Many Seattleites have either never traveled the Inside Passage or seen only parts of it, remotely, from the deck of a cruise ship. A trip through on a ferry is well worth the time.
The salmon fisheries of the Northwest have spawned a new industry of bureaucrats, lawyers, environmentalists, sport fishers, commercial interests, scientists, and natives, all focused on the absence of fish. Meanwhile, four sockeye returned last summer to a lake in Idaho once teeming with tens of thousands.
While officials are calling for a moratorium on commercial salmon fishing along much of the West Coast, they're opting for a different tactic in Puget Sound: continued fishing.
Pretty as it is, our signature waterway is a chemical dump for everything from oil to sewage — and even anti-depressants. You may be surprised (and disgusted) by what turns up there.
It began in 1908, when a local group called the Beaux Arts Society bought 50 acres of land on the shore of Lake Washington, creating a thriving memorial to the arts and crafts movement of the day.
In the 19th century, tourists used to slaughter bison herds from passing trains, blasting the big beasts into near extinction just for fun. That ugly tradition is echoed in the recent massacre of buffalo in Colorado, which has also touched off a classic confrontation over rights between two ranchers. The Northwest connection: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's John Cook points out that the man behind the recent massacre is the chairman and CEO of one of Seattle's top software companies, Jeff Hawn of Attachmate. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
The state's biggest paper finally weighs in on a subject of huge local importance — the effect of urban stormwater runoff on Puget Sound. Though following reports by The Olympian, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Crosscut, and others, this is an accessible overview of the problem with plenty of PDF visuals. If you haven't gotten yourself up to speed on the subject yet, this is a good place to start.
Crosscut Seattle is an online newspaper for the Pacific Northwest, including Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia. It's a guide to local and regional news, a place to report and discuss news, and a platform for new tools to convey news.