Cover Story

  July 2022

Little Squalicum Beach Gets a Summer Makeover

by Tyler Brown Walking along the path near Little Squalicum Beach one Monday afternoon in late May, Cherish Flint and Jeremy Jones, 10-year residents of the Birchwood neighborhood, enjoy each other’s company as well as the natural setting. Flint and … Continue reading

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  July 2022

City Leaders and the Community Struggle With Sewage Waste

by Michael Lilliquist and Rick Eggerth The City of Bellingham is on the cusp of major decisions and an enormously expensive public works project that will have repercussions for decades to come. The sewage treatment plant at Post Point has … Continue reading

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  June 2022

Metered Parking in Fairhaven Frustrates Residents

by Tyler Brown Overheard in early May at the intersection of 11th and Mckenzie Avenue in Fairhaven: A white-haired couple steps out of their parked car to see a new sign posted on the street lamp reading, “Paid Parking Begins … Continue reading

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  May 2022

Fairhaven Needs an Updated Village Plan

by Barbara Clarke Seven years ago, my daughter and I moved to Bellingham and settled on the outskirts of Fairhaven. Some of the persuasive features were an affordable apartment, the beautifully maintained trails, Fairhaven Park nearby, the exciting daylighting of … Continue reading

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  May 2022

The Quality of Our Drinking Water Continues to Decline

Editor’s Note: The Lake Whatcom Monitoring Project was initiated in the 1980s to measure and track long-term lake data for temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, turbidity, and nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorus. The work is performed by WWU’s Institute for … Continue reading

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  April 2022

Salish Sea Facing Relentless Pressure

Editor’s Note: The following is an executive summary of the State of the Salish Sea, which was produced by the Salish Sea Institute at Western Washington University. The full report, released at the end of May 2021, details the work … Continue reading

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  March 2022

Preserving a Sacred Trust

by Ken Brusic Gabe Epperson has two offices: a vast landscape that stretches eastward from the shores of the Salish Sea to the foothills of the Cascades, and a small room in a downtown Bellingham office along the banks of … Continue reading

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  March 2022

Trouble in the Nooksack River Watershed

by Mariama Dryak For those of you who read Whatcom Watch, you will know that the North Cascades Glacier Climate Project (NCGCP), which has been tracking glacier change over the past 38 years, has recorded a significant loss of glacier … Continue reading

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  February 2022

Good News: Tiny Forests Help Slow Climate Change

Editor’s Note: This article marks the beginning of a new column, “Beyond Fossil Fuels.”  by Vicki Thomas Climate change has become frighteningly real in the last year here in the Pacific Northwest. We’ve been pummeled by alternating extremes of heat/drought/wildfire … Continue reading

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  February 2022

Oregon Spotted Frog Needs Local Help

by Lorraine Wilde Endemic to the Pacific Northwest and historically distributed in the Puget Trough/Willamette Valley province and the Cascade Mountains of south-central Washington and Oregon, the Oregon spotted frog (OSF) has been lost from more than 78 percent of … Continue reading

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