Wendy Gerstel, Qwg Applied Geology, talks about: “Review of South Sound geology and influences on the ecological landscape.”

Wendy:

Instead of fitting into the “threats an indicators” boxes, better to think about geology in materials and processes.

Materials: clay, silt, sand, gravel.

Processes: glaciation, deposition, plate techtonics.

Water is a big part of geology as well. Surface run-off, groundwater and waves, for example.

She also refers back to Charlene’s talk, that this give us an understanding of how things change over time.

Wendy is showing slides that give a picture of the geologic layout of South Sound, the glaciation of the entire Puget Sound (I wish I could show these to you).

Another slide with a map on debris flows. These provided a lot of sediment into Puget Sound drainages.

A lot of the effort from geologists has been put into creating these geologic maps.

Glacial till covers most of the South Sound, with the latest glacial till being, loose sandy till.

Most of the “layering” (that she’s now showing in her picture presentation) are from glacial deposits.

It is important to set a geologic framework to what you’re studying.

Questions:

Does the Squaxin oral tradition refer to geoglogic events and their impacts?

Wendy answers that while she doesn’t know specifically for the Squaxin Island tribe, there are references.

Jeff Dickison (Charlene Krise has left), there is a time when things were different geologically. For example, there are stories in Squaxin tradition that include salmon running up the Deschutes River above where the lower falls are.

Marianne Seifert, Tacoma Pierce County Health Department, speaks on:

Newly implemented environmental health indicators for shellfish growing area pollutants, swimming beach advisories, mercury and PCBs in salmon, and stream flow, precipitation and aquifer levels.

Marianne moved down from the stage is moving around the room:

In addition to talking to scientists, in deciding what to measure as environmental indicators in Pierce County, they also talked to policy makers. It is important to track indicators that will actually gets peoples’ attention.

They also wanted to make their eventual report easy for people to digest and make the connection between land, water and air obvious.

Economic impacts were important to note because “not all people are motivated by health, but practically everyone is motivated by economics.”

Not just personal actions, but also policy decisions that would encourage good land use and recycling, for example.

One of the things that Charlene talked about that really was interesting to Marianne is “why are we doing this.” For scientists it may be as easy as “we’re scientists, this is what we do.” But, for most people, that isn’t enough.

That is what the indicators report is about, to motivate people to action. After the report is done in June, they will be holding a series of forums in September.

They will also be trying to fill in data gaps, so she asks the people in the room to help out, even if they are outside Pierce County. The scientists in the room know what is going on out there, so they can help out.

At the forums, they’ll also start deciding what the community values are for restoring the ec0-system.

Questions/Answers:

Can you talk about no change as being as important as trends? How does one interpret no change?

Marianne: Think about what causes change or no change. For example, population growth. There is an asumption with population change, that everything should be getting worse.

What are the things, policy decisions for example, that are preventing things from getting worse? What are the assumptions that make us think that things should get worse?

What are the top 3 environmental health issues in South Puget Sound?

Outdoor air quality is a big issue. We’re (at the county health department) not doing much about it. We’d like to do more, but because of funding problems we can’t.

Transportation is another issue. It will take large scale policy decisions being made. It will involve everyone and it impacts so many things like air quality and stormwater runoff. Also a lot of heart disease.

And, transportation related to stormwater.

UPDATE: Audio selection from her presentation here.

Jeff Dickison, assistant natural resources director for the tribe, introduces Charlene Krise, a tribal council member and director of the tribe’s museum and research center.

Jeff:

Science in the restricted sense, that many of us think of it today, is the scientific method. But, science refers to any knowledge base than can predict events.

I’ll hopefully also have audio of Charlene’s presentation later in the day.

Here are some pieces from Charlene’s talk:

There are stories from the 1930s of Budd Inlet when the beaches “were white with shellfish” and that if you went to these beaches today, they would be covered with silt, with no shellfish.

The tribe is known as the “People of the water” and their traditions and stories are connected to the land and to the water.

Traditional teachings, Squaxin tribal members are taught about protocol and respect for the earth.

During tribal events, many people wear read and black. Red is the signify mother earth, black is to signify honor.

The tribe also has sacred places that are very much like churches, and that birds and animals are the best teachers.

“Our people believe that if you watch, look and listen you can learn so much about the beaches.”

The potlach ceremony is not meant to show who has the greatest wealth, but rather to share and help other people understand knowledge of the earth.

Sometimes, we don’t pay attention to the land and end up doing damage.

At one time, when the tribe was going through hard economic times, she came upon a clear cut near the reservation. It impacted her deeply, and “changed her.”

She eventually came to visit the tribe’s natural resources department and learned that the long term damage of the clear cut was already being repaired. That led to her volunteering with watershed groups.

Initially, she was shy during the meetings, but always talked about the tribe’s “love of the land.”

She thinks the people in the room today really do have the same passion. “Keep on doing the research and talk to tribal members.”

I’m probably not the only one here today with a laptop open, so if you have any of your own updates or observations, please feel free to email them to me. Just let me know who you are and what you’re seeing and thinking.

eoconnell (at) nwifc (dot) org

Thanks!

UPDATE: 9:03 a.m. Just a note on these updates. I’m trying as hard as possible to get direct quotes from presentors. When I do, I’ll surround them with “quotes.” But, typically when I write what a presentor says, it will be an indirect quote.