Join Skagit Beat the Heat on March 10, 6:30 PM, upstairs at Village Pizza (801 Commercial, Anacortes) for a special presentation by Ed Knight, Senior Planner for the Swinomish tribe.

Knight will discuss a recently published climate impacts report by the Swinomish Climate Change Initiative, U of Washington, and the Skagit River System Cooperative.  The report gives a detailed explanation of expected climate change impacts on the Swinomish Reservation and rest of Skagit County in this century, including sea level rise, temperature increases, changes in precipitation and freshwater supplies, and the marine environment.  Please plan to attend and invite your friends and neighbors!  This is information we all need to know.

In his work for the Swinomish tribe, Knight oversees long-range planning, transportation planning, building permitting and forest management.  He is project manager for the Swinomish Climate Change Initiative, a landmark two-year project to study local climate change impacts and adaptation strategies.

Glass artist and science educator Lin McJunkin from Conway will present “Artful Persuasion” on Thursday, Feb. 25, 7-8:30 PM, at the Anacortes Library.

By adding emotional impact to the scientific evidence, artists can help interpret the enormity of the consequences of climate change. McJunkin will show slides of her own and other artists’ work that help communicate scientists’ messages about global warming. 

The presentation is sponsored by Skagit Beat the Heat and is free.  A donation of two cans of food is suggested to help the local food banks.

Skagit Beat the Heat’s “Eat Your Yard” project is putting together a cookbook and we need your help!

“Serving the Skagit Harvest” will feature local recipes to help people prepare meals from the  seasonal harvest of vegetables in our county.  It’s all about encouraging more localized food production.  Why buy food that’s getting ever more expensive, bred for transport rather than nutrition, exposed to pesticides, and dependent on the fossil fuels that drive global warming?  There are wiser, more sustainable ways to feed ourselves.

You can help in two ways.  One, submit a favorite recipe (see the Eat Your Yard page under “Projects” for instructions).  Two, make a donation to help us print the book: send to Skagit Beat the Heat, PO Box 1122, Anacortes, WA 98221, earmaked EYY cookbook. 

Thank you for encouraging local food production in Skagit County!

 Skagit Beat the Heat and the City of Anacortes will expand our 29th Street Community Garden with the addition of an ADA-accessible garden area for seniors and individuals with physical limitations.  There are already people on a wait list for these special beds.

This upgrade will involve extending the current fence line, installing packed gravel pathways suitable for wheelchairs, constructing five raised-bed garden boxes and modifying the irrigation system.  We have estimated that each of the new raised bed boxes with soil will cost approximately $350 and the total cost will be between $1700 and $1900. 

Skagit Beat the Heat is seeking individuals or groups interested in sponsoring one of these raised beds in the garden addition.  Donors who sponsor an ADA bed will be recognized with a sign thanking the organization or individual (e.g. memorial).  Donations can be made to Skagit Beat the Heat-Community Garden via mail to PO Box 1122 or dropped at the Anacortes Parks & Recreation Department at City Hall. 

If you are donating in honor or in memory of someone, please indicate how you would like the donation recognized.  Questions? Contact Betty Carteret at sydster2@wavecable.com or 299-8553.  

 Help make our community garden a welcoming place for all – thank you!

Join us on Saturday, December 12, 7-9 PM, for a candlelight vigil at Pilgrim Congregational Church at 2802 Commercial Ave, Anacortes.  An earlier vigil will be held in front of the schoolhouse at Christianson’s Nursery at 5 PM.

People around the world will be holding vigils to show solidarity with those who are on the front lines of climate change and already suffering the consequences of our lifestyles that create a quarter of the world’s heat-trapping emissions.  This date falls halfway into the international climate conference at Copenhagen, where world leaders will try to agree on a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol.  The worldwide vigils are also meant to send a message urging leaders to choose the right path on climate action.

Bring a candle and come and sit with us in the sanctuary (or in front of the schoolhouse) for a moment or for as long as you like.  Sit in silent reflection, or share a poem, prayer, song, or reading about your love, fear, and hope for this earth and all its inhabitants.

Join us on October 24, the International Day of Climate Action, when we’ll launch a campaign to help Skagit County go on an energy diet!  Come to the Cool Climate Cafe on the 24th for a cafe-style community conversation about the climate crisis and what we can do about it.  Learn about the Low-Carbon Diet and how you can lose a minimum of 5000 pounds from your carbon footprint!

There will be two Climate Cafe events in Skagit County: 9:30-11:30AM at the Skagit PUD Building, 1415 Freeway Drive, Mt. Vernon and 1-3PM at the Anacortes Senior Activity Center, 1701 22nd St, Anacortes.  Come early to view the displays and sample the food - doors open a half hour before the Cafe.

These events are co-organized by Skagit Beat the Heat, the Padilla Bay Interpretive Reserve, and the Skagit Climate Stewards.  Thanks to Skagit County, the NW Clean Air Agency, Ace Hardware, and the Lincoln Theater for their sponsorship, and to all of our partners for signing on to this campaign:  AAUW, Anacortes American, Anacortes Home School Partnership, City of Anacortes, Deception Pass State Park, Evergreen Islands, Fidalgo Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Fidalgo Democrats, North Cascades Institute and North Cascades National Park, Samish Tribe, Skagit Audubon, Soroptimist Intl of Anacortes, Sustainable Guemes, Slow Food Skagit River Salish Sea.