & Karen Hollingsworth, USFWS, map of WA state wolf packs courtesy WDFW, Black Lives Matter protest by Fibonacci Blue CC BY 2.0, Jane Wong by © Helene Christensen.