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We appreciate our readers! You’re why we put together Cascadia Daily— to keep you informed of news, trends, environmental reporting, and events that cross borders in the Pacific Northwest. And we’re also dedicated to giving you a sampling of all the great art, music, and writing being created in the Cascadia bioregion stretching from Northern California to southeast Alaska.
And we’ve got an exciting lineup of new, original features, arts profiles, essay, fiction, photos, and poetry in the works at Cascadia Magazine in 2019. You’ll find links to all that new content in this newsletter, so keep checking back and letting your friends know about this new regional publication as we head into our second year.
We’d love to know what you’d like to see in Cascadia Magazine and Cascadia Daily. More artist profiles? More reporting on the environment? Fewer political pieces and more fluffy, baby otters? Whatever it is, let us know. And if there’s a tip you’ve got on an issue you feel is under-reported or a person doing something amazing who should get some attention, send us a note…
You can email us here. And thanks for reading!
Cascadia Magazine original: Elegy for Tahlequah’s Calf
Recent news reports indicate that an orca in the endangered southern resident pod in the Salish Sea successfully gave birth to a calf. That’s great news after the events of this past summer, when an orca mother grieved over her stillborn calf for over two weeks. If you haven’t read Paul Nelson’s moving poem “Elegy for Tahlequah’s Calf,” which expresses the anger and grief many of us feel watching these creatures face extinction, give it a read online here.
And if you live in Washington, make sure to contact your legislators and urge them to back governor Jay Inslee’s proposed orca recovery plan.
Will Oregon pass stricter gun laws this session?
Portland Mercury notes that there are seven proposed bills in Oregon legislature in the current session that would increase restrictions on guns — including gun lock requirements and mandatory gun licenses prior to purchase. In other legislative news, lawmakers in WA have introduced a bill that would legalize home-grown pot. And a damning report about sexual misconduct in the Oregon legislature is opening criticism of the most powerful player in state politics: Peter Courtney, who has served as president of the Oregon senate since 2003.
Could First Nations buy TransMountain pipeline?
Now that the controversial TransMountain pipeline expansion across British Columbia is on hold after a court order, some First Nations are considering a radical proposal: buying the pipeline from the Canadian government, CBC reports. But coastal nations most affected by a potential spill, such as the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh, are lukewarm to the idea. In related news, Democracy Now! interviews members of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation who are in a standoff with police over the proposed CoastalLink gas pipeline in northern BC.
Oregon governor’s husband cleans park toilets, sends bill to Trump
In the 23rd day of a partial federal government shutdown, Oregon governor Kate Brown’s husband, Dan Little, cleaned up overflowing trash cans at Sno-Parks in the Mount Hood National Forest and then sent a bill to US president Donald J. Trump. “Just one of the reasons I love my husband,” Brown said in response. Meanwhile winter training for wildland firefighters and preventive measures such as prescribed burns have been put on hold across the Northwest, possibly increasing risks of catastrophic fires.
Looking at forest health through tree rings
The Eugene Register-Guard reports on a new study released by researchers at Oregon State University that involves looking at tree rings of ponderosa pines to the see the effects of climate change and fire suppression on forest health in south-central Oregon. The upshot: forests are denser and less healthy. For more on how researchers are coring trees in Oregon to gauge forest health, read Paul Lask’s feature online at Cascadia Magazine.
Making art when memory fades
Matt McKnight, writing for Crosscut, has a great feature and photo essay on a unique art show on display at Seattle city hall that features work by seven artists dealing with dementia, including Rafe Schwimmer, who immerses himself in the act of creation: “Nothing is standing still,” he says. “Everything is moving and working together.””
“The Dimensions,” poetry by Ellen Welcker
Over at On the Seawall, you can read Spokane-based poet’s “The Dimensions,” a fantastic, slightly experimental poem mapping the physical and emotional size of a forest: “The dimensions of the forest are 3 miles x 12 miles x sky. The dimensions of the forest are mind x mud x we. The dimensions of the forest are breath x fear x nocturnity.” Take a moment to read the full poem online here. And if you want to read more by Ellen Welcker, check out “The Abyssopelagic,” online at Cascadia Magazine.
That’s this evening’s hodgepodge of news, arts, environmental reporting, and pretty poems from across the Pacific Northwest. Have a great evening and see you tomorrow! –Andrew Engelson
Photo credit: gun store by Mike Saechang via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0