The Thurston County Planning Department will hold a series of community open houses regarding updates to the County’s Critical Areas Ordinance and prairie habitat protections.

The proposed amendments will affect activities in environmentally sensitive areas of the county, such as wetlands, prairie habitat, and other fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas. The proposed amendments also apply to areas that pose a threat to human safety, such as frequently flooded areas, geologically hazardous areas, and aquifer recharge areas.

The community open houses will all take place from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and are scheduled as follows:

• Tuesday, October 5, 2010: Great Wolf Lodge, 20500 Old Highway 99 SW, Centralia, WA 98531
• Thursday, October 7, 2010: Thurston County Fairgrounds, 3054 Carpenter Rd., Lacey, WA 98503
• Tuesday, October 12, 2010: Rainier Sportsmans Club, 404 Alaska St., Rainier, WA 98576
• Monday, October 18, 2010: Thurston County Courthouse Complex, 2000 Lakeridge Dr. SW, Olympia, WA 98502 in Room 152

The open houses will consist of two components: informational displays with staff available to answer questions, and a presentation followed by an opportunity for participants to address a staff panel with questions and concerns. There will also be opportunities for interested parties to submit written comments. Public comment from the open houses will be used to inform changes to the 2010 draft. The comments will also be distributed to the Thurston County Planning Commission and the Thurston Board of County Commissioners.

In addition, in the next several months the Planning Commission and the Board of County Commissioners will both hold public hearings on the proposed amendments to the Critical Areas Ordinance. The public will be notified of those hearings once they are scheduled.

Background

The process of updating Thurston County’s Critical Areas Ordinance began in 2003. In 2005, the county presented its first version to the public and held a series of open houses. In August 2005, the Thurston County Planning Commission held a public hearing to gather more comment on the draft.

Beginning in 2006, county staff and the Thurston County Planning Commission made hundreds of revisions to the proposal in response to public comments; however, work on the project ceased because of budget and staffing constraints. In early 2010, the Board of County Commissioners directed staff to create a public process and revisit the draft ordinance. Staff analysis and public comment suggests that a significant revision of the 2005 draft is necessary. That process is now underway. The County Commissioners’ goal is to consider and ultimately adopt an ordinance which brings the county into compliance with state regulations and is consistent with the latest Best Available Science, protects critical areas and recognizes the needs of property owners.

In 2010, the County received a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to amend its Critical Areas Ordinance and incorporate updated protections for the County’s prairie and Oregon white oak ecosystems. These ecosystems are rapidly disappearing due to development pressures, and they support a wide array of wildlife including the Mazama pocket gopher, Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly and the Streaked horned lark. These species are candidates for listing under the Federal Endangered Species Act.

Updating the Critical Areas Ordinance is also a way to ensure that county regulations “stay local.” If Thurston County fails to protect critical areas – especially certain habitats and species – the state and federal governments may step in and enact stricter requirements.

Click here for more information regarding the process of updating the Critical Areas Ordinance.

More information is available at the Thurston County Permit Assistance Center at the County Courthouse address above or online at www.thurstonplanning.org, or by contacting Andrew Deffobis at deffoba@co.thurston.wa.us or (360) 754-3355 ext. 5467. To receive project updates and hearing notices, click here to sign up for the Planning Department’s webmail list.
 

On October 12, the Science Café of Olympia will present “The longer day: How rocks can tell us about changes in the Earth’s spin and the Moon’s orbit”

7:00 pm, Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Batdorf & Bronson Coffee House,
516 Capitol Way S. Olympia, WA, phone (360) 786-6717.

Batdorf & Bronson has three locations in Olympia. Science Café meets in the downtown coffee house on Capitol Way. On-street parking is available on Legion, Capitol Way, Columbia Street, and Water Street. After 6 p.m., there is parking available at Heritage Bank on Columbia Street between 5th and Legion.

Our planet is currently experiencing a long-term increase in the length of a day of 20 microseconds per year, meaning each day is, on average, nearly 55 nanoseconds longer than the last. Even our familiar Moon is not static in its orbit around Earth, increasing its average distance from us by 3.8 centimeters per year. Chris Coughenour will discuss how these phenomena are intimately related, why our corner of the solar system is undergoing such changes, and why these changes have not been constant in the distant past. He will also tell us how, through the geologic record of preserved tidal cycles, this long-standing problem first recognized by Edmund Halley may be solved throughout Earth’s long history.

Our speaker this month is Christopher L. Coughenour, Ph.D. at The Evergreen State College.

Coming in November: Bats of Washington by Greg Falxa, Cascadia Research

Science Café of Olympia provides an informal atmosphere where people both with and without scientific background can meet to gain a better understanding of interesting topics in science and technology. After a brief presentation by an expert in the field, the meeting will be opened to discussions. Science Cafés are found nationwide and are loosely affiliated with the U.K.-based Cafe Scientifique, an international organization promoting public engagement with science. The Sciencecafes.org website is produced by the Science Unit of WGBH in Boston in association with Sigma Xi. Support for Science Café of Olympia is provided in part by the Puget Sound Chapter of The American Chemical Society.

http://www.sciencecafes.org/event_pages/olympia.html
http://www.cafescientifique.org/

We thank Batdorf & Bronson and its staff for welcoming us into their delightful gathering spot.

The South Sound Estuary Association (SSEA) was created in 2007 to establish and maintain an interpretive center, in or near downtown Olympia, with an emphasis on the marine and estuarine life of Puget Sound. SSEA asks us to:

Imagine an interactive learning center about estuaries and marine environments of South Puget Sound located in downtown Olympia, WA. A place of learning and recreation for the whole family.

Estuaries are important places where tidal salt water and fresh water from streams, rivers and creeks come together. All of Puget Sound is a large estuary – the 2nd largest in the U.S. with 2000 miles of shoreline.

Our Puget Sound Estuary is unique and it is in trouble! At the center you will learn why our estuary is special, the pressures on it, and how each of us can be part of the solution to make it a healthier place for marine and estuary life to live.

Located at the back-reaches of the Puget Sound, South Puget Sound has special characteristics because of the this location. Human and natural history have shaped the land and influenced the water.

The SSEA Marine Estuary Interpretive Center will provide a place where interactive hands-on, on-site, in the field, on-the-water, and in the classroom education opportunities will exist for people of all ages.

The SSEA is seeking ideas and assistance from individuals and groups in the South Puget Sound. Click here to download a copy of their brochure. Inside you will find a description of the goals of the SSEA, contact information, and a form you can use to join or to financially contribute to the SSEA.

For more information, see their web site at http://sseacenter.org/ and their blog at http://sseacenter.wordpress.com/center/

Dear Friends & Supporters,

If we are going to restore Puget Sound by 2020, we all know it is going to take making some tough choices.

But that is not all – it will also take a lot of people, doing a lot of hard work. Which is why, this legislative session, I’ll be requesting legislation to Put People to Work, Cleaning up Puget Sound.

I’ve proposed the establishment of a Puget “SoundCorps,” a program that would hire young people and returning veterans to put them to work doing Puget Sound restoration projects.

You may not know that over 40% of the land in the Puget Sound basin is managed, owned or regulated by the Department of Natural Resources. That is a lot of responsibility – a responsibility I take very seriously. I believe that with this bill, we can harness federal grant funding that would provide more hands to do tough jobs like removing bulkheads, restoring habitat at toxic-sediment clean-up sites, assisting with the removal of forest roads that pollute streams, and more.

As a scientist, I am also excited to announce that we would be able to recruit young people and veterans with training in fields like biology, hydrology, and geology, using some SoundCorps teams as a training ground for the next generation of northwest natural resource scientists.

Unemployment in Washington is at a nearly unprecedented high, and young people and returning veterans are bearing more than their fair share of the burden. This is why, in the coming year, I look forward to working with you to put more boots on the ground, and more waders in the water to clean-up Puget Sound.

Sincerely,

Peter J Goldmark
Commissioner of Public Lands

Click here for more information regarding Peter Goldmark, Washington’s Commissioner of Public Lands.