West Seattle, Washington

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Environment 1797 results

Police investigating unauthorized slope-slashing
March 20, 2008 1:01 pm
|      15 COMMENTS
 |   Crime | Environment | West Seattle news

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We’re checking on the various components of this for a followup later today, but in the meantime, this is bigger than the More page roundup, so in case you haven’t heard – as reported (so far) in the P-I and on Q13 and at KING5.com, someone cleared a section of city-owned slope over the 1600 block of Harbor Avenue (area map), without authorization. Neighbors blame a homeowner trying to get a better view. Police are investigating, and the culprit could face criminal charges. ADDED 4:55 PM: Added the photo, which shows the general slope area where this happened (just below the hedge-ish plants at the bottom of the white draping); difficult to get a close-up shot of the stumps from where we tried. Just talked to the Southwest Precinct – no new developments in the investigation today; cases like this take a while to develop (everyone may think they know who did it, but you need evidence). A parks spokesperson tells WSB that once there is definite identification, they “will determine an appropriate fine for the perpetrator based on the economic value of the trees and damage to the area.” Still waiting for word on how, and how soon, the city might restore the damaged area – since there are certainly erosion and slide concerns on a slope like that. ADDED 10:15 PM: Did manage to get a closer view of the apparent slash zone earlier this evening:

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Happening today/tonight – plus Easter egg hunts/services
March 20, 2008 9:03 am
|    Comments Off on Happening today/tonight – plus Easter egg hunts/services
 |   Environment | Fun stuff to do | Holidays | West Seattle religion

Highlights from our West Seattle-wide Events list (frequently updated here) and beyond:

THIS MORNING: Toddler Spring Egg-stravaganza at High Point Community Center; fun starts at 10 am, egg hunt for the little ones at 11 am sharp.

TONIGHT: Help shape and protect the future of our Puget Sound shoreline – be at the “visioning” meeting tonight; open house at 6:30 pm, workshop starts @ 9, High Point Community Center.

TONIGHT: One of West Seattle’s liveliest community councils meets — Alki Community Council, 7 pm, Alki Community Center. Here’s what happened last time.

EASTER UPDATES: The Events list now includes a section with Saturday egg hunts in West Seattle (more than half a dozen!); also, thanks to the WSB’ers who have sent us added info for our West Seattle Easter Sunday Services page (which includes the sunrise services at Forest Lawn and Alki as well as more than 30 WS churches). As we mention on the page, many of these churches also have breakfasts, brunches, even egg hunts in addition to the Sunday services (plus other Holy Week events today and tomorrow) so follow the links to their websites for the added details.

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More biodiesel coming to West Seattle
March 19, 2008 10:54 am
|      4 COMMENTS
 |   Environment | Transportation | West Seattle news

From the city’s Daily Permit Issuance report: The Exxon station at 35th/Barton just got a permit that says it’ll be adding a “5,000-gallon above-ground biodiesel tank.”

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Happening today/tonight: It’s all about the blue and green
March 17, 2008 7:40 am
|      8 COMMENTS
 |   Environment | How to help | West Seattle restaurants

No, not the Seahawks.

BLUE: The Tap Project is under way. As we mentioned 2 weeks ago, participating restaurants are asking patrons to donate $ for their otherwise-free tap water; the $ goes to UNICEF for safe drinking water for kids. 4 West Seattle restaurants are participating (through Saturday): Ama Ama, Beato, Eats Market Cafe, Skylark. Saturday is World Water Day and will be marked with the Walk for Water on Alki.

GREEN: Sustainable West Seattle meets tonight @ Camp Long. The agenda includes a rep for Puget Sound Community Change — connecting green businesses and customers.

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Goats: Not just for clearing brush
March 11, 2008 12:52 pm
|      8 COMMENTS
 |   Environment | West Seattle Farmers' Market | West Seattle online

Every weekend, when we publish the “fresh sheet” for the West Seattle Farmers’ Market, we note in passing that its more unconventional offerings include goat meat. Anybody buying it, you wonder? Unequivocally, yes – here’s here’s an anecdote from the relatively new blog for Earth Ministry, posted by its West Seattle-based executive director.

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What do you see in the future for West Seattle’s shore?
March 9, 2008 7:48 am
|    Comments Off on What do you see in the future for West Seattle’s shore?
 |   Environment | West Seattle beaches

City leaders want to know, as they prepare to update the Seattle Shoreline Master Program for the first time in more than 20 years … and they hope you can be at High Point Community Center on March 20 to tell them what you hope to see.

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Fauntleroy salmon surprise: All is not lost, after all!
March 8, 2008 7:02 am
|    Comments Off on Fauntleroy salmon surprise: All is not lost, after all!
 |   Environment | West Seattle news | Wildlife

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(2007 view of Fauntleroy fish ladder)

Heartening news from Judy Pickens — the worst-case fears about Fauntleroy Creek‘s salmon season apparently are not coming to pass:

We DO have home hatch in Fauntleroy Creek! We had thought that all the eggs from last fall’s spawning surely washed out in the December 3 storm but not so. Several coho fry were sighted March 6 above the fish ladder and more may show up during a thorough survey. The ability of redds to survive the scouring of a major storm is remarkable and truly heartening for the future of salmon in our urban creeks.

If you’ve never been to the Fauntleroy fish ladder, it’s directly east of (and up the slope from) the ferry terminal. Read its history here.

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Fauntleroy ferry fuel gets greener
March 7, 2008 10:24 pm
|    Comments Off on Fauntleroy ferry fuel gets greener
 |   Environment | Transportation | West Seattle parks

We mentioned last weekend that the ferry Issaquah would leave the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth run this weekend for “fuel-tank cleaning.” Didn’t know till tonight (official Washington State Ferries news release here) that the cleaning is to prep it for the latest biodiesel test starting Monday. Two other ferries are set to try biodiesel starting this spring, including the Tillikum, which also is currently on the Fauntleroy run. The “triangle route” was also involved in a biodiesel test in 2004, suspended because of fuel-filter trouble. (That test involved 20% biodiesel; this new one involves a 5% mix.)

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“Sustainable Storm” gathers at West Seattle Chamber
March 7, 2008 9:33 am
|      5 COMMENTS
 |   Environment | West Seattle businesses | West Seattle news

If your mental image of a Chamber of Commerce resembles something centering on a tight-knit clique of good ol’ boys in leisure suits, boozing and schmoozing in a back room somewhere, you should know that bears no resemblance to what’s going on with the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce these days. Just the other day, in fact, West Seattle Chamber executive director Patti Mullen facilitated the latest edition of a semi-regular gathering that was the antithesis of that old stereotype — a casual event reaching toward the traditional goal of a healthy business community in a largely nontraditional way:Read More

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Update on Nucor permits for crane changes
March 6, 2008 8:42 am
|    Comments Off on Update on Nucor permits for crane changes
 |   Delridge | Environment | West Seattle businesses | West Seattle news

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Two months ago, we covered a hearing in West Seattle about permits the Nucor mill (Delridge/Andover) requested to modify a crane so it can add operating hours. (The red arrow in the photo above points to where that will happen.) For anybody keeping track, the official decisions are starting to roll in – just got a note from the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency that it’s issued a permit required for this; you can read the associated fine print by following four links here.

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“Tree massacre” brings neighbors’ questions
March 5, 2008 5:38 pm
|      21 COMMENTS
 |   Development | Environment | Gatewood | West Seattle news

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The removal of a whole row of big evergreens along two lots lining the east side of 41st between Rose and Southern (take your pick whether this is south Gatewood or north Upper Fauntleroy) had several people e-mailing us today — one calling it a “tree massacre” — to ask “can they DO that?” We checked it out and the answer appears to be “yes,” since the trees were on private, already-developed property with older houses – if that defines your property, you can cut down trees without a permit. Both lots on the block appear to be real-estate listings no longer on the market; the site shown in the photo still has an aerial-photo map that gives you an idea of how many trees were there before. The parcel now likely has a major view, as it’s on the west-facing slope, looking toward the Sound, Blake, Vashon, Olympics, etc. No development permits filed for either lot so far.

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Recycle? You helped set a record
March 5, 2008 2:02 pm
|      2 COMMENTS
 |   Environment

So says the city, citing 2006 stats. Still a ways to go to the 60 percent target rate.

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U.S. Supreme Court to view West Seattle photographer’s work
February 27, 2008 6:55 am
|      11 COMMENTS
 |   Environment | West Seattle people

fobesice.jpgHard to believe that the Exxon Valdez oil-spill case is not over yet, 19 years after the tanker catastrophe that soiled Alaska’s Prince William Sound and ravaged its wildlife. But today, U.S. Supreme Court justices hear oral arguments in one ongoing case — Exxon is arguing that it should not have to pay punitive damages to more than 30,000 people affected by the spill — and a West Seattle photojournalist’s work will be part of the plaintiffs’ exhibit. Natalie Fobes (shown left while on assignment in Siberia) was one of the first photojournalists on the scene; she got there the day after the spill. She says she “hitch-hiked her way around (Prince William) Sound on fishing boats and mail planes while many photographers and journalists were stuck in Valdez waiting for a plane or helicopter charter,” spending the next few months documenting the devastation as she lived with fishermen, Native Alaskan families, and cleanup workers. Fobes testified in person at some of the earlier trials. You can see some of her photos at Fobes’ website here. She says, “I got into photojournalism to make a difference. To have my photographs included in one of the largest environmental cases ever argued before the Supreme Court is amazing.”

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New “West Seattle Walking Trails” map: Ready for its closeup
February 24, 2008 3:01 pm
|      26 COMMENTS
 |   Environment | Transportation | West Seattle news

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That’s a new map that could change your life, for the better: the draft of the first-ever West Seattle Walking Trails map, whose creators want to hear your take on it, before they draft the final version. (Click the image above, or this link, to download the whole thing as a PDF so you can zoom in to your neighborhood, your favorite walking route, or just to get a closer look at all of it.) One of the project ringleaders is the tireless West Seattle activist Chas Redmond, who explains what it is and how you can help with it:

Feet First, in partnership with Morgan Community Association, Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association, the Southwest and Delridge District Councils, The Southwest Historical Society, every community association here in WS and other organizations such as the West Seattle Junction Association and West Seattle Chamber of Commerce, present the first draft of the now-Climate Action Now program grant-funded walking trails map.

This is the first public review – folks should examine it, suggest changes – both additive and subtractive. There will be a second draft based on the comments of the first draft. SDOT will have the final review and there will probably be some changes from that resulting in a – final – third draft.

In the meantime, the back side of the map – which will include write-ups on every neighborhood and organization and signature interest point – will hit the streets. Probably two weeks from now we’ll have the text draft, which will coincide with the closing of comments for the first draft. The back side review will also include a second review round.

Folks should comment not only on the trails, the evolution of which can be learned by reading the contents of westseattlewalks.org, but also on the use of symbols, the correct location of schools and parks (we’ve checked, always helps to triple check), the color scheme (we’re limited to two colors to get max number of copies), and anything else.

Within a month or so we’ll have 20,000 copies of this map, which will be folded to a size about like a Metro route schedule. We have a complex and involved distribution scheme which should allow everyone in WS to at least have access to a copy. Eventually we’ll reprint in larger numbers, but want this first version to not only serve the neighborhood, but serve as a learning tool for what an urban wayfinding system and info tools about such a system might be like and how they might be better. A year of using this map will teach all of us – including the users – a whole new dimension in getting around – we hope, anyway.

Here’s the link again to take a close-up look at the map as a PDF (using zoom if you choose). As Chas mentioned, there’s a lot of backstory on the parent site for that link, westseattlewalks.org – once you’ve reviewed the map, Chas asks that comments be sent to him (credmond@mac.com) and Feet First’s Seth Schromen-Wawrin (seth@feetfirst.info).

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Harbor Island spill update
February 22, 2008 2:19 pm
|    Comments Off on Harbor Island spill update
 |   Environment | West Seattle news

Updated information from the Seattle Fire Department is that up to 600 gallons of dimethyl carbonate got into Elliott Bay after the Terminal 5 spill early this morning involving a punctured container being offloaded from the Hyundai Patriot. SFD was “wrapping up” its role in the operation as of early afternoon, with other agencies still involved in containment and cleanup. The fire department says no one was hurt.

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Recycling could soon get a little easier
February 21, 2008 3:20 pm
|      11 COMMENTS
 |   Environment | Utilities

Almost missed this one – city news release from yesterday with future recycling changes, including the end of separation requirements for glass and “everything else” (yay), plus an expansion of the kinds of plastic that can be recycled.

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Free plants!
February 20, 2008 11:06 am
|      1 COMMENT
 |   Environment | Gardening

Too good not to share immediately (the deadline to apply is Friday) – someone in West Seattle just might be perfect:Read More

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Getting greener on the blacktop
February 15, 2008 7:02 am
|      37 COMMENTS
 |   Environment | Transportation

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Thanks to Jerry from JetCityOrange for that photo of the Luna Park Cafe-branded Smart car he just spotted yesterday. They get about 40 mpg, according to this page on the Smart website. One more note about driving with a bit more environmental sensibility – biodiesel users will want to check out some local-availability updates in this topic on the WSB Forums.

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Happening today/tonight in West Seattle
January 28, 2008 7:02 am
|    Comments Off on Happening today/tonight in West Seattle
 |   Environment | West Seattle news | WS culture/arts

SUMMER THEATER SIGNUPS: ArtsWest’s Musical Theater Conservatory for 12-16-year-olds is doing “Pippin” this year; signups start today.

SUSTAINABLE WEST SEATTLE: Annual meeting, 7 pm @ Camp Long. More info here.

To see what’s happening later this week – such as the City Light meeting tomorrow about where crews will soon be trimming MANY trees in West Seattle — check the WSB Events list.

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More Beach Drive trees coming down
January 20, 2008 9:48 am
|      2 COMMENTS
 |   Environment | West Seattle news

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At the bottom of a slope along the southern half of Beach Drive, those ivy-wrapped trees are posted for removal by the city at the end of this month. This has been a busy site — a mudslide in the December storm, a “vegetation-removal” project to the north a few months earlier, a tree from the west side of the street that came down and blocked BD in the December ’06 storm. The notice posted on the “No Parking” signs says these trees will be removed because they’re in “poor health”; we have been trying to reach the city Urban Forestry department (listed on the notice as a contact) to find out whether the trees will be replaced, but haven’t heard back yet.

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Saturday video: Sunbreak, sculpture
January 12, 2008 11:52 pm
|      3 COMMENTS
 |   Environment | Pigeon Point | West Seattle video | West Seattle weather

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In case you missed the spectacular sunbreaks while, oh, say, indoors watching The Game … above, we present a snippet of video from Beach Drive, as the sun held court over Vashon. Below, we dropped by the Pigeon Point Park environmental-restoration work party (video preview here) and while the Nature Consortium folks and their volunteers were just getting going, we found artist Aaron Voronoff already well into the process of making an ever-evolving sculpture out of trash and plant debris that work-party participants were collecting:

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Voronoff’s creation was to be disposed of later, by the way. The Nature Consortium tells us that most of its work parties feature environmental entertainment like this, with artists, musicians, etc.

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Video feature: Pigeon Point Park needs you tomorrow
January 11, 2008 9:36 pm
|    Comments Off on Video feature: Pigeon Point Park needs you tomorrow
 |   Environment | How to help | Pigeon Point | West Seattle parks | West Seattle video

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Have you ever been to Pigeon Point Park? The trail we walked in the video clip above is just a small part of this hidden treasure next to Cooper Elementary School in northeast West Seattle. Tomorrow, it’s one of the places on the WS “east side” that will get special attention during Green Delridge Day — plenty of time for you to participate before settling in for the Seahawks game. The Pigeon Point Park event is the first-ever work party there for the Nature Consortium, whose restoration-project staffers Mark Tomkiewicz and Elizabeth McDonald gave us a mini-tour (much of which we videotaped):Read More

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Nucor permit hearing: Virtually controversy-free
January 9, 2008 10:28 pm
|      7 COMMENTS
 |   Delridge | Environment | West Seattle businesses | West Seattle news

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The red arrow in the photo above (from this page on the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency website) shows the spot where the Nucor steel plant (Delridge/Andover) wants to upgrade a crane so it can operate more hours. Because more hours mean more emissions, Nucor needs state and regional permits; tonight’s public hearing at the Alki Community Center provided the chance for supporters and opponents to have their say. One of the shortest public hearings we’ve ever attended:Read More

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