September 2019 (volume 28, issue 9)

Whatcom Transit Authority Is Losing Riders: What Could We Learn From Kingston, Ontario?

by Preston L. Schiller How Kingston Transit Doubled Its Ridership in 10 Years Part 1 The Whatcom Transportation Authority (WTA) is a transit provider whose ridership has been stagnant or in decline in recent years after a dramatic growth of … Continue reading

5G Is Coming to Bellingham

by Leslie Shankman 5G, the fifth generation of cellular technology, is headed to Bellingham. From July through December of 2018, the city of Bellingham went through the process of creating regulations for the deployment of small cell telecommunication facilities in … Continue reading

Caspian Tern Redux

by Joe Meche As the calendar rolls into September every year, I tend to wax nostalgic about a variety of odds and ends and even life in general. Summertime is generally a time of year for memorable events lending to … Continue reading

Tribes Outraged by EPA Move to Roll Back Improved Water Quality Standards

by Lorraine Loomis Treaty Indian tribes in western Washington are outraged that the Environmental Protection Agency is advancing the agenda of a small group of industrial polluters to undermine public health, science and decades of hard work by rolling back … Continue reading

Whatcom County Council

Compiled by Barry MacHale Action Taken at July 9, 2019 Meeting Shall the council: 138. Authorize the executive to sign a contract up to 0,000 with the state of Washington? The contract with the state Department of of Health and … Continue reading

Bellingham City Council

Action Taken at July 1, 2019 Meeting Shall the council: 118. Appropriate ,685,048 for goods and services checks issued from June 8 through June 21, 2019? (AB22353/22354) Approved 7-0 119. Authorize the mayor to award the low bid of 4,900 … Continue reading

Port of Bellingham Commission

Compiled by Bill McCallum Action Taken at July 9, 2019 Meeting Shall the commissioners: 81. Increase the 2019 capital budget by ,610? The capital budget was approved in November 2018. Since that time, the cost of some projects have gone … Continue reading

A Garden Visitor

by Peter Heffelfinger I recently invited a retired entomolgy professor, Bob Gara, from whom I had recently taken several courses at the Anacortes Senior College, to tour my garden. He had previously identified from a photo the flying beetles on … Continue reading

poetrywatch

Boris Schleinkofer, poetrywatch editor “When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.” — … Continue reading

The Environment: A Legacy Each of Us Will Leave for Generations to Come

by Kelli Linville Since January 2014, Whatcom Watch has been rerunning articles from issues printed 20 years ago. The below article appeared in the August/September 1999 issue of Whatcom Watch. First off, let me say that I firmly believe we … Continue reading

A Meeting About Protecting Lake Whatcom

by April Markiewicz and Laura Weiss Interested in protecting, preserving, and restoring Lake Whatcom, our community’s primary source of drinking water? Please join us at the downtown Community Food Co-op Connections Building (405 E. Holly St.) classroom on Wednesday, September … Continue reading

Grizzly Bear Restoration

by Conservation Northwest Staff In 2014, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife began a new, multiyear Environmental Impact Statement planning process for restoring a healthy grizzly bear (Ursus … Continue reading

Grizzly Comment Period Reopened

by Conservation Northwest Staff The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service announced they would restart the process to complete the Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) that is intended to restore the nearly extinct North Cascades grizzly bear population. … Continue reading

Doing the Right Thing Gave Me a Headache

by Tucker Cooke Doing the right thing should not be hard to do. We recycle because we were told it is the right thing to do. We were told it hurts the planet and especially our drinking water to flush … Continue reading