Watching Our Water Ways

Hood Canal has lost one of the region’s original environmentalists.

Andy Rogers

Andy Rogers, who died two weeks ago at age 94, might be surprised that I would call him an environmentalist — and he probably wouldn’t like it.

But when it comes to nature, few people could match Andy’s love for Hood Canal. He worked as a trapper, logger and fisherman and often talked about the bounty once found in Hood Canal but now lost to the advance of our civilized society.

Andy would never deny someone the right to move to the Hood Canal region, to build a house, to enjoy the water and woods. But he understood better than most about what development has done to the natural world.

“Every time anybody moves here, it gets worse — and that includes me,” he once told me. “You can’t do anything about it. People have rights. It seems our rights are going to kill us in the country.”

If Andy were alive this week, he’d be one of the first I would call to ask about whether humpback whales — like the one observed on Friday — ever showed up in Hood Canal. (See yesterday’s Water Ways.) Other longtime residents I contacted could not remember seeing humpbacks anytime in the past.

I once asked Andy about resident killer whales — the ones that eat fish. The National Marine Fisheries Service was about to designate “critical habitat” for our endangered orcas, and the agency was not listing Hood Canal as a critical place for them to live.

Andy thought back and remembered watching killer whales when he was younger — and even hearing them breach before he could see them. “We called them ‘blackfish’ in those days,” he said.

I relied on Andy Rogers to put Hood Canal into historical perspective for me while writing a series of articles called “Hood Canal: Splendor at Risk,” a project that grew into a book by the same name.

Much of the Hood Canal region was logged before Andy was born, but he lived to see many second-growth harvests and some areas that grew into harvestable trees for a third time. As a child, Hood Canal was a wilder place.

“When I was 10 or 11 years old,” he said, “I saw a sign that said, ‘No trespassing.’ I went and asked my mother what that was, because I had never seen that before. People went where they wanted to go.”

Some wild animals have been displaced by logging, but the changes were not permanent. Rogers told me that humans remain in control and can decide whether to tolerate cougars, wolves and bears. In days gone by, he said, the answer was simply to kill them on sight.

“Man’s the only one of the species who can control how many there are going to be,” he said.

Andy recalled when salmon were plentiful and arrived on a regular schedule.

“I knew the salmon would start up the creek about the 20th of August,” he told me. “Pert’ near all these stream were full of salmon by Labor Day.”

I think the loss of the salmon saddened him. He once suggested that all fishing be stopped for four years — something that seemed out of character for Andy, a fisherman. But the result, he said, would be an abundance of salmon. People would be able to see the possibilities and learn how to manage salmon for the larger numbers that were possible.

Andy lamented the loss of steelhead. He told me that he remembers when they were thick in all Kitsap County streams. At the time, I wasn’t sure I believed that, because steelhead are so scarce today. You generally go to coastal rivers to find them. But later, after steehead were listed as a threatened species, state biologists told me there was no apparent reason for steelhead not to survive here — except for the fact that there are no fish left to breed.

Rogers said it was poaching that wiped them out. He remembers a man who ran a black market for the prized fish, and this “outlaw” foolishly netted the streams until all the steelhead were gone.

Andy supported reasonable efforts to protect wildlife habitat, “but you cannot shut the door and keep people out,” he insisted.

I concluded my profile of Andy with a comment he made: “Id sure like to stick around and see what this place is like in 50 years.”

If that were only possible, I’m sure many people — including Andy’s coffee and card friends at Seabeck Store — wouldn’t mind listening to his stories a little longer.

At Andy’s request, no services are planned. A military honor ceremony was held today with his family in attendance. Andy Rogers was an Army veteran of World War II.

Survivors include his children, Albert Rogers, Jo Ann Belis, Barbara Smith and Charles Rogers, along with many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Jo Ann told me that she wanted to offer a special thanks to members of the Seabeck Community who had supported Andy through the years. His family placed an obituary in the Kitsap Sun on Jan. 25.

Andy Rogers offered many memories of Hood Canal through the years. This photo, taken in 1991 on Stavis Bay near his home, appeared in the book Hood Canal Splendor at Risk.

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A humpback whale made a rare appearance in Hood Canal’s Dabob Bay at the end of last week, then mysteriously disappeared from sight.

A humpback whale was sighted Friday in Dabob Bay by researchers Connie and JD Gallant.
Photo by Connie Gallant

As far as I can tell, Connie and JD Gallant, who were doing research on the bay Friday afternoon, were among the very few to see the humpback, or possibly two of them.

It makes you wonder how often large whales, such as humpbacks, come into Hood Canal without anyone seeing them, or at least reporting them.

“I was so thrilled,” Connie told me this morning as she described the encounter.

JD was motoring their 40-foot research vessel, the Sea Turtle, near Broadspit in the northern part of the estuary when he spotted one or more whales surfacing. JD stopped the boat, pulled up the water-testing meter, and yelled, “Whales off the port bow!”

Connie, who was below deck inputting data into a computer, ran up and began shooting photos. JD told Connie he believed there were two whales, but Connie only saw one.

Personally, I can’t remember anyone reporting humpbacks in Hood Canal. I phoned several folks I know who live on the canal, and nobody seems to recall ever seeing humpbacks. It is quite a different situation when one talks about visits to Hood Canal by gray whales or killer whales, which I’ve reported through the years.

My most memorable experience was in 2005, when a group of six transient killer whales spent more than five months swimming up and down the shorelines of Hood Canal, feasting on seals and sea lions whenever they got a chance. Those orcas stayed so long I thought they might make the canal their permanent home.

John Calambokidis of Cascadia Research told me that he has a general recollection of a humpback showing up in Hood Canal years ago, but he could not locate any written reports of the sightings. If someone was able to snap a picture of the underside of the fluke (tail) of a humpback, John said he might be able to identify the whale from a photographic catalog of humpbacks on the West Coast.

John tells me that a January sighting of a humpback whale is unusual, because most of the population is now on the breeding grounds near the Hawaiian Islands or else off the coast of Mexico. A few humpbacks are always around, he said, but it is worrisome when any animal shows up in a place where it is not expected.

Historically, one population of humpbacks spent the winters in the inland waters of northern Washington and southern British Columbia, but they were largely wiped out by commercial whalers, he said.

The West Coast population of humpbacks has been growing at about 7.5 percent a year since the early 1990s, according to Calambokidis. The general population now stands at about 2,000 animals, compared to about 500 more than 20 years ago.

As for the recent humpback sighting, I would like to get a report from anyone who may have seen this whale (or two) in Hood Canal or from anyone who may have seen one in the past.

Connie said the whale or whales that she observed Friday appeared to be “frolicking” — that is leaping out of the water, twisting and turning. She said they seemed to be about the size or her boat, about 40 feet long. That would make it a fairly young humpback.

The encounter lasted about 15 minutes, then the whales seemed to disappear, she said.

“We hung around for about an hour,” she said, “but they didn’t surface again.”

Connie and JD, who operate Greenfleet Monitoring Expeditions, have been collecting water-quality data — including information on dissolved oxygen — from Quilcene and Dabob bays.

The humpback whale spotted in Dabob Bay disappeared as mysteriously as it arrived.
Photo by Connie Gallant

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First, the folks at Sea World confine them in a tight space. Then trainers teach them tricks. Finally, they are expected to perform before a live audience.

I could be talking about killer whales, but I’m actually describing the activities of Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb, cohosts of NBC’s “Today” show.

A big-screen TV was erected in front of a killer whale tank, so four orcas could offer their encouragement to Kathie Lee and Hoda. Unfortunately, the whales kept trying to change the channel.

At first, the training of the two TV personalities did not go so well. Julie Scardina, Sea World’s “animal ambassador,” had a hard time keeping the two focused on the task at hand.

Kathie Lee was worried about how her underarms looked and appeared to be focused on the huge TV rather than the simple movements she was asked to perform.

“Gee, I think I need to lose some weight,” she said. “Speaking of killer whales!”

The whales watching the screen were hardly amused.

Julie finally was able to get Kathie Lee and Hoda to pay attention, and she showed them how to turn and move their arms. It was a challenge for the two humans, but Julie taught them a little ditty that helped them perform the task: “Splash and turn… Splash and turn…,” they repeated over and over again.

The whales responded with encouragement, swimming the length of their pool, as the two co-hosts finally learned their new tricks.

Many people think it is cruel to confine killer whales in small tanks and expect them to perform for a few fish. But you should have seen the relief on their faces when the trainers finally took away the giant TV. Forcing the orcas to watch Kathie Lee and Hoda do their tricks seemed truly traumatic to them.

I hear that Sea World trainers are considering installing a TV near the killer whale pool and keeping it on all the time. Nobody knows if the whales would become addicted to television like lesser-intelligent humans. What shows would they want to watch anyway? Feel free to speculate.

Anyway, I want to thank blogger Candace Calloway Whiting for dredging up this video. Somehow I missed the original “Today” show segment from last summer.

To view the complete segment, which includes more on the killer whales along with footage of other animals, go to the Today show webpage.

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Flood control is no longer a primary objective of federal restoration work on the Skokomish River — but improving the ecosystem is likely to reduce flood problems for people who live in the valley.

The Skokomish Watershed Action Team (SWAT) surveys an area where the Skokomish River has wiped out all vegetation and left a massive gravel bar.
Photo by Steve Zugschwerdt

We don’t need to be reminded that the Skokomish is the most frequently flooded river in the state. Although I’m not sure how soon another river might take over that dubious distinction, it’s easy to see that a lot of time and money is being spent to get the river back to a more natural condition.

The Army Corps of Engineers, known for massive projects such as dikes, dams and dredging, won’t be adopting those sorts of projects for the Skokomish River.

Jessie Winkler, Skokomish project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers, explained it this way:

“Clearly, flooding is a problem in the basin. But because of limited residential and commercial activity, it would be very difficult to justify a flood-control project. In order to be justified as a federal project, the economic benefits must be greater than the cost.”

For further explanation, check out my story in Monday’s Kitsap Sun.

The good news is that the Corps has not turned its back on the Skokomish. In fact, the river is considered so important to the Hood Canal region that the agency is considering some large-scale projects focused on environmental restoration — including possibly relocating Skokomish Valley Road.

Other interesting ideas include creating sediment traps to capture gravel in selective locations, relocating existing dikes to create a wider river channel, forming new side channels to relieve flow on the main river and even aeration pumps to boost oxygen levels in Hood Canal.

Many of the projects designed for ecological improvement will also reduce the flooding problems.

A report, scheduled to be released in late spring or early summer, summarizes all information collected so far in the $4.7 million study of the Skokomish River watershed. The report will cover current ecological conditions, future ecological conditions without restoration and a list of potential restoration projects — including preliminary design, estimated costs and ecological benefits, Winkler told me.

Potential projects are only conceptual at this point, though experts have begun to look at locations along the river where different types of efforts may be fruitful. Further study will narrow the list of to a plan to be submitted to Congress for funding.

The upcoming report will begin to explore which of the following actions are most likely to succeed in specific locations:

• Remove or breach levees/dikes
• Construct setback levees/dikes
• Create salmon spawning habitat
• Reconnect wetlands, side channels, backwater areas, and tributaries
• Substrate modification
• Install aeration or oxygenation system in Annas Bay
• Reconnect dendritic channels in estuary
• Large woody debris
• Engineered Log Jams
• Fish passable weir
• Channel stabilization
• Riverbed and wetland vehicle exclusion
• Enhance vegetation – riparian & estuarine
• Control invasive species
• Channel rehabilitation or new channel creation
• Selective gravel removal on gravel bars
• Spot-dredge
• Sediment trap
• Culverts: a) add; b) remove; c) replace; d) upgrade
• Road modifications
• Rehabilitate bank lines
• Cool water diversion to Annas Bay

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Whether you love or hate the snow, a bit of humor always comes in handy during the recent weather we’ve been having.

The following are some quotes, jokes and a couple videos I gleaned from the Internet. Each item lists a source with more funny stuff. If you have a favorite winter joke, please add it in the comments section below.

“Don’t knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn’t start a conversation if it didn’t change once in a while.” — Kin Hubbard (Quote Garden)

“There’s one good thing about snow, it makes your lawn look as nice as your neighbor’s.” — Clyde Moore (Quote Garden)

“A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.” — Carl Reiner (Quote Garden)

“The trouble with weather forecasting is that it’s right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it.” — Patrick Young (Quote Garden)

Of winter’s lifeless world each tree
Now seems a perfect part;
Yet each one holds summer’s secret
Deep down within its heart.
~Charles G. Stater (Quote Garden)

“Snow and adolescence are the only problems that disappear if you ignore them long enough.” — Earl Wilson (Quote Garden)

“Cats are smarter than dogs. You can’t get eight cats to pull a sled through snow.” — Jeff Valdez (The Quotations Page)

“Winter is nature’s way of saying, ‘Up yours.’” — Robert Byrne (Quote Garden)

Some definitions:

Winter: The age of shivery and shovelry.

Antarctic: Snowman’s land.

Flaky Person: A man who loves to be outside when it snows.

Skiing: A winter sport learned in the fall.

(Source: Daffynitions)

It was so cold …

It was so cold … 
hitchhikers were holding up pictures of thumbs!

It was so cold … 
Starbucks was serving coffee on a stick!

It was so cold … 
we pulled everything out of the freezer and huddled inside it to warm up!

It was so cold … 
Richard Simmons started wearing pants!

It was so cold … 
a flasher rushed up to poor Mrs. Flannigan – and described himself!

It was so cold … we had to chop up the piano for firewood – but we only got two chords.

Source: Jokes 4 Us

It was so cold … that even the kids at the mall were pulling their pants up. (Snow and Mud)

Winter Story

My husband and I purchased an old home in Northern New York State from two elderly sisters. Winter was fast approaching and I was concerned about the house’s lack of insulation. “If they could live here all those years, so can we!” my husband confidently declared.

One November night the temperature plunged to below zero, and we woke up to find interior walls covered with frost. My husband called the sisters to ask how they had kept the house warm.

After a rather brief conversation, he hung up. “For the past 30 years,” he muttered, “they’ve gone to Florida for the winter.”

— Sandee (Comedy Plus)

Bumper Cars

The Slush Man Cometh

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Photographers at Woodland Park Zoo caught some great images of animals that don’t seem to mind the snow. The zoo was closed Wednesday and Thursday because of the snow but reopened today.

Rebecca Whitham notes on the zoo’s blog:

“Some animals retreat indoors or look for a warm spot to tuck themselves into to get out of the snow, while others — like our residents of the Northern Trail exhibit — are in their element.”

Beyond the photos on this page, check out Snow Day at the Zoo and Snow Day, Part 2 on the zoo’s website.

Four sister wolves — Doba, Shila, Aponi and Kaya — romp in the snow.
Photo by Ryan Hawk, Woodland Park Zoo

A grizzly bear shakes off snow in the Northern Trail exhibit.
Photo by Kristen Pisto, Woodland Park Zoo

Unlike most penguins, Homboldt penguins enjoy a warmer climate along rocky shores of South America. These guys don’t seem to mind the change, however, and zoo staffers are making sure none of the animals get too cold.
Photo by Ryan Hawk, Woodland Park Zoo

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A touch of snow back in November caused me to post an entry about “snow dogs,” so whatever snow we get this week deserves a sequel about “snow cats.”

The two cats in the video player at right seem to catch the spirit of fresh, clean, cold snow. They paw at the fluff, run about aimlessly and attack each other. The music seems appropriate somehow. Just think how thrilling these two would be if they could use their little paws to form big snowballs. For an example of that, check out the cartoon linked below as Simon’s Cat.

At the other extreme is a young cat that seems to have no clue what to do with the snow. Must be a first-time snow cat.

A cat named Doughnut seems to have no fear of the snow, but frustration takes over when he is unable to make it up a steep roof and into a bedroom window, as he has done routinely so many times before.

A few more videos:

Cat tunnels in snow. Oh, my!

Simon’s Cat in “Snow Business”

Just before Christmas, someone compiled a bunch of snow cat videos, mixing them with Christmas cat videos. See “Christmas Cats Playing in the Snow.”

Finally, this last animal is not a cat, but he could teach other animals about living the snow. Fox snow dive — Yellowstone.

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Capt. Jim Maya of Maya’s Westside Charters on San Juan Island sent me his favorite photos of 2011.

“Though perhaps not technically my best,” he wrote. “they are my personal favorites. I hope you enjoy them and have a great 2012.”

Jim sent the photos on Jan. 1, so the delay in getting them online is all mine. The captions below each picture are Jim’s comments about the events and circumstances of the moment. Click on each photo for a better view.

Nov. 19. Ts with Sucia Island and Mt. Baker. We first found them at Speiden Island thanks to Kim and Karl Bruder, who run Lonesome Cove. Evening light. / Capt. Jim Maya

Aug. 26. Spectacular speed swimming! We call it porpoising for some reason. Strait of Georgia headed toward the Frazer River. Wish the lighting had been better, but you get the idea. / Capt. Jim Maya

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS
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Just before Christmas, my wife Sue bought a wall clock with a face that appears to be a water-color print of a nice cottage in a meadow. There’s a stream in the foreground and trees in the background. Sue said she wanted to have a clock in the bathroom to keep her on time as she gets dressed and ready to leave the house.

Audubon singing bird clock / Click on image to visit DutchGuard.com and hear the birds

The day after she put up the clock, as I was getting out of the shower, the bathroom suddenly became immersed in the sound of singing birds. Sue had purchased a clock that somehow forced a large number of birds to sing on cue at the top of every hour.

I’ve gotten used to the clock, but I was wondering if people really enjoy time pieces that make animal noises. Judging by what I found on the Internet, I guess they do. The Audubon clock, at right, features the sounds of real birds, unlike the mixture of birds calls that come from out bathroom.

The folks at DutchGuard.com are serious about their bird clocks:

“Don’t be fooled by imitations. Our original bird clocks sing longer and sound like real birds… Most people buy our bird clocks because of the wonderful songs, but we would be remiss if we did not mention the attention to detail which went into the pictures. In consultation with experts every effort was made to accurately depict in true colors each of the twelve birds. Our insistence on getting the images and sounds ‘just right’ took the better part of a year.”

Other clocks are more amusing. I’ve posted some some of the ones I have found. Click on the little MP3 player to hear the sound, or click on the image for the website where you can order any of these clocks. You may find other websites featuring the same clocks but without the sound samples.

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Because of the holidays, I did not get an immediate response from several climate experts I contacted following Nels Sultan’s comments about sea level rise in a blog post regarding “king tides.”

Earth at the winter solstice, Dec. 22, 2011 / NOAA photo

If you recall, Nels was making the point that the sea level in Seattle has been rising at a steady rate of .68 feet, or about 8 inches, per century since 1898, as reported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

His post included this statement:

“There is no real basis for the claims that sea levels will rise by 2.6 feet or 7 feet, or more. Globally, sea level rise has NOT accelerated. As found and reported by many researchers who specialize in this, including the eminent professor Bob Dean and other coastal experts.”

As a reporter, I’m not inclined to shoot back a response. I’d rather discuss the issue with experts in the field. That is what I did, and I think I have a better handle on the issue.

What I’m hearing is that the original estimates by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — a rise of between 7 inches and 2 feet by the end of the century — remain reasonable, but conservative given that they did not account for increased melting of the Greenland ice sheet. See this explanation by Stefan Rahmstorf soon after the release of the 2007 IPCC report. By the way, the range above accounts for the minimum and maximum across six climate-change scenarios.

Ever since, researchers have been trying to find ways to account for the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, but the uncertainties remain high. A widely cited paper by W.T. Pfeffer, J.T. Harper and S. O’Neel suggests that “most likely” starting point for further refinement is .8 meter, or 31 inches, of sea level rise by 2100.

In some ways, the authors of the Pfeffer paper were trying to limit some of the extremes being reported by others, so they concluded that sea level rise could not be more than 6 feet by 2100. Some folks have reported 6 feet as the top of the range, as unlikely as that extreme may be. Check out this explanation posed by Real Climate and this response by Pfeffer and his collaborators.

As for the Houston-Dean paper that Nels Sultan mentioned, those authors created “various problems” in their assumptions, according to Eric Steig, professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington. One major problem was the starting date of 1930, as explained by Stefan Rahmstorf in Real Climate:

“Other start dates either before or after this minimum show positive acceleration. Picking 1930 for this analysis is thus a classic cherry-pick, and according to the authors that is no accident. They write in the paper: ‘Since the worldwide data of Church and White (2006)…appear to have a linear rise since around 1930, we analyzed the period 1930 to 2010.’ The interval was thus hand-picked to show a linear rise rather than acceleration.

“Houston & Dean use their result to question the future acceleration of sea level rise predicted by Vermeer & Rahmstorf (2009) for the 21st Century as a consequence of global warming. They argue that the 1930s acceleration minimum calls into question the semi-empirical link between global temperature and global sea level proposed by us in that paper. However, it is clear they never bothered to check this, because quite the opposite is the case: our semi-empirical formula predicts this acceleration minimum, as the graph above shows. As it turns out, this is an expected outcome of the mid-20th-Century plateau in global temperature.”

I also discussed this issue of sea level rise with Lara Whitely Binder, outreach specialist for the UW’s Climate Impacts Group. While sea level rise means one thing on the world scale, she told me, the local impacts can be quite different.

If you live in Neah Bay on the Olympic Peninsula, for example, you are not likely to see any sea level rise until at least 2080. That’s because the entire land mass is uplifting as a result of movement along the tectonic plates, and the uplift is predicted to be faster than sea level rise until late in the century.

On the other hand, Central and South Puget Sound may not be uplifting at all and could be sinking, which would intensify the effects of sea level rise. Areas built on fill, including portions of Olympia, also could be sinking as the fill settles, Lara said.

In addition to global rise in sea level and local tectonic shifts, factors affecting regional sea level rise include thermal expansion of ocean waters and changes in onshore and offshore wind patterns.

During El Niño events, sea level can rise as much as 12 inches for several months at a time. The Climate Impacts Group analyzed more than 30 scenarios from global climate models and concluded that the change in wind patterns as a result of climate change could decrease sea level by as much as 1 inch or possibly increase it by as much as 6 inches. Review the white paper “Sea Level Rise in the Coastal Waters of Washington State” (PDF 2.4 mb) for more details.

How much an individual property is affected by sea level rise depends on the slope of the beach. Given the same rate of rise, water will affect a house sooner when it is built on a gradually sloping beach as opposed to a steep slope. In any case, tides and weather will always play a major role in water levels.

Lara told me that a group of West Coast researchers is working on a new report about sea level for publication later this year by the National Academy of Sciences. I’ll try to review that paper when it comes out.

I wish to thank Eric Steig, Lara Whitely Binder, Cliff Mass, David Montgomery and Nate Mantua for responding to my inquiry.

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