Will the Honeybees Make It Out Alive?

This may or may not be a honeybee…And it may or may not have made it out alive.

Honeybees are important pollinators and are dying off at an alarming rate.  You can help by keeping hives or creating habitat for pollinators. Whack Fact: if you steal all of the honey from the hive, the bees will die over the winter because you just stole all of their food!!!

Plant local, bee-friendly plants such as CATNIP, lavender, sage, and rosemary (even a small area can help), add a tiny bee bath or volunteer with a group such as NW Honey Bee, which aims to turn grass strips between sidewalks and streets into pollinator habitat.  

To volunteer visit NW Honey Bee or to learn more about urban beekeeping check out Seattle Tilth.

How do Your Actions Affect Salmon?

Do you know how your individual actions affect salmon?  You can take a free self-assessment here: https://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/pub.php?id=00499 to see how your actions at home and in the community are impacting salmon/fish and how changing some of your behaviors might help.  After taking the self-assessment, create an action plan! The assessment has resources to help.

If you’re curious, one action I’ve already taken is to reduce my time in the shower from an average of 20 minutes (gasp!) to an average of 5 minutes. One item on my action plan is to reduce the size of my lawn by planting more areas of native vegetation (including a pollinator garden). What actions are you taking or are you willing to take to help the salmon make it out alive? Share your ideas on our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WillWeMakeItOutAlive/

Know Your Ocean Etiquette

Angie, DON’T TOUCH THE MONKEY! It will eat your face off! Whack fact: Monkeys live on the beach in some places such as Railay Beach, Thailand.

The only National Marine Sanctuary in the Pacific Northwest is the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary off the Northern Washington coast.  The Olympic Coast Discovery Center in Port Angeles is open in the summer, and offers information on marine conservation, animals and habitat in the Sanctuary, and how you can help in its protection. I’ve never visited the Center, which is a personal failing I hope to rectify soon. I have visited the actual Sanctuary though, and it is beautiful!

When visiting the ocean, there are rules of etiquette everyone should follow.  These include keeping your distance from wildlife no matter how tempting it is to reach out and touch them (they might eat your face off, but also, it could harm them), refraining from feeding wildlife (seriously, stop), learning about wildlife and their habitat before you go, and spreading the word to others (like I’m doing here).  For more information on ocean etiquette, visit https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/protect/oceanetiquette.html.

Help the marine critters make it out alive, even marine monkeys!