The Department of Natural Resources has announced partnerships with 4 pilot biomass projects, including one involving IWF and our partner Atlas Pellets, the largest wood pellet producer in Washington State, to move renewable energy from woody biomass along in Washington State.  In a Press Release, Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark said that the four partnerships "will put their technologies to work using forest products they purchase from state trust lands to produce clean, sustainable energy and rural jobs".

One of the (only) good things about the economic downturn is that government agencies at all levels have to get creative about how they provide services.  The City of Seattle is asking residents to adopt storm drains to help with the huge chore of removing leaves and debris that clog the drainage system especially during the rainy season.  The new program, akin to the popular Adopt a Street program, provides volunteers with a storm drain kit.

As we hear about the Copenhagen talks and what is coming out of them, very little is being discussed about the impact of US agricultural practices and climate change.  The Seattle Times had an article up last week about a UW climate scientist, David Battisti, and his shift in interest from the looking at the regional impacts of global warming to understanding the impacts of climate change on crops around the world. 

David Owen, New Yorker staff writer and author, has written a book, "Green Metropolis" about the energy savings inherent in living and working in highly populated and dense areas.   Owen says that the most realistic way to reduce our carbon footprints is to live in "densely-settled, pedestrian-friendly, public-transit-oriented cities like New York".  Furthermore, he suggests that cities such as New York stop worrying about what he calls "environmental fixations" such as residential solar panels and LEED-certified buildings and instead concentrate on “old-fashioned quality-of-life concerns” such as education, crime, noise, and recreational amenities in order to draw people back into the cities.

Just two weeks before the the start of the international climate meetings in Copenhagen, both the US and China have set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  President Obama pledged a provisional target, the first time that the U.S. has offered even a tentative promise on Wednesday.  Obama made a commitment to cut emissions by 17% of 2005 levels.

Today, the Chinese government announced that it had set a target to reduce "carbon intensity" by 40-45 % of 2005 levels. 

Kitsap County will be the 8th Puget Sound county to institute a volunteer "Beach Watcher" program with the help of the WSU Extension program.  Kitsap County hopes to train volunteers to lead beach walks, conduct research, and monitor fish and wildlife populations, according to an article in the Kitsap Sun. The project is sponsored by WSU Kitsap County Extension and Washington Sea Grant.