Will We Make It Out Alive?

Welcome to Part Two of our Salmon Special - Episode 15: A Culvert Affair. If you feel like you’ve missed Part One of this two-part episode, it’s because we haven’t released Part One, yet! We plan to release Part One next month (we will link here when available).

In this episode, we (long distance) interviewed Robyn Pepin of Aspect Consulting, about a culvert operation, or how to (smartly) get those salmons (or other critical fish) up the stream!? While we discuss culvert removal prioritization in this episode, we have not yet discussed the unique life cycle of the salmon and why barrier removal is important for salmon restoration and is legally required. So, if you want to learn more about why we remove culverts and other fish passage barriers, tune in next month!

Jen and I met up with Robyn via our computers, as she is located in Wenatchee. This was our first attempt at interviewing and long distance recording. Cause hey, if one is interesting, both should be fun, right?!

We interviewed Robyn about a project that she worked on with the Upper Columbia Salmon Enhancement Board. As part of an interdisciplinary group, she helped develop a GIS tool that more effectively evaluates culverts or other barriers for removal to help restore salmon populations. The tool uses readily available data layers to generate information about fish, habitat, and barrier status, which is used to score and rank fish passage projects.

The tool also answers important questions, which are not built into existing barrier removal ranking, such as:

Is there habitat available upstream from the barrier that salmon currently cannot access?

Is that available habitat of sufficient quality for salmon?

Is there known fish usage near the barrier already?

Are there barriers downstream blocking fish access?

These questions are important to answer when considering where to spend limited funds related to salmon restoration efforts. Ensuring that projects are effectively prioritized helps build public trust. Check out their interactive map that shows fish passage barrier removal ranking. If you want to learn more about the tool, check out Robyn’s blog post New GIS Tool Helps Remove Barriers to Salmon Connectivity. To get into the nitty-gritty, check out their final report or the final table of results.

In addition, The Upper Columbia Salmon Recovery Board Maps and Tools web page has lots of information about this project and many others.

Robyn and one of her coworkers also made an award winning poster about the project and tool.

In our GIS Tools segment, Robyn and Jen geek out about the flow network tool. Head over to our GIS Tools blog to learn more!

We hope our streaming interview wasn’t too choppy and that it is still enjoyable to listen to; feel free to let us know in the comments! We still feel we have a lot to learn about how to long distance record and not make it sound too terrible. Heck, as a next step, maybe we will just try to record an interview in person?!

We realize that we didn’t introduce all of the intricacies of the salmon and why barrier removal is important in this episode, but we plan to discuss them more in our next episode. Please join us for our next episode, Why Did the Salmon Swim Upstream, or why fish barrier removal is important and required for salmon survival! The next episode will be Part One of this two-part episode (with this, Episode 15, being Part 2)...What, you know how good we are at math?!

Please don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts (like Tune In, Castbox Himalaya, iheartradio, etc). Please let us know what you think on our feedback page or facebook.com/WillWeMakeItOutAlive. Also, if you are more visually inclined, check out our youtube page!

We have some sad news. The stars and culverts did not align, and our first attempt at long distance interviewing sounds horrible. Instead of making you listen to something sub-par, we decided to try again, and we will have that episode for you next month (in November).

In the meantime, we have a mini-episode for you this month. We discuss several Orca Recovery Day events happening around Puget Sound, as well as a couple events on the East side of Washington! We may have even thrown in a few bad orca jokes for good measure. Details about all of the Orca Recovery Day events, which will happen on October 19 this year, can be found at the Better Ground website.

Anonymous Environmental Informant

We would love to hear about your Halloween Costumes, especially if they are environmental, water or poop related! Or map/GIS, of course! Visit the Poop Detective’s Facebook page to see an awesome port-a-potty costume.

While you’re patiently awaiting our return, why not catch up on any episodes you may have missed?

• How to Track a Murder

• Victoria’s Pooping Habits

• How Washington Got Crabs and How to Treat Them

• Why did the Cat Cross the Road?

• What Makes the Song Bird Sing

• God Save the Queen (Bee)

• Poop Happens

• Up-chucking Chum for Birthday Fun

• Fire Must Burn 

• Keeping Your Head Above Water

• It’s Getting Dry in Here

• Ghost Ships and Rail Dock Ribs

• Knights of the Nearshore

Thanks for your patience, and we’ll be back with a full episode next month!

In Episode 13: Knights of the Nearshore, we talk about how we almost didn’t make it out alive in the San Juan Islands, the impacts of our armored shorelines, how to coax the hard armor off, how to use GIS to find your identity, and opportunities for shoreline monitoring.

Jen shared a harrowing tale of near escape from rough waters while kayaking in the San Juan Islands. Will we make it out alive?

Nearshore Knights - Our Armored Shoreline

In this episode we discussed how we turned our shorelines into knights, by armoring them, and how we can turn them back into soft, supple, better beaches by mimicking natural processes.

What is hard…armoring?

Shoreline armoring includes activities that harden the shoreline, such as seawalls or bulkheads. Many of these structures were initially built to stabilize the shoreline from erosion and wave action with the assumptions that this would result in the protection of property and structures. However, most Puget Sound beaches have a low to moderate erosion potential where hard armoring isn’t necessary. In many areas, where some shoreline stabilization is needed, a more natural approach can be taken to preserve the shoreline, which may include a technique called soft shore protection.

Hard armoring results in a loss of beach, through scouring and by blocking the flow of sediment from feeder bluffs to replenish nearby beaches of sediment. This worsens erosion on nearby beaches and harms the ecological balance needed for the survival of forage fish, juvenile salmon, shellfish, and other native species. Natural erosion is important for nearby beaches, as beach sediment is cyclically eroded and replenished, and nearshore ecosystem processes. According shorefriendly.org, “We now know that bulkheads are unnecessary on most Puget Sound shorelines and can actually worsen overall erosion. They also damage delicate habitat that is crucial to the survival of our coastal species, from insects and seabirds to salmon and orcas.”

Beaches are made of sand and gravel that is moved from nearby bluffs and beaches by shoreline processes like wind, waves and currents. Over 90% of Puget Sound Beaches are fed sediment from eroding bluffs, meanwhile 33% of bluffs are unable to replenish beach sediments due to shoreline armoring. Sediment transport typically happens within definable areas, and these areas are called drift cells. There are over 800 drift cells in Puget Sound. Check out the Washington Department of Ecology’s Coastal Zone Atlas for maps of specific drift cells which show where sediment is originating and how it moves within the cell.

The shorefriendly website also has some great links that show how sediment moves across the shoreline in several locations throughout Puget Sound, such as Dungeness Spit and Eagle Point.

What are soft shore protection techniques?

The best option for the shoreline is to leave it natural and allow for the natural processes to continue. However, keep in mind, there are sites within Puget Sound where some kind of armoring is necessary, especially to protect existing property. All beaches have some built-in protection against erosion: the sands and gravel dissipate wave energy, and vegetation and drift logs serve as a buffer in front of bluffs.

Soft shore protection techniques generally include some combination of native plantings, anchored drift logs, gravel berms, sand replenishment, and site re-contouring, which more closely mimic the natural system. Typically these systems are engineered to withstand nearshore wave and erosion energy. These systems still impact nearshore habitat, but do so in a way that is less so than traditional hard armoring.

Also, instead of having a wall along your property which prevents access to the beach, the entire beach becomes accessible, so you actually gain beach access by installing soft protection techniques.

Want to say, “I’m Shore Friendly”?

If you are a shoreline landowner and you want to know more about erosion potential of your beach or the best practices to minimize shoreline erosion and better protect your property from the impacts of climate change or get help with streamlined permitting with your local jurisdiction, check out the Shorefriendly program coordinated by the Washington Department of Natural Resources and Fish and Wildlife. Most Puget Sound counties have free services that range from workshops and individual site assessments, to free engineering designs at sites that want to replace hard armoring with soft armoring techniques.

You can also check out the Green Shores program, which is a credit and incentive based program, kind of like the LEED program, available for Lake Whatcom and San Juan Island County.

Here are some additional resources on permitting and a flowchart/handout that talks about the different shoreline protection options based on the type of upland shoreline. Or check out the Department of Ecology’s Soft Shore Stabilization Implementation Guide, or the Shoreline Armoring Website.

Seahurst Beach Restoration and Seawall Removal Project

After learning about the impacts from shoreline armoring, we discussed the beach restoration project at Seahurst Beach park, which is located in Burien, Washington between Tacoma and Seattle. The waterfront area of the park was hard-armored with a concrete and rip-rap rock wall in the 1970s. Since then the beach had dropped 3-4 feet due to wave action and scour and being cut off from its upland sediment source.

The City of Burien determined that maintaining the existing wall was going to be more expensive than just removing it and restoring the beach, which would both provide better public access opportunities and minimize the costs to maintain the shoreline, and improve habitat.

This was the biggest sea wall removal project in Puget Sound to date. In total over ¾ of a mile of beach was restored and the project created 169 acres of nearshore habitat, highly desired real estate for spawning forage fish and juvenile salmonsies, in addition to a stew of other native species!

The most recent phase of the project, which was completed in 2014, involved the removal of bulkhead and lawn terraces, and restoring a more natural pebbly beach habitat, while also reconnecting the beach to the adjacent feeder bluffs allowing the beach to be replenished and instead of just continuing to erode away, as it had when the feeder bluffs were cut off by the seawall.

This project demonstrated that seawall removal can result in years of improved community access. It eliminated the need to repair and continually maintain the existing failing sea wall, which would not have solved the problems related to the beach eroding away, and it improved habitat for critical species in Puget Sound. So, if you’re in the area, just northwest of SeaTac, you should check out Seahurst Park. Bonus, it's also a great place to access the beach! Check out their photos of the restoration project!

Since the beach restoration project, the City of Burien is also working with DNR on removing creosote treated wood that has washed up onto the shoreline at Seahurst Park. If you want to learn more about creosote removal in Puget Sound and how you can report creosote wood that has washed up onto a beach, listen to our last episode, Pirate/Ghost Ships and Rail Dock Ribs!

Using GiS to learn about our identity - Drift Cells and sediment transport along the nearshore

Check out the GIS Blog to learn more about how mapping sediment and other features is important for prioritizing removal of hard armoring (and to learn about the Identity tool).

DIY Monitoring Project Design -Just like a real scientist

If you don’t want to wait for a potential citizen science project, why not create your own? You can help out by monitoring the shoreline in a number of ways by using the Shoreline Monitoring Toolbox. This Toolbox is maintained by Washington Sea Grant and includes tools and protocols developed by many projects and organizations (such as protocols for mapping shoreline armoring developed by Coastal Geologic Services during the Beach Strategies project mentioned in the GIS segment).

If your group wants to do a monitoring project but isn’t sure what to monitor, there’s even a decision tree to help you get started.

Thanks for joining us!

Please don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts (like Tune In, Castbox, Himalaya, iheartradio, etc). Please let us know what you think in the comments below, or on our Facebook page. Also, if you are more visually inclined, check out our YouTube page!

In this episode we learn about how sound travels on water, creosote pilings and ghost ships, how the Samish Nation uses GIS in its marine debris removal efforts, and how to report creosote pilings or derelict vessels in the Puget Sound. For this episode we contacted Lalena Amiotte, Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Aquatic Resources Division’s Habitat Stewardship Unit Supervisor, and researched other details from the internet.

Apparently Sound Carries on Water?! Who Knew...

Amy the Poop Detective tells us how she learned that sound carries on water. She also drops some facts about Lake Cushman in Washington while she’s at it!

Derelict Vessels

In this episode we discuss what pirate/ghost ships are, why we don’t want them in the water and what you can do if you see one or if you are the proud owner of one. These are otherwise known as derelict vessels. Watch this video for more information!

Disposing of these derelict vessels can be expensive. ARRRR...but removing these pirate ghost ships is cost effective, it prevents pollution and removes navigational hazards from the water, mateys!

The removal of derelict vessels both protects the environment and removes physical hazards and barriers from the water. The San Juan County Derelict Vessel Program is one that was mentioned in the episode, along with the DNR Derelict Vessel Removal Program and the voluntary Vessel Turn In Program (see this fact sheet to determine if you’re eligible to apply). There is also a map of boat disposal sites in Western Washington. Make sure you contact individual disposal sites prior to just bringing in your old boat. Many of them have limited hours and some even have special types of boats that they deal with!

DNR has an inventory of pirated and ghost ships and vessels. This inventory started at about 100 boats at the start of the last biennium…but the total inventory had grown to 154 as of April 2019 despite the state removing around 100 over the past two years!!! Otherwise known as a revolving door of pirate/ghost ship fun…not to be confused with the revolving door of creosote and marine debris fun!

While you can report your sightings in Washington or Oregon by filling out this form, we recommend you check out MyCoast app (see link below in the citizen science section). In addition, some counties in Washington have additional reporting programs:

Contact the King County Sheriff’s Office Marine Unit at (206) 296-3311 or (206) 477-3790. Important details to report include registration numbers, location and condition of the potential vessel of interest.

San Juan County - Report a Vessel

Snohomish County - Junk Vehicle and Boat/RV Disposal Programs

Creosote Pilings

Also discussed in this episode is creosote, which is a wood preservative that has been commonly used in marine waters due to its ability to prevent wood from rotting. It’s typically composed of coal tar, which may contain more than 300 chemicals. Creosote-treated materials continue to leach hazardous chemicals into the water and sediments causing toxic conditions for organisms that live around them.

DNR has a creosote program that inventories and removes creosote pilings from the marine environment. They partner with local groups, governments and private property owners to remove treated wood located on public and private lands throughout Puget Sound (see our GIS section below for an example).

According to the Encyclopedia of Puget Sound, creosote removal is not without its own concerns. Also, many of these pilings are covered in sea life and while some of that can be removed and relocated, like crabs and starfish, sadly, some of them like giant barnacles cannot be removed without killing them. So, even creosote removal must be done in a thoughtful way that minimizes potential future impacts to marine life.

What can you do? Report creosote pilings or beach debris in the MyCoast app...learn more in our citizen science section below!

GIS Time!

The Magical Mapper talks about some great work being done by the Samish Tribe, in partnership with many others, to clean up marine debris. They use GPS units to gather information during their annual shoreline survey, and they may have used hot spot analysis to find beaches with the highest concentrations of debris (a couple of GIS Tools we discussed in previous episodes). From 2014 through 2018 they removed 702,350 pounds of creosote treated wood and other marine debris! Head over to the GIS Blog for more information about the Bayesian network relative risk assessment model, which the Samish Tribe is planning to use in future efforts. Also check out their 2017 Esri Storytelling with Maps Contest award winning story map!

Citizen Science

Want to help out with reporting marine debris or creosote (or king tides or storm surge or just beach pictures), but don’t have a lot of time? It’s ok, there’s an app for that! Take a picture in the MyCoast app, and that photo (which the camera/app tags with the coordinates) will go straight to the folks at the DNR Marine Debris Removal Program, letting them know what was spotted and where it is.

Thanks for joining us!

Please don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please let us know what you think in the comments below! If you don’t have time to listen today, you can always download the episode and have it ready to listen to soon!

***Also Episode 2: Victoria’s Pooping habits is now available on our YouTube channel; Will We Make It Out Alive Podcast, which is even more hilarious that just listening to us! Pop on over and give it a watch-listen, tell us what you think and please, please SUBSCRIBE!

It’s getting droughty up in here!

Have you felt like there just wasn’t as much water around lately…? From lower precipitation to less snow accumulation in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest…it’s getting dry in here!

Droughts can be caused by a number of circumstances, but typically the droughts of the Pacific Northwest are impacted by low precipitation coupled with warmer temperatures (El Nino events). Winter snowpack plays an important role in ensuring that we have sufficient stream flows throughout the summer. What we are experiencing in Western Washington this year is a low precipitation drought. The low snowpack coupled with hot temperatures in April melted more snow, earlier than normal. In western Washington, we depend on the slow melt of snow in the higher elevations to keep streams and rivers flowing throughout the summer, when we typically do not see much additional precipitation. Even in May, which is typically still considered part of our rainy season, our area continued to see low monthly accumulations and higher than normal temperatures. In May, Olympia, WA only had 0.9 of an inch of rain, which is only 39% of the average of 2.33 inches of rain.

Most of Western Washington is under the Severe Drought classification from the US Drought Monitor. In addition, the Governor of Washington, Jay Inslee, in 2019, has already declared a Drought Emergency in 27 counties!

In Washington State, drought is defined in statute (RCW 43.83B) as conditions where water supply is anticipated to be less than 75 percent of normal and there is anticipated hardship to water users and uses.

The US Drought Monitor is a federal program created in 2000. They classify the entire US into 6 categories of drought intensity from normal (non-drought) to exceptional drought. With each level of intensity comes additional associated water conservation actions that range from voluntary water use restrictions to widespread water shortages leading to a water emergency.

The U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) has an on-line map, which shows the location and intensity of drought across the country. The data is updated each Tuesday and released on Thursday. See the GIS section below for links!

Oregon Drought

Washington Drought

U.S. Drought Monitor also evaluates different drought impact categories, which includes agriculture, business and industry, energy, fire, plants and wildlife, public health, tourism and recreation, and water supply.

According to the US Drought Monitor: There are over 5 million people in Washington that are experiencing drought conditions currently and almost 2 million in Oregon. Western Washington is the only area that is experiencing severe drought currently.

According to the Department of Ecology, here's the latest conditions as of June 19, 2019:

Looking at the 7-day average, more than half of the rivers in the state are showing stream flows in the bottom 10 percent of flows measured for this time of year.

Daytime temperatures in the Yakima River are reaching 80 degrees F., which becomes a thermal block for fish movement.

How can you help? You can report any drought conditions to the Department of Ecology, and water conservation is always important.

Many streams in Western Washington are already below normal volumes for this time of year. Likely these conditions will continue through the summer without additional precipitation. Check out some of the following websites for more information on stream flows.

Northwest River Forecast Website

Ecology Stream Flow Website

What is the forecast for the summer weather?

NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center has forecast warmer and drier conditions for the westside of Washington state from June to August. In addition, weak El Nino conditions still exist and there is a 70% chance they will continue through the summer.

Typically areas that are classified by the US Drought Monitor as being under severe drought classification can expect to experience crop or pasture loss, common water shortages and see water restrictions imposed.

What are the expected climate change impacts to the Pacific Northwest Droughts?

As one may be able to assume, climate change is predicted to increase droughts in some areas, by both increasing the temperature and changing the precipitation cycle.

In Western Washington, for example, the total annual accumulation of precipitation is not expected to change drastically. However, the time of year that we see the precipitation will play a critical role in precipitation cycle. Currently, we get precipitation about 9 months out of the year, with the bulk of that coming down as snow in the mountains during the winter. The forecasted precipitation is projected to show up later in the year, when it’s warmer, meaning less snow and less snowpack accumulation in the winter, which will result in lower summertime in-stream flows. This will be compounded by warmer temperatures, which will exacerbate future drought conditions.

What does a drought mean for the Pacific Northwest?

According to the Department of Ecology’s website:

Drought conditions expose different populations and communities to different levels of vulnerabilities.

By declaring a drought emergency, the Department of Ecology can offer vital support to these communities. This designation allows Ecology to expedite emergency water right permitting. For instance, one farmer may lease water to another farmer and Ecology can expedite that transfer.

It also allows them to make funds available to address hardships caused by drought conditions. On June 4, Ecology announced a grant program to help with drought response.

Drought can result in water shortages for agriculture, energy, people and ecosystem services:

Agriculture

Water rights can be impacted, with senior water rights, including in-stream flow, having the “first dibs” on water and then if there is not enough water left in the streams, junior water right holders may not be able to access the water.

Energy

Hydroelectric power can be impacted by lower snowpack.

People

Increases in water use due to summer irrigation and increased water use around people’s homes. Water withdrawal from surface and groundwater can be impacted by less precipitation and an increased demand for water from multiple sources.

Ecosystem Services

Fish - low flows and subsurface flows, increased temperatures, decreased dissolved oxygen (DO), and increased biological activity (growth) can all have a negative impact on fish survival and in some cases can lead to fish kills.

Stressed plant communities - Western Washington has recently seen an increase in plant impacts from multiple years of higher heats and less precipitation; these include iconic northwest trees such as madrona, cedar, big leaf maple and other plants such as salal, which has seen a huge die back on Vancouver Island.

Increased fire risk due to lower precipitation and higher temperatures. Low soil moisture content and low humidity also contribute to increased risk of wildfire.

OSU-extension developed a cool handout that shows some best practices to recover from a wildfire.

To learn about fire and wildfire preparedness, listen to Episode 9: Fire Must BURN!

Learn more about how the City of Port Orchard stopped any further construction in the new McCormick Woods development due to concerns of having insufficient drinking water supplies. This is a big deal for a local municipality, since permitting is an important revenue source. Check out this interview with KOMO news or this article in the Kitsap Sun Newspaper to learn more about the City’s plans. The City is continuing to work with the developer and the City of Bremerton to find a solution.

What can you do to minimize the impacts of a drought?

As an individual, conserving water is the best way to mitigate for the impacts of drought.

We suggest you start with a water audit to calculate your water use footprint. We used the www.watercalculator.org website to calculate our average water footprint per day. Basically you answer a series of questions about your typical indoor, outdoor and virtual water use.

Some interesting things discussed in the calculator include the virtual water use items. For example:

It takes an enormous amount of water to produce animal products like meat and dairy, because livestock and poultry in the US eat large amounts of water-intensive feed – usually corn and soybeans. Agricultural withdrawals account for 70% of water use around the world.

Because irrigation-related water consumption is so high, it’s important to make water-wise food and textile purchases!

Cotton takes a lot of water because it is typically grown in arid regions, which require irrigation.

It’s good to think about how goods are moved around the planet and consider how much water is moved and consumed in the process, even though it’s hidden from sight!

Things like smart phones take over 3,000 gallons of water to produce, which is associated with both their manufacturing and disposal of wastewater that is diluted with freshwater to meet water quality standards.

Did you know that it takes 22 gallons of water to make one pound of plastic? This means it takes twice as much water to produce a plastic water bottle as the water that is contained in it!

How can you save water?

According to the water calculator website, these 5 simple steps can help you save water:

STEP 1: Change your diet

It takes water – a lot of it – to grow, process and transport your food. When you eat lower on the food chain, eat more whole foods and waste less food, you also save water.

STEP 2: Cut indoor water use

Every day, you rely on water for a wide variety of uses around the house. There are lots of opportunities to cut back on water use in the kitchen, bathroom and laundry room and even by fixing leaks.

Toilets are the largest water consumers in da house! Typically they account for about 30% of overall household water use. Using a low flow toilet, fixing any toilet leaks and considering letting it mellow are all ways to minimize water use. A leaking toilet can waste 200 gallons per day!

Fix leaks! Leaks just waste water and even a small drip can add up to a lot of water over time.

Turn off the water when you are brushing your teeth or lathering your hands.

Keep showers short and consider skipping a day every once in a while, in the name of water conservation, of course! Replace shower heads that have a flow rate greater than 2.5 gallons (9.5 liters) per minute (the current national energy policy act standard).

If the shower head is not labeled, the flow rate can be checked by catching the water in a 1-gallon (3.8 liters) bucket. If it takes less than 24 seconds to fill up, the shower head flow rate is more than 2.5 gallons (9.5 liters) per minute. The U.S. EPA WaterSense program labels efficient shower heads that use a maximum 2.0 gallons (7.6 liters) per minute.

High Efficiency dishwashers typically use less water than doing dishes by hand, but make sure to do full loads. The same goes for the laundry; having a high efficiency washer can save a lot of water.

STEP 3: Use less water outdoors

Of all the residential water we use in the US, on average we use about a quarter outdoors. In some western states it’s half to three-quarters, primarily for lawns and gardens. A few simple steps can reduce your outdoor water consumption, so tighten those taps, eliminate those leaks and use water wisely.

Outdoor water use accounts for 30% of the average daily water use in the United States! In hot summer months or dry areas, outdoor water use can account for up to 70%.

Choose drought tolerant plant species and minimize turf and lawn areas. WSU-extension has some great resources for drought tolerant plants.

Use a timer to prevent over-watering; most lawns need 1” of water per week. Watering longer promotes deeper root growth, which makes the grass more resilient.

STEP 4: Save energy, save water

Water and energy are linked. It takes water to make energy (electricity and transportation fuels) and it takes energy to move, heat and treat water. When you save energy you also save water.

STEP 5: Change buying habits

Practically everything you buy, use and consume has a water footprint because it took water to process and transport it. Being thoughtful about purchases, reusing where you can and recycling can reduce your water footprint.

Try to consider the water footprint of various products that you purchase; remember that bottle of water took a lot more water to produce than just the water inside of it! Meat and textile production are very water intensive.

Also, you can become a water detective, by paying attention to your water bill. Do you see an unexpected increase in water use? If so, check for leaks! Knowing how much water you typically use will help you determine if there is a concern or you have been able to reduce your water use!

Still want to know more?!

Ya, cool cats usually do…check out these links for lots more information!

Department of Ecology’s Water Conservation Page

The Alliance for Water Efficiency Drought and Drought Response, Business and Industry tips and Water Conservation Tips

EPA’s WaterSense

Washington State Department of Health Drinking Water and Drought

GIS Time! How do they make that cool US Drought Monitor Map?

The information for this segment of the podcast comes from a slide show given by Eric Luebehusen, a meteorologist and one of the authors of the US Drought Monitor (USDM) Map. He does a fabulous job of explaining the history of the map and how it’s created today, so I won’t repeat it all here, and we won’t have a separate GIS Tools blog this week.

The USDM map started out as a really pixelated drawing back in August of 1999, but eventually moved over to GIS and uses a lot of science-based layers today. They still create all of the drought shapes by hand, which takes 10-20 volunteer hours per week! See the whole slide deck here.

Citizen Science: Drought Reporting and Weather Stations!

Are you being affected by drought? You can submit a report about how lack of water is affecting you through the Drought Impact Reporter from the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska. The format of the report is a Survey123 app, which the Magical Mapper has mentioned before on the podcast. You can also attach photos and report on any and all of the questions they ask about, which include agriculture, municipal water supply, and fish and wildlife habitat impacts. You can then see the reports in an awesome story map! This is just a starting point for interested parties to see what’s going on, and is based solely on media reports and subjective volunteer reports.

Want to have a bit more impact? You can become a CoCoRaHS reporter! CoCoRaHS stands for Community Collaborative Rain Hail and Snow Network. This network of volunteers have purchased high quality rain gauges that cost around $35 and report precipitation amounts each day. You do need to commit to reading and emptying your rain gauge at the same time every day. These reports are then used by a wide variety of people, including the National Weather Service, climatologists, researchers, insurance industry, forensic detectives, and the US Drought Monitor, just to name a few. Even readings of 0 rain are very important and help researchers study and identify drought conditions.

Thanks for joining us!

As always, please rate, review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please let us know what you think at outalivepodcast.com or facebook.com/WillWeMakeItOutAlive. If you like the podcast, please tell all of your friends! And family! And co-workers! And strangers!

See you next month!

Before we begin, tomorrow, June 5th is World Environment Day! This year’s theme is Beat Air Pollution, and some things you can do to celebrate include planting trees, cleaning up trash, or biking to work.

To begin the episode, the Poop Detective tells another Thailand story; this time about kayaking in our own urine! We don’t recommend, but we didn’t get sick and had fun.

In our restoration segment, the Poop Detective tells us why it’s bad to swim in urine and poop (and other pollution). Some of these reasons include viruses, pathogens and parasites.

Other ways to stay healthy at the beach include leaving the beach and public access sites cleaner than you found them, and reporting spills. If you see something spilled in the water or at a Washington beach contact the Department of Ecology’s Spill Response line for investigation and follow-up at 1-800-OILS-911 (https://ecology.wa.gov/About-us/Get-involved/Report-an-environmental-issue/Report-a-spill).

You can also check local monitoring program websites before you head out to make sure the beach is safe for swimming (at least for those beaches that have funding for monitoring). This includes statewide monitoring Beach Monitoring Programs in Washington and Oregon. Even British Columbia has some beach monitoring programs mostly focused in the Greater Vancouver and Victoria areas. Most swimming related monitoring programs in the Pacific Northwest are focused on sampling between Memorial Day to Labor Day, which is typical to the time when it is potentially warm enough for swimming.

The Poop Detective then tells us about the BEACH Act and related programs. These beach monitoring programs each produce a proposed list of monitoring locations and the public is invited to provide input on the selection of monitoring sites, biannually. You can maintain contact with the Washington Beach Program through their blog, fecal matters (Amy is upset someone beat her to this title) or on their social media sites. Find out about the health of beaches in your area through their interactive map.

The Oregon Beach Monitoring Program monitors waters along its coastline. In Oregon, the public is guaranteed free and uninterrupted use of all beaches along the coastline; therefore, beach advisories are issued but closings are not. They do not have an interactive map, so you have to figure out where the beaches are on your own. What’s up, Oregon??? The Magical Mapper is disappointed in you.

Surfrider also have a volunteer beach monitoring program called the Blue Water Task Force. They provide beach monitoring throughout the US and provide an interactive map.

There are some local jurisdictions, like King County,which also have local river or lake monitoring programs. Check your local government website to see if they have monitoring program results available.

The Poop Detective then makes us sad while warning us of the dangers of freshwater harmful algal blooms, which can be toxic to humans and pets.

Both Washington and Oregon have limited Freshwater Toxic Algae monitoring programs, which include health advisories and closures of water bodies.

Learn about more ways beaches can be harmful in the episode, and also find out which beaches The Poop Detective and The Magical Mapper think are #sleg!

Speaking of beaches, the Washington Department of Ecology is running a campaign this summer for people to share photos and videos of the Washington Coast and Puget Sound on Twitter with the hashtag #WAbeaches and the location. They’ll be sharing them throughout the summer. Share no matter what the weather!

In the GIS section, the Magical Mapper gets some style (files)! Head over to the GIS Tools blog for more.

In our final segment, the Magical Mapper lets you know about Clean Marinas, which is a voluntary eco-certification program. There are programs in several US states as well as in British Columbia and around the globe.

Gig Harbor Marina & Boatyard is the latest in Washington to receive Clean Marina certification, on October 11, 2018. Way to go, Gig Harbor!

There are a lot of benefits to becoming a clean marina, including cleaner water and reduced costs! If you don’t own or operate a marina you can help your local marina get certified (unless they already are, in which case you should support them). If you’re in Washington or Oregon, or even in British Columbia, local program websites have all sorts of helpful information.

Thanks for joining us, and here are a few extra links just for fun!

Fun Beach trivia game from National Geographic
Beach Facts
More Beach Facts
Cat Fact 1
Cat Fact 2

As you may be able to tell from the title, this episode is all about fire (and maybe a little about cats). The Poop Detective starts us out with a funny story about a friend of ours who wouldn’t put out the fire and go to bed when it was late, everyone else was turning in, and he’d maybe had a few too many. Don’t worry, nothing burned that shouldn’t have (at least that night), even though he mansplained to us that fire must burn.

Our main segment this episode was on wildfires. Wildfires are natural processes and are important for healthy ecosystems, but with a changing climate, years of fire suppression, and new pressures from agriculture, development, mining and forestry, wildfire risk has been greatly increasing.

Fires are naturally caused by lightning, but the majority of fires in the US are caused by human activity such as unattended campfires, the burning of trash, and discarded lit cigarettes. The Poop Detective refers to a 2017 study from the University of Colorado which found that 84% of all fires in the US are caused by humans. The Magical Mapper found a wide range of percentages in a Google search so she conducted her own study based on data from the National Interagency Fire Center and found that on average, 86% of fires were caused by humans (over an 18 year period ending in 2018).

We’re seeing more fires earlier in the season this year, but even our recent large fires are not as large as historic fires!

The Poop Detective laments on the 2015 fire season, which had several impacts to our water-loving friends. A few of the things mentioned in the episode were that spring and summer stream flows hit a record low in Washington and Oregon, fish were dying from heat, the Columbia River lost over half of its returning sockeye salmon due to high river temperatures, and sea lions on the outer coast were having seizures from domoic acid poisoning. Oh, and we had an increase in wildfires. That season over 10 million acres burned with an estimated $2 billion spent on federal firefighting suppression.

The Poop Detective drops some history about some unimaginable huge early fires in the late 1800s that led to some early Forest Service practices that worked to prevent and suppress all fire as soon as possible. She then gets into different ideas of the cause and solution related to forest management and fires, including how some people think environmentalists are to blame for recent large wildfires.

In more depressing news, the Poop Detective shares that the USDA predicts that the number of acres burned could triple by 2050, and the fire season in the western US has increased by 2 1/2 months since the 1980s. She then gets into the health effects of wildfire smoke and gets science-y about the size of particulate matter in smoke. These particulates not only include burned trees and vegetation, but also structures and all of the nasty hazardous materials that may be inside them!

We can do things to minimize fire risk though. Remember that humans cause the majority of wildfires, so humans can change their behavior and stop doing things that cause fires! The Red Cross has some great information on preventing wildfires, and the Firewise program is also a great resource for those living in the urban-wildland interface. More resources can be found here and here. The Poop Detective rounds out the segment by talking about groups such as Conservation Northwest, who are working to create more resilient forests and watersheds.

Finally, the Magical Mapper gets a chance to talk! She discusses geodatabase templates, which you can find out more about in our GIS Tools blog.

The Magical Mapper then talks about the EPA’s Smoke Sense app, which you can download and use during wildfire season. In order to participate in the citizen science study you have to be at least 18 years old, but you can answer questions about how wildfire smoke is affecting your health and measures you are taking or are willing to take in order to protect your health. The app also gives users information about current wildfires and smoke forecasts, and you can earn badges!

The Magical Mapper rounds out the episode with a stewardship opportunity (actually three opportunities) with the Cascade Forest Conservancy. You can help prep for prescribed fires by collecting important information about the locations of dead or downed trees, depth of duff and litter, and understory vegetation. You can also collect seeds from native shrubs and grasses, or help spread the seeds in areas impacted by fire. The first opportunity is coming up on June 29, 2019. View their website for these and other stewardship opportunities.

As always, please rate, review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please let us know what you think at outalivepodcast.com or facebook.com/WillWeMakeItOutAlive. See you next month!

How did the dead salmon get across the stream and other stories about chucking chum for birthday fun.

For this episode we meet up with Jenn, the Port of Tacoma Biologist and grilled her about some of the Port’s land stewardship and restoration work. We also learned about her idea of a great birthday present. Amy attempted to spell hhhuuuvvhhh (retching vomiting sound). And Jen shares more about the magic of the the hot spot tool…that’s a GIS tool! Finally, we share some information about how you too can participate in local restoration projects.

We share why the Port of Tacoma has been busy slinging salmon onto the shoreline of their restoration site. Who would have guessed that chucking chum into onto the banks of a stream would result in faster growing, bigger trees and other vegetation? Also, it turns out, if a biologist asked for your help on their birthday, you may want to be skeptical, especially if that request includes, “throw away clothes and gloves”.

Thanks to this impromptu study by a professor at the University of Washington, we have over 20 years of data that helps us better understand the impacts of slinging ocean nutrient rich salmon onto the shoreline.

We talked with the Port of Tacoma Biologist to learn more about some of the cool restoration work that the Port is currently involved with, different types of habitat mitigation sites and best of all, how they are helping salmon return to previously diked and channelized waterways!!!

Did you know that there are three different types of habitat mitigation sites?! When your business or industry has made impact to the environment or will make impacts to the environment as part of development, our rules and regulations require that other habitat is restored or created.

SCIENCE NERD ALERT! Let’s talk about different types of habitat mitigation! What is habitat mitigation, you may be asking? Well, basically its when land is developed in a way that impacts aquatic resources. While we want to protect critical habitat, our rules and regulations do allow for some impacts to aquatic resources, if they properly restore the site after development or restore another site. In the regulatory world, there are three types of habitat mitigation.

Compensatory Mitigation - Creating the habitat site during or after an impact to the aquatic resources - mitigating for what has already been done or is in the process of being done.

Advanced Mitigation - When you create another site, for a planned project, where you have already identified that the project will have an aquatic impact.

Mitigation Bank - Where a habitat site is restored, but the project sponsor hasn’t identified a project that will have an aquatic impact. Later the credits from a mitigation bank can either be sold to others that have projects that will have aquatic impacts or used to develop another site that will have an aquatic impact.

OK…now that we are through with some of the definitions…we also talked with the Port Biologist about a site they have been working on for quite a few years, Upper Clear Creek Restoration Site, a site where they are finally starting to see the fruits of their labors and it can be celebrated as a success!

They restored an artificiality straightened ditch that ran through a former fallow farm field. There was not enough capacity in the channel during flooding events, so water (and salmon) would flow over the berm during high flows and then the juvenile salmon would become stranded in the field. As part of this project the Port reconnected the floodplain, created a more naturally meandering channel and provided refuge for baby salmon where they can rest up and get fat before going out into the dangerous ocean. This project took about 6 years to undo the prior work and recreate a more naturally functioning waterway! They are already seeing the success of this project. The very first fish they saw using the new channel after they breached the berm was an orca coveted chinook. Since that time, they have seen lots of coho, chum and maybe even a pinks using the site. There are rumors that bull and cutthroat are also using the new channels.

The Port has become a leader in Salmon Recovery, through their habitat restoration projects. The Port is partially bound to the work that they do because the 1988 Land Trade Agreement with the Puyallup Tribe, which although probably caused great consternation for some in the past, has since been lauded as a great agreement for all.

We highly recommend that you follow the Diaries of the Port Biologist Blog, they are entertaining, engaging and hilarious….also, apparently there is no shortage of interesting stories coming out of the Port.

Want to learn more about the hot spot tool and how to use it to identify areas of concentrated findings? Hop on over to our GIS Blog to learn more!

We also discussed how you can get your hands dirty…maybe not chucking chum, but at least pulling some non-native vegetation or planting some native vegetation along waterways, which still helps salmon (and orcas!). There are volunteer restoration opportunities both with the Port of Tacoma and other local groups like Forterra, a non-profit that provides volunteer stewardship opportunities.

In addition, we touched on Earth Day, which is coming up on April 22! These cats think, if we want to make it out alive, we must act like EVERY DAY IS EARTH DAY! Earth Day itself, is a great day for you to get outside and enjoy all of the wonders of our natural world! It’s also a great day to get your volunteer on, by participating in a restoration or stewardship project. On Earth Day, you will likely also be able to volunteer with the chum chucker herself, potentially pulling weeds at the Gog-Le-Hi-Te restoration site.

WHACK FACT: Earth Day was started in 1970 as a way to raise public awareness about air and water pollution. Throughout the years the Earth Day organization has worked to “broaden, educate, and activate the environmental movement across the globe.” We have done a lot to protect the environment since 1970, but it seems we are making some huge backsteps currently and those could be very costly.

Eventbright also has a variety of Earth Day related activities in the Puget Sound Basin (you can also search for other geographic areas!!!). Other volunteer opportunities include assisting Earthcorps (they provide tools and snacks and they still have openings for their April 20th event on Port of Tacoma Rd).

This is our first monthly installment of our podcast. After a few months of bi-weekly podcasts, we remembered that we still have to work and we would still like some kind of a life outside of work and this podcast. We are going to try the monthly podcasts until we are able to more efficiently develop, record and edit our episodes.

As always, please rate, review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please let us know what you think at outalivepodcast.com or facebook.com/WillWeMakeItOutAlive. See you next month, but in the meantime, don’t be afraid to to get out there and do good for the Salish Sea Ecosystem!

Thanks for listening!

In this episode we learn more about poop! We talk about poop troubles in Thailand and poop in shellfish. We also discuss how to navigate back to a site using your mapping grade GPS data. Finally, we offer information on the student GREEN congress and how you can help connect students to their watersheds!

First, we tell all about our own experience with food poisoning in a foreign country. What was the culprit?

Then we discuss the problem of poopy, toxic shellfish. No, we aren’t insulting them; shellfish eat whatever’s in their water, including toxins. While the toxins don’t hurt the shellfish, they do hurt anything- or anyone- that eats them. Even if you cook it! We discuss the effects this could have on people who eat nasty shellfish, including the different kinds of poopy illnesses they can share. For more information on shellfish-related illnesses straight from the Washington Department of Health, go here.

So what can we do to prevent poopy shellfish? The Washington DOH has tips for handling, storing, and cooking shellfish safely. If you are harvesting shellfish, their tips for doing so safely can be found here. The DOH also has maps that provides shellfish safety information and biotoxins you can view here and here.

For general information about harvesting shellfish on the west coast, go here. If you’re planning on fishing or shellfishing in Washington, be sure to check out the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s regulations and news. Many local jurisdictions also have their own shellfish harvesting webpages. Here’s the page for Clallam County.

Oregon has tons of resources regarding shellfish safety! The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has information on commercial or recreational shellfish harvesting here. They also share information about biotoxins in shellfish. For regulation updates, check out the Oregon Recreational Harvest Report. The Oregon Department of Agriculture also has advisories, safety information, and closing information. For harvesting clams or mussels in Oregon, go here.

For those of you in British Columbia, here is information on recreational shellfish harvesting. For contamination and closing information in BC, go here.

How do you even tell shellfish apart? Here’s some identification info from the WA DOH. You can even download this handy little PDF version!

Other threats to shellfish and shellfish eaters include plastics and climate change. Here is an article about the effects of ocean trash on shellfish. To quote the article,

“An estimated 8 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year, putting the total number of ocean-going plastic pieces in the trillions. This debris includes consumer goods, like plastic water bottles, and industrial equipment, like abandoned fishing gear.”

The EPA has more information on how climate change effects shellfish that you can read about here.

While every country pollutes, according to the Ocean Conservancy, about two-thirds of plastic junk in the ocean comes from five countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. Some of it sinks, some of it gets to shores, but much of it gathers in a convergence zone of ocean currents called “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch”

And remember when we mentioned Alaska’s cat mayor? That’s real.

For our GIS Tool, we talk about using GPS units to navigate back to the locations you GPS-ed. For more information, check out the GIS blog!

For Citizen Science, we highlight the GREEN Congress in the South Puget Sound and Nisqually River Watershed school districts. This year, 500 students from 4th graders to high schoolers work with facilitators in small groups to monitor watershed sites, give a short presentation on the results, and come up with solutions to make things better in the watersheds. Evergreen State College hosts the GREEN Congress each March, sponsored by South Sound GREEN (Global Rivers Environmental Education Network) and the Nisqually River Education Project. For more information, go here or here.

As of early March, they are still looking for volunteers for the event on March 21! They are also always looking for volunteers to help the students with monitoring in October and February. For more information on getting involved, go here or here!

There are similar programs around Washington. In the Clark County, WA - Vancouver area, the City and County run a program with local schools and then team up with the Washington State University campus in Vancouver to host the culminating Student Watershed Congress in May of each year.

There are several other programs around Washington where students learn about and perform water quality sampling. The San Juan Islands has a project you can learn more about here. Shelton also has a similar program that you can learn more about here.

We also have a big announcement: we’re now moving to one episode a month to insure that our podcast is hilarious and high-quality (and so we can get around to all the other stuff we have to do). Episodes will premiere on the first Tuesday of every month, and Episode 8 will drop on April 2nd. Tune in for some fish flinging fun!

As always, please rate, review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please let us know what you think at outalivepodcast.com or facebook.com/WillWeMakeItOutAlive. See you next month, but in the meantime, don’t be afraid to cut toxic shellfish out of your life!

In this episode, the Magical Mapper tells us some fun bee facts, and explains how honey is made. The Poop Detective shares some arguably less fun, but very important facts about bees: where did they come from, where did they go? What do we say to people who don’t like bees? We share how bees are vital to commercial agriculture and other industries, and explain the concurrent impacts on the food chain.

So, why are the bees dying? We delve deep into the many reasons for Colony Collapse, including the use of pesticides. This Science Magazine report published in 2017 confirmed, after previous studies showing that neonecticides were having a significant negative impact to bee, were criticized for not representing field conditions that bee health near fields where neonectitiods are used. Soil Association explains how neonectitiods that are applied to seed only 5% ends up in the plant, while 94% ends up in our soil and water (with 1% as dust). You can also go here if you want more information in a cute infograph.

According to a 2016 study, pesticide exposure of bumblebee colonies in urban areas was lower than in rural areas.

What can we do to help save the bees?

Did you know you can report a suspected bee poisoning? If you see a disoriented or dead (RIP) bee, report it to this app. To learn more about preventing bee poisoning, you can go here.

According to Jennifer Sass, the Senior Research Scientist at Natural Resource Defense Council, “The thing we can most control is pesticides.” She also urges people to not purchase plants that have been sprayed with pesticides. However, many stores won’t necessarily give this information on the label, so it may help to inform businesses that this issue is important to you!

If you’re looking to make your own garden more bee-and pollinator-friendly, you can go here to learn how to build a raised pollinator garden bed. You can also check out the Oregon Bee Project’s tips for making your garden safe for bees, with tips on which plants to choose and what to use instead of neonicotinoids.

We cover more methods to increase pollination: maximizing the time, place, and plant itself. Native plants tend to do best, offering a variety of benefits detailed here. For more information about plants native to the Pacific Northwest and their array of benefits, check out this guide from Oregon State University. Of course, the harmful insecticides have no place in your new outside space. Here’s a list of alternatives.

The Horticultural Research Industry has created Best Management Practices for Bee Health in the Horticultural Industry. This offers many specific tips to help pollinators, and offers alternatives to harmful practices.

And, last but not least, the bee water garden we mentioned!

Our GIS topic this episode was the NDVI Function, where you can analyze a satellite image to determine vegetation health. Head over to the GIS Tools blog to learn more! We also mentioned a couple of interesting studies, which you can find here and here.

During Citizen Science, we mentioned the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge, the PNW Bumble Bee Atlas, and the Bumble Bee Watch website and iPhone/iPad app.

As always, thank you so much for visiting! If you enjoy our show, you can subscribe to our podcast on all of the major platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play Music, and TuneIn. Rating and reviewing also helps! Stay warm, cool cats!