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.

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.

“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!

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!

January 2010 Minutes

Dec. 2009 Minutes

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.