Cascadia today: BC chief fights pipelines + Seattle mayor seeks more bus service + find Pride events across Cascadia!🌈

Good morning, friends! Here's your daily roundup of news from across the Cascadia bioregion. If you appreciate Cascadia Journal, please consider getting a paid subscription. Everything you read here, including my weekly articles and essays, is paywall free. Your paid subscriptions make this possible. And to my generous existing subscribers, thank you! --Andy

The Heiltsuk chief blocking Canada's pipeline dreams

They Tyee profiles K̓áwáziɫ Marilyn Slett, chief of the Heiltsuk First Nation on British Columbia's central coast, who is one of the strongest voices of opposition to a yet another oil pipeline from Alberta to Cascadia. Canadian prime minister Mark Carney wants to lift the north coast tanker ban and build yet another climate-killing pipeline and export terminal.

Slett, who's also president of the Coastal First Nations alliance, gained attention for her response to a 2016 tanker spill off Bella Bella. She was instrumental in declaring a 6,700 square mile coastal Indigenous Protected and Conserved area on the central coast last month. In related news, the Narwhal looks at Carney's new deal with Germany to provide it with one million tons of LNG from yet another BC export terminal.

Cascadia needs to hold firm against new fossil pipeline and export expansion and lead the global shift to renewable energy. Mark Carney is one of the most dangerous world leaders opposing this transition.

Seattle mayor seeks to boost bus service

According to the Urbanist, Seattle mayor Katie Wilson announced a 10-year plan to boost bus service in Seattle with a transit measure submitted to voters in the fall. The plan would boost the transit percentage of sales tax from 0.15% to 0.3% and increase bus service hours from 176,000 hours per year to 280,000.

Though Cascadia ultimately should be reforming our tax system away from regressive sales tax to more progressive income taxes, the measure will do A LOT to make Seattle's transportation system more climate friendly.

The battle over the Portland ICE facility permit

OPB reports on the court battle over fines levied against the owner of the building leased by ICE in Portland. The legal battle involves penalties imposed on building owner Stuart Lindquist for ICE's repeated violations of an agreement with the city that prevents ICE from holding detainees there overnight or longer than 12 hours. The city needs to do everything in its power to revoke ICE's permit – the city of Portland has a detailed guide to the process, and how simple legislation evicting ICE would likely fail in the courts.

First California condor in OR since 1904

OPB reports on the first wild California condor documented in Oregon since 1904 – part of the Yurok Tribe's condor restoration program, which has been releasing condors into the wild in northern California since 2022. Read more about the Yurok condor program here

Find Pride events across Cascadia 🌈

Happy Pride month! There more than one hundred events celebrating LGBTQIA+ pride all across Cascadia, from Kelwona to Medford. Want to make plans? A good place to start is Stonewall News' Pacific Northwest 2026 Pride Guide, with details on 105 events in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. What's On Queer BC has a list of scores of Pride events across British Columbia.

Other good resources include the South Seattle Emerald's guide to Pride events in Seattle's diverse south end, Travel Portland's guide to Portland-area Pride events, and the Seattle Times's detailed coverage of greater Seattle area Pride celebrations, including an interview with DeAunt’e Damper, one of the grand marshals of the June 28 Pride parade and an all-around delightful human being.

Thanks for reading. Keep loving and keep fighting. --Andy