Cascadia today: Tribe seeks control of wildlife refuge + abuse at Tacoma ICE facility + keep a poem in your pocket

Cascadia Day is approaching on May 18, and whether you're in Portland or Seattle, there are some fun activities in the works. If you're in Seattle, join us for the Cascadia Day Poetry Explosion at 7 pm, Monday May 18 at Vermillion bar and art gallery at 1508 11th Ave in Capitol Hill. It'll be a fun evening with poetry from Paul Nelson, Matt Trease, Nadine Maestas, and Rhea Melina. Cascadia Democratic Action will be raising money for the Migrant Survival Fund and the Kawaguchi O'Connor Initiative.

And in Portland, the Gathering Cascadia event happens from 4 - 8 pm at Taborspace, 5441 SE Belmont and will feature local artists and musicians, workshops, and discussion pods. Tickets are here. Hope to see some of you there!

WA tribe seeks control of Dungeness Spit

KUOW reports that the Jamestown S'Klallam tribe is seeking control and management of the Dungeness Spit national wildlife refuge on the north Olympic peninsula. The tribe aims to pass federal legislation turning over the land, which it currently co-manages the refuge with the US Fish & Wildlife Service.

This is a good development and congress member Emily Randall should enthusiastically support the legislation. Lands in Cascadia are a checkerboard of private, state, local, tribal and federal control – and often mismanaged. As the feds destroy agencies like the Forest Service and the BLM it's time to turn more of these lands over to tribal or local control. The Jamestown S'Klallam have known from time immemorial how to care for these lands and should have that right restored.

In support of this transition toward addressing the impact of colonization, we should also move toward calling Cascadia's mountains by their Indigenous names:

Restoring Indigenous names to Washington’s volcanoes

Cascadia Day is approaching on May 18 – the day a volcano in southwest Washington violently erupted in 1980. This date lets us reflect on the power of natural forces in our bioregion, as well as celebrating the resilience of nature and people in the Pacific Northwest. What’s the name of

Cascadia JournalAndrew Engelson

Sound Transit offers delays and shortcuts to balance budget

In order to deal with a $34.5 billion budget shortfall, the Sound Transit board – tasked with expanding light rail in the Puget Sound region – announced a plan that delays stations and truncates lines. According to the Urbanist, the plan would cut short a line to the Ballard neighborhood in Seattle, fail to deliver on the promised Graham infill station in a diverse neighborhood in Seattle's south end, and delay a line connecting Kirkland and Issaquah until 2050.

Notably silent in all this is Washington governor Bob Ferguson. Ferguson has made climate-killing freeways the centerpiece of his state transportation plan. But if Washington is going to get serious about mass transit and addressing climate change, it needs to convene a special legislative session, sit down with the mayor of Seattle and other stakeholders and find the revenue required to build this system as promised. Nothing less is an abdication of responsibility.

Tacoma detention center fails to investigate sexual abuse

KUOW reports on a new study from the University of Washington Center for Human Rights, which found 172 reports of sexual abuse at the Tacoma Detention center over the past decade. The feds and GEO Group, the corporation that runs the immigration jail, have been slow to investigate, UWCHR says.

The answer is clear: assert local sovereignty and shut this prison down. Washington currently bans private prisons. Blockade and close this abomination.

Canada reversing itself on BC fish farms

The Tyee reports that Mark Carney's "Liberal" government is looking to reverse a federal plan to phase out net-pen salmon farming in British Columbia. The pro-industry prime minister's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is considering way to continue the industry after First Nations and environmentalists worked out a deal to phase out the farms, which spread disease to wild salmon.

“I’m not sure if they’re intimately aware of the pushback that’s going to erupt should the ban be tinkered with,” --Bob (Galagame’) Chamberlin, chair of the First Nation Wild Salmon Alliance

Poems in your pockets – or on your arm

KUOW has a great interview with Seattle civic poet Dujie Tahat about keeping a poem in your pocket to give to friends or turn to when you need it. Tahat says they also have a poem always handy – it's tattooed on their arm. The poem is Let There Be New Flowering by Lucille Clifton:

let there be new flowering

in the fields let the fields

turn mellow for the men

let the men keep tender

through the time let the time

be wrested from the war

let the war be won

let love be

at the end

Listen to the whole interview here.

Thanks for reading. Keep loving, keep fighting, and have a great weekend! – Andy