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From our friends at Citizens for a Healthy Bay:
WE CAN ENSURE A FOSSIL FUEL FREE FUTURE FOR TACOMA (#FossilFuelFree253)
The City of Tacoma, with its partners the Puyallup Tribe and the Port of Tacoma, are working on a Subarea Plan for Tacoma’s Tideflats, which will establish rules for economic development and environmental review (and hopefully permanently bans fossil fuels) in the Port of Tacoma. In November of 2017, Tacoma City Council passed interim regulations pausing new fossil fuel development during the Tideflats Subarea Planning Process.
These interim regulations must be renewed by city council every six months. If you believe Tacoma's future must be fossil fuel free so we can reduce our city's carbon footprint in this era of rapid climate change, we need you to speak at these three city council meetings. We need all our voices.
FOSSIL FUEL FREE 253 SCHEDULE, SPRING 2019
April 23, 5:00 pm
Public Hearing: Tideflats Interim Regulation Extension
May 14, 5:00 pm
First Reading of Ordinance: Tideflats Interim Regulation Extension
May 21, 5:00 pm
Final Reading of Ordinance: Tideflats Interim Regulation Extension
If you have any questions or would like to join us at the next city council meeting and give public comment, please contact me (kcoble@healthybay.org).
Kenny Coble
Environmental Justice Program Manager
Citizens for a Healthy Bay
535 Dock Street, Suite 213
Tacoma, WA 98402
T 253-383-2429 | W healthybay.org
Citizens for a Healthy Bay is where people engage in the many ways to protect Commencement Bay and our surrounding waters. Click here to support our valuable work.
Critical Aquifer Recharge Areas Guidance Document (click here to open or download the pdf)
from: Washington State Department of Ecology
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Friends of Pierce County 2019 Annual Meeting Summary
Friends of Pierce County welcomed Erin Dilworth from Citizens for Healthy Bay. Erin briefed attendees on the latest issues with the Tacoma Tide Flats. The City of Tacoma is working on a Tideflats Subarea Plan. The City is putting together a stakeholder team to address a vision, environment, land use, economy, public services and transportation in the plan.
The most contaminated site in Commencement Bay (from Hylebos to Marine View Drive – and deeper than the height of the Tacoma Dome) is slated for cleanup. A plan is currently being developed for what portions of this area will be cleaned up. For more on Occidental Chemical Cleanup: https://www.healthybay.org/work/contaminated-site-cleanups/occidental-chemical-cleanup-site/
Erin Dilworth, Citizens for Healthy Bay, at Friends of Pierce County Annual meeting. March 19, 2019.
CVA Newsletter #42, December 2018
In its 14th year, the Donkey Creek Chum Festival attracted 850 visitors to the Harbor History Museum and CVA was there!
Key Peninsula/Peninsula/Islands Watershed Council Nets
$10,000 from Cider Swig Proceeds For Lu Winsor Grants
Barbara Ann Smolko of Surface Water Management accepts a check from the Greater Gig Harbor Foundation Board President Jud Morris.
With matching County funds and Peninsula Light donations, KGI will award around $25,000 in 2019 to individuals and groups who aim to enhance the natural environment through education or restoration projects in our area.
The next application round will be announced in March.
Watch for it on the KGI Watershed Council Facebook Page.
A Community Plan Amendment on native plant canopy is working its way through county hearings, next up is the Planning Commission, TBA in January.
PROPOSED AMENDMENT, Gig Harbor Community Plan, pg. E104
Goal GH ENV-14 The goal for tree canopy coverage shall be 75% within the Urban Sensitive Resource Overlay and the Rural Sensitive Resource zone to implement the Peninsula Open Space Corridors map.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION
Our Crescent Valley Rural Sensitive Reserve area, farms and all, currently measures at 80% canopy coverage. Yay! (See CVA’s website to find the description on page 43 of the Stewardship Plan.) Besides enhancing our own properties, native plant canopy provides our neighbors these Public Benefits:Staff supports the proposal. Staff supports the proposal based on the following:
The proposal is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan and Community Plan goals andpolicies for the maintenance and restoral of native vegetation in the Rural Sensitive
Resource and the Urban Sensitive Resource Zones.
The Gig Harbor Community Plan’s direction to preserve native vegetation is supportedby supplemental plans such as the adopted Crescent Valley Biodiversity Management
Area (BMA) Stewardship Plan, which covers a large portion of the area that the policy
would apply to.
1. Free storm water management services. (i.e., slowing the rate of runoff, sending potential pollutants deep into the soil.)
2. Free aquifer recharge. (i.e., percolating rainwater deep through soil layers.)
3. Free anti-erosion services. (i.e., stabilizing slopes with root systems better and cheaper than bulkheading.)
4. Free cooling and warming services to our northwest soils and streams, as well as to our homes. (i.e., buffering the effects of strong winds, hard frosts, and droughts.)
5. Wildlife habitat. Our human developments punch holes in the web of life that grows timber and sustains salmon. Homes for birds, insects, and wild mammals are essential to preserve what our Community Plan calls “the nature of our community.” Neither the land, nor the nearshore, nor Puget Sound can remain healthy without preservation of substantial tree canopy.
6. Wildlife corridors. Wildlife must move from one type of habitat to another as the seasons change. Connected streams of tree canopy across our peninsula must be maintained because isolated patches of trees do not provide ecosystem services for wildlife or for us humans.
7. Human health and well-being. Trees scrub the air we breathe of pollutants while exchanging CO2 for oxygen. They cool and calm the human spirit.
8. Aesthetically pleasing surrounds. As much as the waters of the Salish Sea, trees are our view and our land value.
9. Carbon dioxide sequestration. Trees are an ally in reducing the percentage of the planet-heating CO2 in the mix of air we breathe.
Gosh, I hope I covered it all. (And did you know that some parcels larger than 2 acres can qualify for a tax rate reduction for providing these public benefits?) If you have questions or are interested in seeing the entire PDF for this amendment proposal, email Lucinda, WingardJL@hotmail.com
Draft of the New Buildable Lands document:
Looking for all Pierce County wetlands
In Washington, the existing statewide wetland maps (National Wetlands Inventory [NWI] maps) are out of date and inaccurate in many locations. They are based on imagery and data from the 1980s and do not reflect current wetland location and extent.
Additionally, wetlands are missing from the NWI maps. These errors of omission have been recorded to be as high as 50% in some areas, and may be as high as 90% in some forested areas. Inaccuracies and errors of omission are due in part to the difficulty of photo-interpreting certain land cover types. Also, many wetlands on agricultural lands were not mapped.
The NWI classified wetlands to identify wetland habitat types. It lacks abiotic information such as landscape position, landform, and water flow path, which can be used to predict functions and, in combination with land uses, wetland condition. To complete this project, the University of Washington will use remote sensing data sources, such as LiDAR, high-resolution aerial imagery, Landsat imagery, digital elevation data, hydrography, and updated soil maps provide an opportunity to address these known shortcomings. Moreover, recent developments in automated remote sensing technologies allow for more efficient coverage of large areas.
An improved, statewide map of wetland location and type is critical to the ability of local governments to protect wetlands. Under the Growth Management and Shoreline Management Acts, local governments play a critical role in wetland protection and management. They do this through comprehensive planning, zoning, and permit review. Planners and permit reviewers rely on existing NWI maps for these processes. A few local jurisdictions have conducted their own wetland inventories and improved their maps, but these are limited due to lack of resources, and none have predicted functions and conditions of wetlands. This leaves many local governments with inadequate maps and information on local wetlands, and the state with uneven coverage.
This project will improve the ability to more efficiently and accurately identify the location, size, and type of wetland resource. available as a publicly accessible, web-based map. Information about the maps, and any analyses using the data, will be disseminated through articles and presentations to state and federal agencies, and local governments and planners.
Source: https://portal.nifa.usda.gov/web/crisprojectpages/1013138-washington-wetland-mapping.html
From Pierce County:
The Regulation Roadmap for Agriculture is now posted on the Pierce County Farming website: https://www.co.pierce.wa.us/3422/Getting-Started. The Regulation Roadmap was developed to assist producers to identify possible permits and licenses needed to produce and sell farm products. It also identifies the primary regulatory agencies dealing with farm products.
The Regulation Roadmap for Agriculture project is a partnership with the Agriculture Community of Interest, Pierce County Agriculture Program and Tacoma Pierce Health Department.
Diane Marcus-Jones | Senior Planner | Pierce County Planning and Public Works| (253)798-2616 |
2401 South 35th Street, Room 175, Tacoma, WA, 98409-7490 | dmarcus@co.pierce.wa.us | www.co.pierce.wa.us/pals I www.piercecountywa.org/farming
| Friends of Pierce County is a 501(c) non-profit organization. 8205 90th Street Ct. NW, Gig Harbor, WA 98332 |
