News from our member organizations

223 Members of Congress Push to Work With Administration to Reinvigorate the Parks

As the North American host of World Environment Day, the City of Roses wasn’t content with keeping it to one day.

Coastal vegetation continues to hold on to carbon for thousands of years, in contrast to normal forests. Paying attention to where the carbon is, and where it is going, is vitally important to understand the challenges we face in addressing climate change.

TSCA reform necessary, legislation must be strengthened

Earthjustice stated today that while it is encouraged by bipartisan efforts to overhaul the outdated and ineffective Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), it cannot support the “Chemical Safety Improvement Act of 2013” (S.1009) without significant improvements. Introduced on May 22nd, the bill does not do enough to protect people, especially overburdened communities and vulnerable populations, from chemical exposures.

read more

Last weekend, I rolled up under the Main Street Bridge in Conway, South Carolina, to see more than 40 people already unloading the kayaks and canoes and getting into the water! What a site to see so many people laughing and excited to get out on the blackwater Waccamaw River Blue Trail on a sunny Saturday morning. (Blackwater rivers get their dark, transparent color from tannins that leach into the water as leaves and vegetation decay. Most major blackwater rivers are found in the Amazon and the Southeastern U.S.!)

Photographs by the author except as noted

Sound Transit bike locker signage

On Wednesday May 22, 2013 I joined a Sound Transit (ST) tour of the Sumner and Puyallup Sounder stations. The tour was organized by ST staff and included members of their Bicycle Advisory Group. Arnie Tomac, former BAW board president and member of the Redmond Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee joined this tour and I had the good fortune to sit next to him and chat on the ride home. This post is a follow-up on a post that I wrote earlier about two Link light rail stations that will be retrofitted with additional bicycle parking and is meant to describe the additional bike parking planned at two Sounder stations.

The tour departed Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood in the early afternoon and returned in the early evening. The trip involved two ST Express bus rides and the final leg of the trip was on Sounder commuter train. While I had previously traveled on Link light rail, this was my first trip on Sounder which I found to be quite pleasant. Sounder is a commuter rail line that operates between Lakewood and Everett on weekdays during peak commute times. Sounder is operated on behalf of Sound Transit by Amtrak using rail owned by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad (BNSF). Sounder and Link systems form the backbones of the regional passenger rail system. Currently Link light rail operates all day from downtown Seattle to the SeaTac airport. ST has multiple system expansions underway for both the Sounder and Link and will reach the University District, Northgate, Bellevue and many more communities.

Shortly after we got off the bus in Sumner, Mayor Dave Enslow rolled up on his bicycle.

Photo courtesy of Rebecca Roush

 

Sound Transit staff explaining proposed changes to bicycle parking at the Sumner station. Photo courtesy of Rebecca Roush

At the Sumner station there is an existing CCTV system in the proposed bike locker area. There are seven existing lockers (each locker has two units so in total they can hold 14 bikes) and two bike racks  which nominally hold eight bikes each, though in actual use the capacity is typically lower than that. The proposed upgrades include 19-22 lockers total (holding 38-44 bikes) and as many bike racks as possible—which is yet to be determined.

Sumner station bike lockers

Mayor Enslow watches as a BNSF freight train pulls through the Sumner station

The tour group then caught a bus to the Puyallup Sounder station where we had a similar briefing on the existing and proposed bicycle parking facilities.

Mural at the Puyallup station

While the mayor of Puyallup did not come out to welcome us, the station agent was engaging and talked with us about the popularity of biking to the rail station. He said that the bike racks were very often used to full capacity at the Puyallup station.

A partially occupied bike rack at the Puyallup station

At the Puyallup station there is no existing CCTV system in the proposed bike locker area and no current plans to add one due to the difficulty of retrofitting one. Existing facilities include nine lockers and one bike rack which hold eighteen bikes and eight bikes respectively. There had been ten lockers, but one was removed because it was in poor condition.

Puyallup station bike lockers

Puyallup station bike lockers and evidence of removed locker

The proposal for expanded bike parking includes seventeen lockers total and additional bike racks.  Most likely there will be total of three bike racks with a capacity of up to 24 bikes. Once the designs are approved we can publicize the proposed new site plans for these two stations. Future Sound Transit facilities will include bike parking which will be integrated with the station area designs so there will be no need to retrofit bike parking.

Sound Transit requires all future ST Link facilities to provide bike lockers or a bike cage; and many planned facilities provide both. The Tukwila Sounder station is slated to get a bike cage and the Mukilteo Sounder station will have bike lockers.  After Mukilteo and Tukwila stations are finished the Sounder commute rail will be complete, but Link light rail will continue to expand. All other future facilities not currently under construction will include cages, lockers and racks.

In addition to bicycle parking at the stations, ST has done a good job of encouraging all types of multi-modal trips by allowing bicycles onto the train.

A multimodal bike commuter disembarks the Sounder

This allows commuters to easily use their bicycle between home and their home station and between their work station and workplace. At the Bicycle Alliance of Washington we encourage the promotion of multimodal travel as a way to increase mobility and decrease the negative impacts of travel; we support improvements in bicycle parking facilities at transit stations as well as improvements to on-board bike capacity. Bikes and transit are very complementary modes of transportation, and as I pointed out in my earlier post , together they have great potential for alleviating many of our transportation challenges.

The post Sound Transit to Add Bike Parking at Sumner and Puyallup Sounder Stations appeared first on Bicycle Alliance of Washington.

Unfortunately, for those of us who care about clean water, healthy rivers, and safe beaches, today there’s bad news for addressing polluted runoff. The Environmental Protection Agency missed its deadline to propose needed updates to its stormwater programs to better manage polluted runoff and protect clean water.

NEW YORK (June 11, 2013) – Mayor Michael Bloomberg today unveiled an ambitious vision for protecting New York against growing risks associated with climate change.

WASHINGTON (June 11, 2013) – In a new multimedia campaign, Robert Redford is challenging President Obama to act now on climate change by reining in carbon pollution from the nation’s biggest source, coal-fired power plants.

(Beyond Pesticides, June 11, 2013) Several different lawsuits have been filed against the agrichemical giant Monsanto after the recent discovery of illegal Genetically Engineered (GE) glyphosate-resistant wheat plants in an Oregon wheat field. The GE wheat was first found in early May when field workers in eastern Oregon noticed a volunteer patch of wheat that survived [...]

Washingtonians are blessed with an amazing asset: bike trails. Our state is home to many well-used and much loved trails. Some of these trails stretch for miles and are known to many of us regardless of where we live:

Image courtesy of UW Transportation Services

The extremely popular Burke Gilman Trail in Seattle is the cornerstone to King County’s Regional Trails System. You can read our blog post about the University of Washington’s plans to improve the portion of this trail that passes through their campus.

The iconic Spokane River Centennial Trail follows its namesake as it travels from Spokane to Post Falls, Idaho.

The Olympic Discovery Trail showcases the beauty and diversity of the Olympic Peninsula. Stretching from Port Townsend to La Push, this trail passes through Port Angeles and Olympic National Park and is in varying stages of development.

The John Wayne Trail/Iron Horse State Park begins near North Bend and crosses the Cascade Mountains at Snoqualmie Pass, then makes its way to the Columbia River. An unimproved route continues to through eastern Washington to the Idaho border.

We also have some lesser known trails which are just as varied and treasured. Among them are:

 

Coal Mines Trail.

Klickitat Trail in Klickitat County

Foothills Trail in Pierce County

Ferry County Rail Trail

Coal Mines Trail in Cle Elum

Apple Capital Loop Trail in Wenatchee

Bill Chipman Palouse Trail in Pullman

Burnt Bridge Creek Trail in Vancouver

Sacagawea Heritage Trail in Tri-Cities

Now we want to hear from you, the trail user. We want you to tell us about your favorite bike trail in Washington. If you’re like me and you enjoy many trails, it may be difficult to narrow it down to a single trail. But please do so and take our survey! We’ll report back to you in a future blog post and share your picks.

The post Tell us about your favorite Washington bike trail! appeared first on Bicycle Alliance of Washington.

Decision allows U.S. trade agency to continue denying public access to document related to protection of environment and public health

A panel of federal judges last week ruled that the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) was justified in keeping secret a document that set out U.S. positions on the interpretation of international trade laws that affect the environment.

read more

Last week I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel cross country to be reminded of just how special the landscape and communities of America are. Beginning in Washington, D.C. and ending in Denver, Colorado, I spent a week on the road traveling cross country to begin my new job as American Rivers’ Intermountain West Blue Trails Manager.

The leader of the Amazonian state discusses the triumphs and challenges of protecting its valuable forests.

(June 10, 2013, Beyond Pesticides) The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) on June 6 rejected a petition by Thurston County Commissioners to restrict sale, use and application of neonicotinoid insecticides. On April 8, 2013, the Commissioners requested the action by WSDA because of concerns about the effect of neonicotinoid insecticides on honey bee colony [...]

Taxpayer subsidy, fish-killing loopholes scrapped by judge as violations to clean water laws

In a major decision, a federal judge ruled Clark County’s weak development standards that allow too much polluted runoff, violate clean water laws. The ruling, announced late today (Friday) signals an end to the county’s long-time failure to protect rivers, streams and salmon threatened with extinction.

read more

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service prematurely pulls the plug on wolf recovery efforts

Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed removing federal Endangered Species Act protections for wolves across nearly the entire lower-48 states, a plan that would be disastrous for gray wolf recovery in the United States.

read more

For 12 years, Washington and Oregon have been on opposite sides of the Columbia Basin salmon deadlock. But Washington’s new governor, Jay Inslee, is the right leader at the right time to partner with Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber so the two states can lead the Northwest to shared and lasting solutions for salmon, energy and agriculture. Read the full article at The Olympian

Healthy upstream ecosystems – a key focus of source water protection – deliver a host of other benefits, like carbon storage and support for salmon and other species

Our oceans are the world's single largest economic asset.