Now that West Seattle Summer Fest 2018 is 13 days away – Friday-Sunday, July 13-15, in The Junction – it’s time to start counting down. First up, let’s talk about GreenLife, the sustainability expo/festival-within-a-festival that you’ll find at Summer Fest again this year. From Stu Hennessey:

The GreenLife Festival will focus on the issues surrounding the failing Southern Resident Killer Whale population and the health of the Salish Sea. There are many solvable issues connected to the decline of our local waters, including Puget Sound. We will examine these issues at the Junction Plaza Park location.

Much of the marine wildlife is in decline, (including) the salmon that our Orcas depend on for survival. The 3 days of the festival will be divided into Day 1: What can we as individuals do? Day 2: What is being done with legislation? And Day 3: What solutions are already helping?

This will be very enlightening for the whole family. We will have a virtual reality underwater tour of the Puget Sound with 3D headsets, presented by “Diver Laura” James. There will be a mechanical Orca whale ride for the kids. You will hear a lot about what is being done by our local governments, and on Saturday night, July 14th, we will be showing the movie “DamNation” at the West Seattle Senior Center (Oregon and California). The movie is free and starts at 7 pm. We hope you are concerned about the decline of our native Orcas and will want to learn more about what can be done. The GreenLife Festival is a project of Sustainable West Seattle. Sponsors include Verity Credit Union, Alki Bike and Board, West Seattle Nursery, PCC, West Seattle Electric and Solar, and Waste Management.

And as part of that:

Governor Inslee’s task force on the Southern Resident Orca crisis wants to hear from you. Task force director Stephanie Solien will be coming to the GreenLife Festival on Saturday, July 14th, at 12 noon.

The objective is to present the task force mission and to hear from the public their concerns and comments about the failing status of our iconic Orca population.

Your concern and your comments can have an impact on what the task force will recommend to the Governor for future action.

You can find out more about the task force here; its other members include West Seattleite Donna Sandstrom, founder of The Whale Trail.