WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE — Join us for an upcoming community session to provide your input on Commerce’s environmental justice assessments for programs and projects that could impact your community. The HEAL Act implementation team has partnered with Commerce’s Community Engagement Unit to pilot a process for community participation in program design and development. …
Category: Ecology
Apply today! Grants for watershed improvement projects open now
PIERCE COUNTY — Pierce County is partnering with watershed councils, regional nonprofits, local governments, and other entities to fund a small grants program supporting community projects that improve habitat and water quality across the county. The 2025 cycle will award more than $70,000 total to projects in four watersheds: Key Peninsula-Gig Harbor-Islands, Chambers-Clover Creek, Puyallup-White…
Dead fish conundrum at Spanaway Lake
By Marianne Lincoln Small fish, four to eight inches in length are rolling around, disoriented and flopping over on their backs and dying in Spanaway Lake. Reports have been coming in for a month in online social media. At the recent Chambers Clover Watershed Council meeting, a group of experienced water watchers came together to…
Volunteer as a Host at Morse Wildlife Preserve!
We’re looking for Volunteer Hosts for the 2025 season—second Sundays, April to October. Hosts work in pairs for 3-hour shifts and responsibilities include setting up or taking down a welcome table, welcoming visitors, and educating them about the trails and preserve rules. In-Person Training: March 29th (rain or shine!), 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. OR…
Why is the cost of environmental justice so high?
by Kirk Kirkland and Claudia Finseth Two neighborhood groups in unincorporated Pierce County have recently paid very high prices to attempt to protect their communities because the county is not doing it. Both were to try to stop two different kinds of large projects from dramatically changing their valued open space. Both proposed projects were…
Our Watershed, “WRIA 12” January 15
It is called a Water Resource Inventory Area (WRIA) by the Department of Ecology. The Chambers Clover Watershed includes Parkland, Spanaway, Midland, Collins, Frederickson, part of South Hill and NW Graham as well as Lakewood, McChord Field, Fircrest, Steilacoom, Dupont, and University Place, Below is a map of the WRIA’s in Washington State. Look for 12….
Jan 22 Spanaway Court Appeal to be heard
[Updated with corrections.] At 9 a.m. on January 22, 2025, the Spanaway Concerned Citizens administrative appeal to the Pierce County Hearing Examiner decision regarding the permitting of the Good Neighbor Village will be heard at the Pierce County Annex. The event will be available on Zoom if the public wants to watch. The meeting room…
Restoring the people’s faith in Pierce County government: What I would like our new government to know.
by Claudia Riiff Finseth Pierce County will have a new government this month. What will the next four years be like? Will they be more of the same as the last eight years? I have great hope that they will be different. Different, first and foremost, in restoring a healthy county democracy. This can be done…
Pierce County’s Non-Significance
One of the hallmarks of the past eight years under County Executive Bruce Dammeier was the prolific use of the DNS, Determination of Non-Significance. It is a term used in land development after an environmental review form is filled out and a plan for development is submitted. In the past eight years, I cannot recall…
Jan 9 – Youth Environmental Council
The South Sound Youth Environmental Council is coming to town! They are planning a first meeting on Thursday, January 9, from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Zoom. Yes, this is a virtual meeting! You can join in wherever you are if you have Zoom on your smart phone. This will be the first ever…
Spanaway Lake, now it’s the beavers
Over the past several years Spanaway Lake has been having issues. For us swimming as children, it was the “duck itch” caused by a parasite getting under our skin if we didn’t dry off well with a towel after swimming. Over time, the swimming beaches became less popular, the diving docks were removed, and the…
Watching a dry creek getting some rain
By Marianne Lincoln On November 29, 2024, I took a drive out to a few locations on Clover Creek to see where there was water and where it ended. I started near Canyon Road and ended near Pacific Avenue. The water in the South Fork disappeared just after Golden Given, where there are a number…
Pierce Prairie Post 