Drops
Of
Water
Issue 34 November 1999
The first people to find errors in spelling or word structure receive a free map of the Chehalis watershed. Send us an e-mail note telling us about the error.
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Welcome
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Issue 34 November 1999 |
This newsletter appears monthly in 45,000 households throughout the watershed. Printing is done by The Chronicle, and distribution is by the Chronicle, the Olympia Daily Olympian, the Tenino Independent, the Rochester Sun News and the Aberdeen Daily World. This is an early edition available only to WWW users. Please send us your Drops of Water feedback.
The first people to find errors in spelling or word structure receive a free map of the Chehalis watershed. Send us an e-mail note telling us about the error. |
Special Thanks
Drops of Water is funded by organizations interested in the watershed.
This edition was made possible by substantial grants from:
- Washington State Department of Transportation
- Chehalis Basin Partnership
and the continuing support of the U.S. FWS.
Inside this Issue
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FLOODS; OUR HISTORY AND OUR FUTURE
Recently the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducted two public meetings to discuss the forthcoming flood protection project. The project will include a number of man-made solutions to the flooding in the Chehalis Basin. As residents of the second largest river basin in Washington, it is time to be involved in the future discussions and the development of what will become the ultimate Corps project.
In seven years, from 1990 to 1997, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) spent $10 million (taxpayer dollars) on flood relief in the Centralia and Chehalis area alone. During this same period of time, the 100 year-old Corps of Engineers approved permits for numerous projects that drained the wetlands in this same area. However, this same agency that is draining wetlands is confident that man can build a better flood deterrent.
Can anyone say "Mississippi?"
Don't misunderstand. I applaud the Corps of Engineers for coming in to "save the day," when it looked like no other agency would. The funding and building of large structural solutions are tremendously expensive and the governments in Lewis County surely could not afford to build it themselves. Hundreds of residents in this entire basin are hammered nearly every year with flooding that impacts their personal lives and their financial investments.
This is where the residents of the Chehalis River Basin come in. You now have the opportunity to let the Corps of Engineers know that you have figured out the connection between flooding and draining our wetlands and filling our floodplain. Keep an eye out for future meetings - and then attend. Write letters. Let the Corps of Engineers know that you want a COMBINATION of man-made solutions, built IN CONCERT with Mother Nature's flood reducing methods. Tell the Corps of Engineers that while this major expenditure of taxpayer dollars is being built, it only makes sense to place a five-year moratorium on all filling in the floodplain. (The Corps is using old data; the flood of February 1996. Since that time, this bathtub which is our floodplain has received a vast amount of fill. Continuing to fill, while using old data, means the solution that is built will not protect us to the measure being used.) Assume the responsibility that goes with being a taxpayer - and a resident of a river basin that floods - and let the Corps and the local jurisdictions know that those who live in this basin are concerned about a totally man-made solution that serves primarily to allow more and more people and businesses to build and to live where it floods. Remind the Corps that structural solutions can fail, and that total dependence on engineered flood control methods is a recipe for disaster. The time is ripe to voice your concerns with the local decision makers, as well as the Corps, that man is not the only entity that can protect against floods; Mother Nature figured it out well before we did.
Lois Lopez, Rochester Wa.
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Recently ESD 113 received a $100,000 Goals 2000 grant on behalf of school districts in the Chehalis River Basin. The Chehalis Basin Education Partnership will be comprised of over 20 school districts, several natural resource agencies, institutions of higher education, and nonprofit agencies within ESD 113 in southwest Washington.
Primary Goal:
The primary goal of the project is to improve student learning in the region by linking Washington's essential academic learning requirements, skill standards, and assessment tasks to environmental issues that are part of this large watershed.
The overall approach to this project will be to engage school teams from the region to provide training on: the design of integrated units of study, the development of performance-based assessment tasks, the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and the characteristics of the Chehalis River. These trainings will, in turn, allow teachers to become architects of curriculum that meets the needs of their schools and communities.
Training and followup:
Teachers will be convened in one two-day workshop and two follow-up one-day sessions. Facilitators will be recruited from the Model Links project, another environmental education consortium that has been operating during the past several years.
The work of this consortium will be shared throughout the region and the state via the internet, conferences, presentations, newsletters, and other means.
Background:
A recent study by the Council of Chief State School Officers found that environmental education enhanced student interest in learning, strengthened critical thinking skills, and improved student performance. Washington State requires that "instruction about conservation, natural resources, and the environment shall be provided at all grade levels in interdisciplinary manner through science, the social studies, the humanities, and other appropriate areas with an emphasis on solving the problems of human adaptation to the environment" (WAC 180-50-115).
In 1998, the Onalaska School District received a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a series of teacher training workshops concerning environmental education. The grant provided hands-on experiences for teachers and for networking among participants through e-mail and bulletin boards. That grant provided a glimpse of the potential for the future development of a total basin-wide education program.
Thus, the vision for an education consortium involving school districts throughout the entire watershed was born.
Education Partners:
A number of educational and resource agency partners have been, and will continue to be, actively involved in the design of the proposed activities of this educational consortium. The education agencies include ESD 113, Onalaska School District, Adna School District, Ocosta School District, and teachers from as many as 19 other districts, Grays Harbor College, and St. Martin's College.
The resource agency partners include the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, Department of Natural Resources, and the Department of Ecology. The Chehalis River Council, a citizens' group that has formed a (501)(c)(3) organization, has joined this consortium as well. For a number of years, the council has provided the basin with information through a website and a monthly publication. Citizens on the council have raised issues concerning the health of the watershed, and have formulated "essential questions" that will serve as a basis for the development of hands-on curriculum and performance-based assessment tasks.
Local Determination:
School districts and related attendance areas have very different needs.
This consortium is concerned that teachers, parents, staff, and citizens of each school community determine locally those curricular emphases, units of study, and performance tasks that are most important to be taught. It is an important aspect of this proposal to support school district teams in their efforts to improve teaching and learning based on the needs they have determined through their planning process. Over 90 percent of the resources of this grant will be deployed for direct use by teacher/employee/parent teams representing school buildings in the consortium. These teams will receive staff development and other assistance to improve the basic skills of reading, writing, communication, science, and mathematics, using the Chehalis River Basin as the context.
These teams will have complete flexibility as they determine their focus, design their curricula and lesson plans, and construct the performance tasks.
The previous article came from ESD 113's Communicating School News & Staff Development newsletter.
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Rob Schanz, Chehalis River Council
The Chehalis River is in many ways unique among Western Washington river systems. Its watershed is the second largest in the state (covering 2600 square miles), yet the river receives almost no snowmelt. River flows often reach flood stage during winter storms, but drop quickly once the rains end in the late spring. The watershed is underlain by sedimentary and volcanic rocks that were once part of the ocean floor, and you can find fossils of crabs, fish, and marine mammals in the river bed.
To understand how this unique river system evolved you need to begin some 200 million years ago. At this time the west coast of North America was somewhere near the Washington-Idaho border, and what is now Western Washington was covered by the Pacific Ocean. North and South America were moving away from Europe and Africa at 2-3 inches per year. This drove the North American continent over the heavier Pacific Ocean floor, creating a huge trench off the west coast where ocean floor material is to this day being shoved into the Earth's mantle.
From about 100 million years ago onward this movement drove a series of island subcontinents against the west coast. The North Cascade subcontinent docked against the coast about 50 million years ago. Cascade volcanoes began erupting, spewing the material that would form the southern part of the Cascade range.
About 25-million years ago the offshore trench went through a period of inactivity. This allowed lighter rock that had been stuffed into the trench to float upward through the ocean floor, forming the Olympic Mountains. As the Olympics rose they also carried up the sections of ocean floor that now make up the Willapa Hills and the Chehalis River basin. The Willapa Hills began as a flat raised block of ocean floor, and were carved by erosion into the rounded hills and valleys that we see today.
The next big event in the river's geologic history was a series of ice ages, beginning about 2-3 million years ago. Huge glaciers covered most of Washington north of Olympia, and glacial meltwater flowed down through the Black River into the lower Chehalis River. The volume of this flow was many times greater than what we now see, and would have rivalled that of the Columbia River.
The last ice age ended about 8,000 to 10,000 years ago, and the melting of the glaciers caused sea levels to rise 300-feet. This flooded out the mouth of the Chehalis, creating Grays Harbor estuary and flattening the slope of the river bed. With a flatter river bed the Chehalis slowed down and filled in its valleys with sediment. This is why much of today's Chehalis River is slow-moving and meanders across a wide floodplain. The river now has very little carrying capacity and often overtops its banks during floods. The meandering river also tends to change its course frequently, leaving behind eroded banks and abandoned river channels (also known as "oxbow lakes").
The river between Chehalis and Centralia is particularly subject to flooding and water quality problems. This part of the river is underlain by a block of rock that has dropped downward, lowering the slope of the river bed to almost zero. The river here becomes a stagnant lake in the summer, and dissolved oxygen can drop well below levels that are healthy for fish.
These problems are made even worse by a "hump" of sediment where the Skookumchuck River enters the Chehalis. During the ice ages meltwater flowed down the Skookumchuck River, carrying with it a load of glacial outwash gravels and cobbles. As the Skookumchuck entered the slower-moving Chehalis the outwash materials were deposited in a fan-shaped delta. Since then flood deposits have continually added to this "hump" of sediment.
The result of all this is the unique and fascinating river that we live with today. In our relatively short lives we tend to think of rivers as fixed features of the landscape. However, you can see that rivers like the Chehalis are dynamic, and change continually in response to geologic and climatic forces. It is important for us to remember this as we work to solve today's flooding, water quality, and fish habitat problems.
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Mike Kelly, U.S. FWS
Here at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Chehalis Fisheries Restoration Program we get all excited about our BIG projects. We get out the heavy equipment, move big logs around, flex our muscles (sort of), and speak in deep, gravely voices about how BIG this or that project is. Then we give slide shows and write newsletter articles about these BIG projects, and slap ourselves on the backs in a manly sort of way. We brag to our friends, give hearty handshakes to the BIG landowners, eat slabs of red meat, and compare ourselves to sports heros.
Well, that's the cartoon version of our behavior. The point is that we do a lot of small projects that sometimes get overlooked. The small projects are just as important, and is some ways are more important, than the big ones.
For example, this year we worked with the Lewis Conservation District and eight landowners on a tree planting project to help restore the riparian zone along Coal and Salzer Creeks. The longest of the eight planting sites was 1160 feet, and the smallest site was only 150 feet. But the total length was almost a mile. The main goal of the project was simply to provide shade to help keep the water cool. The trees will help the stream in other ways, but each square inch of shade on the water is a square inch of improvement.
We often talk about a concept called "cumulative effects." This essentially means that little bits add up to noticeable results. The term is usually used to describe negative impacts as might happen when wetlands are filled. Say you have a thousand acres of wetland and you fill one acre. There are certainly impacts, but they may be too small to notice. Then you fill another acre, and someone else fills another, and some guy over there fills another, and then you begin to notice negative impacts. This is why we need to be careful with each little bit.
Guess what. The same idea applies to positive impacts. That 150 feet of Salzer Creek probably won't make a big difference all by itself, but it is certainly a key part of the larger effort. You make a small improvement, and then someone else does, and some guy over there does too, and then you begin to notice positive impacts.
The real key, of course, is to link the small bits if you can. That 150 feet, if were out there on the landscape all by itself, would never amount to much. But hopefully the neighbors would notice and get in on the act. It has been my experience that these efforts tend to snowball. A single small effort often leads to a coordinated effort up and down the creek. Positive cumulative effects happen! (Put that on your bumper sticker.)
The moral of the story is that you can get involved even if you aren't some big land baron. Got a hundred-and-fifty feet, or even fifty feet of stream on your place? Hey, you can plant some trees. You may even be able to get trees donated, and help may be available to do the planting. You can certainly get free advice. Your local Conservation District or Cooperative Extension can help you decide which native species would be appropriate for your site. And if you call me at the number below, I can help point you in the right direction, or even let you know if material help is available.
If you'd like more information, call me at 360-753-9560. My name is Mike Kelly, and I manage the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Chehalis Fisheries Restoration Program.
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Background
Interstate 5 experiences closures due to flooding in the vicinity of Chehalis and Centralia. In addition, the residents, businesses, facilities, wildlife and ecosystems located in the Chehalis River flood plain have experienced unacceptable damage from floods over the last decade. There is also a plan to widen I-5 through this area, which citizens fear will exacerbate flooding problems. While there is much pressure to make major improvements quickly, there is equal pressure to adequately understand and incorporate the needs of salmon and other fish species and their habitats into flood control and transportation project proposals.
The 1999 Washington State Legislature provided funding for planning and information gathering activities considered essential to understanding flood hazard reduction options for I-5, SR 12 and other chronic flood hazards to transportation within the Chehalis watershed. These activities should be conducted in a manner to support community protection and salmon recovery efforts where possible.
Technical Committee
In 1998, the Washington State Legislature established a technical committee comprised of WSDOT, WDOE, US Army Corps of Engineers, FEMA, USGS, affected counties and tribes. The technical committee created the alternatives subcommittee. The alternatives subcommittee is meeting monthly to develop a full range of alternatives for addressing flood hazards through out the Chehalis Basin.
The overall objective of this research project is:
To provide additional information that will be used by the public and decision makers during the evaluation of flood hazard reduction and highway improvement proposals in the Chehalis River Basin.
WSDOT is using the FHWA research funds to (a) help coordinate the collection of environmental, technical and geographic information in an effort to avoid duplication of effort; (b) complete data collection in the lower Chehalis Basin so that it parallels the information available in the upper basin; (c.) conduct local mapping workshops to capture local knowledge; (d.) assist the Chehalis Basin Partnership in developing a data management system; and (e.) assist the alternatives committee in applying the available information.
Alternatives Subcommittee
The research findings will be immediately applied to the work of the alternatives subcommittee. WSDOT staff coordinates subcommittee meetings with Lewis County and their consultant.
The regular participants at subcommittee meetings represent the following agencies: Lewis County, Thurston County, Chehalis Tribe, WSDOT, WDOE, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, State Emergency Management Division, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A number of local citizens also participate as interested individuals.
The intent is to assist in the preparation of a wide range of alternatives based on public needs, species protection needs under the ESA and the ability to provide long-term permanent solutions to flood-related transportation problems. These objectives are consistent with the preparation of the draft NEPA Environmental Impact Statement being proposed by the Corps of Engineers for the Centralia-Chehalis Flood Damage Reduction Study, as well as other basin-wide planning efforts.
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Cornelia Dean, Columbia University Press, 1999.
Book Review by Margaret Rader
In 1906, a developer named Thomas Irving Potter climbed over a dune to see an unspoiled peninsula of land four miles long with a wide beach running its entire length. In 1912, Bayocean, lying between Tillimook Bay in Oregon and the Pacific Ocean, had its formal grand opening. Buildings included a three-story hotel, a post office, and a "natatorium" pool. By 1914, 600 building lots had been sold. In 1917 the Army Corps of Engineers completed a north jetty at Tillamook Bay. The beach began to disappear. In 1936 the natatorium collapsed in a storm, houses were lost to the sea, lots were abandoned. The last house slid into the ocean in 1960.
For many of us, the constant changes at the sea shore seem random and unpredictable. Many of us also long for a place at the beach, with a view of the vast and changing expanse of the ocean. In Against the Tide, Cornelia Dean combines a journalist's ability to tell a striking tale with an uncommon ability to make scientific concepts understandable. From this book, I learned about the processes of beach formation and why human interventions like jetties and groins cause shoreline changes. I had thought of the sand at beaches as washing in and out with the tides, and sometimes disappearing out to sea in storms. In Dean's book, I learned about the flow of sand along the shoreline, and how a groin, for example, can interrupt that flow, causing beaches to disappear down-"flow" from the groin. I learned a basic theory of beaches, developed by Douglas Inman of Scripps Institutions of Oceanography: beaches are products of a supply of sand, something to move it around, and a final destination or sink. The sand on beaches has to come from somewhere, and the source continually needs to be replenished. On the West coast, a major source of sand is cliff erosion, something that coastal property owners would do anything to prevent.
Dean masterfully combines elegant descriptions of the processes at work along the coast with riveting stories of human folly. Even after the devastating hurricanes on the east coast in the last few years, coastal property owners rushed to rebuild on the same sites. States that tried to regulate coastal building found the pressure from developers to permit rebuilding near the ocean to be overwhelming. Dean's many specific examples of this human propensity make a compelling case for a change in policy. Dean suggests that in many cases the only way to protect the beaches for all the public is to buy up beach property for National Seashores or preservation in land trusts. The experience in many areas, documented again and again in this book, is that people who want their trophy home right on the beach, and the developers who encourage this, eventually destroy the very thing that makes people want to come to the beach in the first place--the beach itself.
I learned something I didn't know before about shorelines protection from this book. The concept that shorelines and waterways belong to all the citizens is not a newfangled idea cooked up by "environmental communists" but dates from the sixth century A.D.. The Institutes of Justinian gave any Roman citizen the right to use shorelands or riverbanks to fish, tie up a boat, or unload cargo. This concept was carried down in English common law and became the common law of the thirteen English colonies. Today this principle is known as the Public Trust Doctrine, and it has been recently litigated in the state of Washington. "In 1987, the Washington supreme court ruled that a development company was not owed compensation when it was denied permission to fill tideleands it owned in northern Puget Sound, because the zoning that restricted it was in accord with the public trust interest in keep the land natural." (Page 125.)
Dean is a balanced and non-doctrinaire writer. For example, she points out that where natural erosion rates are very modest and property very valuable, a seawall, for example, might make good economic sense. But there is no question that her basic premise is contained in this quotation from Montaigne: "Let us give Nature a chance; she knows her business better than we do." Uninterfered with, beaches have the ability to heal themselves after devastating storms. Coastal erosion does not threaten beaches--it threatens property built too close to the ocean. Everyone interested in the coast should read this book to discover why these principles are true, and why ignoring them--what Dean calls "the constituency of ignorance"--is leading to the loss of our beaches.
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Paul Pickett, Washington Department of Ecology (DOE)
Autumn comes to the Chehalis Basin slowly and quietly. The leaves start to brown and wither, rainy periods come just a little more often, and flows in the rivers and streams gradually increase.
With shorter days comes cooler temperatures. The warm surface waters of the Centralia Reach cool off, and slowly mix deeper, until the deep pools with their stagnant, anoxic water finally mix back into the whole river. Oxygen levels in the surface waters are gradually rising.
Despite the changes, fall is still a risky time for the Chehalis River. Although the problems of summer are easing, flows are still low and the season adds new complications. As the deep pools in the Centralia Reach slowly mix into surface waters, ammonia and other pollutants are released back into the river. Leaves are falling and plants in the water dying, adding to the overall load of oxygen-demanding pollutants. Bursts of rain flushing pollutants into the rivers and streams may be followed by stretches of warm weather and low flows.
The Chehalis River is still close to the edge, vulnerable to any spill or combination of problems. In October 1991, a treatment plant upset, combined with other pollutant discharges higher in the river, resulted in a complete loss of oxygen in the Centralia Reach. A week passed as the zone of no oxygen travelled downstream to the Skookumchuck River, where it was diluted and reaerated. Mysteriously, no fish died, perhaps because they moved downstream ahead of the low oxygen waters.
Typically in November, the rains begin in earnest. The leaves are gone, false summers past, and the rivers and streams move into their wet season. Cold, swift waters have raised oxygen levels so they are now at high levels. However, heavy rains and high flows bring a different set of problems.
As the rains come more frequently, the ground saturates with water and the stormwater begins to flow overland. If a septic system drainfield is old or poorly built, the sewage will surface and be carried away by the runoff. Barnyards fill with puddles and manure piles get drenched. If a dairy hasn't built a storage lagoon, manure guns may be spreading waste on soaked fields, where it will inevitably run off to the nearest stream or river. When the rain washes off the waste, it carries with it bacteria and other disease organism that will contaminate the rivers and streams.
When the rain hits the ground, trees, bushes and grass break the fall of the drops and slow the runoff of the stormwater. But where the ground is bare, the rain will break loose soil and carry it along. As the rain gathers into channels, it cuts into the ground, increasing its load of sediment. Eventually the turbid runoff reaches a stream where the sediment settles onto the stream bed, smothering aquatic life and clogging salmon spawning gravel.
Nature, left to itself, will cover the ground with vegetation as best it can. But when people develop land for their own uses, they often leave the soil bare. Poorly constructed roads, cleared building sites, plowed fields, livestock paths, and ruts from off-road vehicles can all be areas where the stormwater collects sediment that can pollute the streams and rivers.
Many of the winter problems in the Chehalis Basin become summer problems, and vice versa. The manure carried to the river which releases bacteria in the winter can fall to the bottom to rob oxygen in the summer. Areas cleared of trees that allow the sun to heat the river in the summer will be more likely to erode in the high flows of winter. Often a simple fix can solve a variety of problems.
As the Chehalis Basin enters the 21st century, the citizens and communities of the basin face a daunting task. Years of neglect and a lack of knowledge has hammered the river, until it has become a real possibility that streams will run dry in the summer and salmon runs will be lost forever. A long road lies ahead, but it is a path that residents of the Chehalis Basin share with citizens in watersheds all over the nation, and the challenge is being accepted. The solutions come not from pointing fingers and fixing blame, but from communities working together and each citizen doing his or her part.
For the rural home-owner, onsite septic systems can be repaired and properly maintained. People rearing livestock can fence pastures and limit access to streams. Dairies can work with their Conservation District and the Natural Resource Conservation Service (formerly known as the Soil Conservation Service) to develop a farm plan that manages their cattle waste and uses it as a resource.
Residents of the Centralia and Chehalis urban areas face some difficult decisions.
From late spring to early fall, the Centralia Reach simply does not have the capacity to assimilate oxygen-demanding wastes. To protect this sensitive area, municipal and industrial wastewater must be removed from the river during this period, and storm water controls need to be improved. Other communities have found solutions to similar problems, by reuse of the waste water, creation a regional sewer system, or the construction of retention ponds and wetlands. The solutions come with a price tag, but state and federal funds are available that may provide some relief.
On top of all this is the question of water supplies for the Chehalis Basin and the protection of flows in the Chehalis River and its tributaries. Water rights exceed the available water, and future supplies are uncertain. Water quality and the life that depends on the water cannot be protected without adequate minimum flows in the river system. The solution to this problem will come from everyone in the basin being involved and working together.
The list is long of the agencies and organizations that can help to protect the water quality of the Chehalis: federal agencies like EPA and the US Fish and Wildlife Service; the Department of Ecology and its fellow agencies such as Health, Fish and Wildlife, the Conservation Commission and DNR; the Chehalis and Quinault Tribes; county and city governments; the Conservation Districts and the NRCS; local businesses and industry; and citizens groups such as the Chehalis River Council, the Chehalis Watershed Council, the Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task Force, adopt-a-stream groups, and other community groups. With the passage of each year, the problems become clearer and the search for solutions more important. The whole Chehalis Basin will find the answers together - we all live downstream.
Editor's Note: Beginning in 1990, the Department of Ecology studied the Upper Chehalis River basin as part of the Chehalis Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) project. In 1994, the Department of Ecology issued three TMDL reports that describe the water quality in the Upper Chehalis and Black Rivers. Fall and Winter on the Chehalis is one of a series that Ecology researcher Paul Pickett wrote to explain the TMDL.
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How many three or more letter words are in the word THANKSGIVING? Try to find at least fifteen!
| _______________ | _________________ | ______________ |
| _______________ | _________________ | ______________ |
| _______________ | _________________ | ______________ |
| _______________ | _________________ | ______________ |
| _______________ | _________________ | ______________ |
Change The Word!
In this puzzle change the first word to the last word by changing only one letter with each change. For example: You could change BOAT into CASH like this: boat, Coat, coSt, cAst, casH. Use the lines, writing in the words from top to bottom:
| L | I | N | E |
| _ | _ | _ | _ |
| _ | _ | _ | _ |
| _ | _ | _ | _ |
| T | A | L | K |
JOKES
How large a fire do you use for a smoke signal?
It all depends whether it's a local or long distance call.
Joe: do you run a car? Tom: No, I let the engine do that.
Karen: Did the doctor treat you yesterday?
Tina: No. He charged me ten dollars.
Judge: Order! Order in the court!
Prisoner: Ham and cheese on rye please.
Hope you have a great Thanksgiving!
Ann
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Thanksgiving:
gag, gang, giant, gig, gnat, hang, hank, hint, kin, king, knit, nag, nit, sag, saint, sang,, sank, sap, sat, shag, shin, sin, sing, sink, sit, tag, tan, than, thank, thin, think, tin, vat,
Line becomes link, then tink, then tank and finally talk.
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The Chehalis Basin Partnership was formalized in August 1998 to coordinate resource management efforts in the Chehalis River/Grays Harbor watershed.
Partnership Goals.
The goals of the Partnership include improving water quality; providing ample supplies of water for farms, fish, industry, and people; reducing the effects of flooding; increasing recreational opportunities in the basin; and increasing citizen awareness through education.
The Partnership is made up of representatives from local government (counties, cities and towns), two tribes, state agencies, federal agencies, water supply utilities, port districts, major interests, and private citizens.
Currently the Chehalis Basin Partnership is working on the following issues:
Water Resources
The Partnership has received a state grant to develop a watershed plan that will assess the status of water resources in the basin and determine how to balance the competing demands between people and fish for water in the basin. The partnership has chosen to include water quality and fish habitat issues in this planning effort.
Water Quantity and Quality
Right now, the partnership is working with a consulting firm to gather existing data on surface and ground water quantity and quality, and fish habitat. Once existing data is compiled and evaluated, the Partnership will decide what additional data must be gathered before the watershed plan can be developed.
Salmon Recovery
The Partnership has also received a state grant to work on salmon recovery. Under this grant, a fish biologist will be hired by Lewis County to do two things on behalf of the Partnership. The biologist will help complete an analysis of conditions that limit the ability of fish habitat in the Chehalis River/ Grays Harbor watershed to fully sustain populations of salmon. In addition, the biologist will work with the Partnership to set up a process under which the Partnership will solicit, prioritize and fund salmon recovery projects in the Chehalis River/Grays Harbor watershed.
Flooding
Flooding is a big issue in the watershed and the Partnership has members who are very involved in developing strategies to help control or prevent flood damage. This effort is being jointly funded with local, state, and federal resources.
Other issues that are regular topics of discussion at Partnership meetings include: 1) how to make all the resource information accumulated by local, state, and federal agencies easily accessible to people in the basin who want, or need, access to it; 2) the potential listing of salmon or other species under the Endangered Species Act and the state efforts directed towards salmon recovery; 3) reports from the Citizen's Advisory Committee and Technical Advisory Committee.
Public Meetings
The next three meetings of the Partnership are scheduled for October 22, November 19, and December 17, 1999. Meetings are usually held in the Bingo hall of the Lucky Eagle Casino near Oakville. Meetings start at 9:00, and the public is welcome. For additional information about the Partnership or its meetings you may contact you local member/representative. Don't know who that representative is? Kahle Jennings is the State's designated watershed lead for the Chehalis Basin and he can help you find out. Kahle can be reached by phone at (360)407-6310. If you have access to electronic mail and prefer that method of communication, his e-mail address is KJEN461@ECY.WA.GOV.
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