By Claudia Finseth It’s March 25, 2025. Those of us fighting against the destruction of the Spanaway Marsh have been at it for over two years now and spent $140,000 dollars. So let’s take stock. In December of 2024 the Tacoma Rescue Mission brought in massive equipment, and on the high point in the midst…
Category: wetlands
Help stop assault on ghost shrimp in Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor
By Kirk KirklandEnvironmental Coalition of Pierce County In 2018 Ecology denied a request by shellfish growers to use the pesticide imidacloprid on shellfish beds to control burrowing shrimp in Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor. Imidacloprid was sprayed from helicopters on non native eelgrass, but in the process affected native eelgrass salmon and other species. In 2019 Ecology and the…
Discussing our watershed March 12 and March 19
March 12, 6 p.m. at the Parkland Spanaway Library is the general meeting of the Clover Creek Restoration Alliance. This group advocates for the improvement of conditions in the watershed around Clover Creek and does creek cleanup projects in the area. If you are interested in our local watershed, please stop by or inquire about…
You’re invited: Join the Healthy Environment for All (HEAL) Act Community Involvement pilot
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. …
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…
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…
Is the “Good Neighbor Village” being a good neighbor?
By Spanaway Concerned Citizens As concerned citizens, we rely on our elected officials to make decisions regarding topics that significantly impact the well-being of our communities — addressing critical issues such as providing housing for our chemically dependent, chronically homeless individuals is undoubtedly important. However, does this effort justify compromising regional environmental integrity and public…
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…
Prickly Pete is homeless
It’s a bit ironic and terribly sad if you love wildlife. All the neighbors tried to explain to the Hearings Examiner what the Tacoma Rescue Mission and the former County Executive just refused to get through their heads. The Spanaway Marsh property already had numerous residents. Residents that could not attend the hearings or testify…
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 Prairie Post 