Birdman of Protection Island
At dusk on an early summer evening, Protection Island is silhouetted in a deep, red sunset. A gentle breeze carries the murmurs of nesting...
Insects on the Peninsula
Butterflies, Moths and Caterpillars
We are fortunate to live on the Olympic Peninsula for so many reasons. One that doesn’t get enough attention is that...
Climate Change and Snake River Salmon: Undoing the System
Why do changing water temperatures in the middle of the tropical Pacific Ocean make it so important to take seriously the long-debated idea of...
Seabed Mining Part II: Who Owns the Oceans?
As detailed in Part I of this two-part series, the seafloor is teeming with minerals so expensive to recover that mining them has only...
Seabed Mining: What Lies Beneath
Ask any child, and in fact most adults, what is lurking below the waters of the Salish Sea and you might hear about whales,...
The Good News: Puget Sound Herring
Spring on Puget Sound is about gardens bursting with tulips and daffodils, white sails set against glistening blue seas, and massive, shimmering schools of...
Citizen Science: So What?
In the early summer, seabirds such as common murres and pigeon guillemots number about 50 birds per square kilometer in the southeast corner of...
Science Reporting: Hype or Hope?
Recently, a sea-grizzled, Pulitzer-award winning journalist asked me if I thought the print media did a good job of science reporting. I thought about...
From Lupine to Chinooks, the Elwha Pulses
By Jessica Plumb
Feature photo of Glines Canyon Dam reservoir by Jessica Plumb
In September 2011, I stood on a river overlook with children from my...
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Our Local Baby Birds
Feature photo: Mallard Duckling at Kah Tai Lagoon
All photos by Wendy Feltham.
One of the delights of summer in Port Townsend is noticing baby birds...
The lost commencement address by Tom Robbins
Updating this to honor the life and times of Tom Robbins, who walked on today. He lived a remarkable life.This post originally appeared here...
Beach Eggs – Part 1
Cover Photo - Monterey Dorid (Doris montereyensis)
In this four-part series we’ll look at some little known wonders of the Salish Sea by examining the...
Managing Fishermen, Just for the Halibut
Sometime soon, halibut will return to tables from Port Townsend to Manhattan. It will be excellent fish, pearly white, never frozen, fresh off the...
Port Townsend’s Red-footed Booby: A messenger from the future
A little after noon on July 31, 2024, Colleen Farrell, biologist aboard a Puget Sound Express vessel, identified a Red-footed Booby sitting on a...
