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Thanks for reading the Pacific Northwest’s tastiest selection of news, culture, and thought-provoking writing. In Cascadia Daily you’ll find an assortment of stories relevant to life in the Cascadia bioregion (encompassing Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and parts of Alaska, Idaho, and Northern California). We curate a selection of links to news stories, environmental reporting, essays, fiction, poetry, and art — spanning the wide diversity of cultures, places, and people in Cascadia.
Cascadia Daily and Cascadia Magazine are dedicated to crossing borders. Not just state and national boundaries, but also bridging the gap between rural and urban, between the people who live east and west of the mountains.
We’re a reader-supported publication, and we depend on the generous financial support of readers like you. If you appreciate this newsletter and the high-quality writing you find at Cascadia Magazine, please help us reach our goal of $10,000 during our Spring Fund Drive by visiting our donate page and making a contribution. If you donate at the $200 level, you’ll receive a broadside of a poem by former Washington poet laureate Tod Marshall, and at the $400 level, a gorgeous full-color map of Cascadia’s ecoregions. Find out more here.
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Online at Cascadia Magazine: An interview with Ian Williams
Vancouver-based poet and creative writing instructor Ian Williams has a debut novel out called Reproduction. In a conversation with Cascadia Magazine’s Alison Bate, Williams talks about black writing in Canada, the challenge of creating unsympathetic characters, and making the switch from poetry to novels. Read the full Q&A online here.
And if you appreciate interviews like this of creative artists across the Pacific Northwest, please make a contribution to our Spring Fund Drive.
Mixed news on homelessness
Crosscut looks at recent data in greater Seattle showing a decline in homelessness, but the reality is complex, with more people taking advantage of temporary shelters and tiny house encampments. Youth homeless rates in Washington have climbed in the past ten years, and there’s shortage of shelter options. Vancouver councilor Jean Swanson wonders why Vancouver passed a resolution asserting rights for all animals (including shelter and freedom from thermal discomfort) but won’t do the same for its human inhabitants. And in Portland, renter activists are pushing for new tenant rights (including limits on security deposits).
BC opioid overdoses hitting Indigenous people hard
Travis Lupick at The Georgia Straight reports that recent data in BC show that rates of deaths from opioid overdoses are extremely high among Indigneous people. Meanwhile Canadaland takes a hard look at “poverty porn” reporting in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and urges media outlets to offer a broader, more human picture of the neighborhood’s realities.
Oregon passes difficult reform of pension system
OPB reports that the Oregon legislature barely passed a bill that aims to shore up the state’s troubled public employee pension system, which could balloon to a shocking $27 billion problem if unaddressed. Governor Kate Brown also wants to cap the “kicker” tax refund to wealthier taxpayers. And the legislature paused to mourn the passing of long-time legislator Jackie Winters.
It’s already time for wildfire smoke in Cascadia
The Inlander notes that haze across the skies of Washington and British Columbia is already here thanks to fires in far northern Alberta. CBC reports that BC’s wildfire service is establishing a 150-firefighter camp due to dry conditions. And OPB reports on how there’s very little data on the health effects of smoke on wildland firefighters.
Can Washington’s pygmy rabbits avoid extinction?
Carl Segerstrom at High Country News has a great, detailed report on the perilous condition of central Washington’s pygmy rabbit population, which is facing pressure from climate change and increased frequency of fires in its sagebrush habitat.
Building robots and fighting patriarchy
Crosscut looks at the group Nerdy Girls–an Ellensburg, WA-based group of young women who work on building and coding robots, with the goal of getting more girls interested in STEM fields. Meanwhile Seattle Globalist has a very cool article on the ways Native American and First Nations people across Cascadia are using technology to preserve Indigenous languages–from online dictionaries to mobile apps.
Poetry by Laura Read
This weekend, take a moment to visit Poetry Northwest and read Laura Read’s “Deer are the obvious stand-ins for the dead,” by the Spokane-based poet:
“I forgot to explain, though it is
probably unnecessary, why deer are the perfect manifestation:
it’s their knobby knees and slender
legs, their fragility and strength…”
Read the full poem here.
That’s today’s mixtape of news, arts, poetry, and environmental reporting from across the Cascadia bioregion. Enjoy your weekend. –Andrew Engelson
Photo credits: pygmy rabbit by Bureau of Land Management (public domain)