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What are all those yellow stakes?
In a grassroots effort to halt the $10 billion Site C dam in northeast British Columbia, citizens of the Peace River Valley have been selling yellow stakes to raise funds in opposition to a hydro project that will flood acres of farmland, has disrupted the lives of local residents, and is possibly in violation of Treaty 8 rights of First Nations. The yellow stakes are planted on the farm of Arlene and Ken Boon, whose lives have been sent into chaos because of the project.
To those unfamiliar with the controversial project, which is the subject of a BC Supreme Court case that wrapped up last week, you can read Alison Bates’ detailed feature now online at Cascadia Magazine about how Site C is affecting local residents, including members of the West Moberly and Saulteau First Nations. “If we get kicked out,” wonders Ken Boone, “where would we move to that’s more beautiful than this?”
Read the full article at Cascadia Magazine here.
In another attempt to draw attention to the remote dam project, Vancouver folk singer Luke Wallace wrote the song, “Give a Dam,” which you can listen to on YouTube and and you can buy his full album online at Bandcamp.
And if you’d like to purchase your own stake, visit the Yellow Stake Campaign website.
600 kayakers gather in support of Snake River dam removal
The Spokesman-Review reports on this year’s Free the Snake Flotilla, a diverse gathering of kayakers, boaters, and traditional canoes paddled by members of the Nez Perce, Colville, Kalispel, Coeur d’Alene and Spokane tribes –all calling for the removal of dams on the lower Snake River. The movement has new urgency now that attention has focused on how the removal would help endangered orcas, as John Stang reports at Crosscut. The GOP-controlled Congress called a public meeting Monday in Pasco, Washington but most of those testifying are supporters of the dam. Meanwhile KUOW reports on a much less glamorous but important removal project in Washington: highway culverts.
Vancouver’s wide-open city election
The Tyee’s Christopher Cheung has a detailed guide to the candidates running in Vancouver’s city elections in October. It’s a wide-open field of candidates from the left to the right to pro-business centrist parties. Travis Lupick at the Georgia Straight profiles mayoral candidate Shauna Sylvester’s plan to address Vancouver’s opioid crisis, including decriminalization. The Georgia Straight also notes that big money is finding ways into the campaign despite new rules against it.
How to spend $240,000 a year in Seattle
Social media is abuzz about an article at Refinery29 that interviews a 29-year-old Seattle product manager at a tech company about how she spends her nearly quarter million dollars of salary (including $2,400 a month for rent, and $105 for brunch at Salish Lodge). Meanwhile, the B.C. Residential Tenancy Branch increased the amount landlords can raise rent in the province. And Vancouver-based SAD magazine profiles Sabrin Auclair and her new play “No Home Land,” about a dystopian city where bagels are $85 each and employees are forced to live in the shops they work at.
Bigleaf maples are dying and no one knows why
The Seattle Times reports that bigleaf maples (also known as Oregon maples) are dying throughout Cascadia and scientists haven’t figured out what’s causing it. “The public had questions, and we didn’t have answers,” said a WA state Dept of Natural Resources official.
A memoir of an open marriage by Leah Dieterich
Writer Leah Dieterich, who lives in Portland and LA, has a new memoir, Vanishing Twins, which explores how she and her husband opened their relationship. Bustle interviews her about the book, which compares a too-close relationship in which one loses identity to an odd medical condition in which one twin devours another in the womb (eww!). NPR has a review and excerpt from Dieterich’s book.
Poetry by Seattle’s Michael Schmeltzer
The American Poetry Journal has a poem by Seattle poet Michael Schmeltzer, “By Scent We Anchor Ourselves” available to read online. It’s a lovely and visceral examination of grief:
“Because you have no body
let me begin”
Read the full poem online here. That’s today’s collection of links to news, arts, culture, and great writing from across Cascadia. See you tomorrow. –Andrew Engelson
Photo credit: kayakers from a 2015 Free the Snake Flotilla by Backbone Media CC BY-SA 2.0