At its essence Biochar is pure, black CARBON, the basis of life; the foundation of all organic matter; the ultimate sequester of carbon in soil and remover of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere for centuries. And the beauty of it is that it is made from waste that nobody wants…
Posts published by “Gary Kline, BLOSSOM Consulting Services”
The restoration of Cooper Crest, the “ghostly forest” remaining after a clearcut, may finally be getting some help from the City of Olympia. On October 24, 2023, Judge Thomas McPhee, acting as arbitrator, granted the City treble damages against Silvimantle, LLC for illegally harvesting trees from the City’s Cooper Crest…
Four landowners are requesting to change from Rural Residential/Resource (RRR) to Rural Resource Industrial (RRI) zoning. Three projects would enable large warehouses to be built within 50 to 300 feet of valuable habitats and waterways, and in one case “do more intensive” industrial work....
WIP readers will be overjoyed to hear that NOT ONE BUT TWO SOLUTIONS have been proposed to correct problems caused by including defensible space requirements in the 2021 Wildland-Urban Interface Code. But both remain in doubt. You can help by registering your support for ESB 6120. Best solution – Pass…
On January 22, 2024, Representative Debra Lekanoff (D-Bow) introduced a “green amendment” to the Washington State legislature. HJR 4210 would have added a new section to the Washington State Constitution giving present and future generations ”the right to a clean and healthy environment, including pure water, clean air, healthy ecosystems,…
I urge folks to support a new County service, the Thurston County Resource Hub located at the Thurston County Courthouse Complex. It’s geared toward people who are involved in the justice system, but service is open to anyone. The Hub helps clients find housing, support for substance use, jobs, peer…
Can Trees Really Sing? How do they sound when they sing? Do they change their tune when it’s sunny or wet? What is it like to dance barefoot in a forest? How can we connect to nature indoors? Find those answers and many others at Dancing to the Music of…
On April 26 and 27, Olympia’s downtown will be a joyful jumble filled with creatures of the air, land, fire and sea as the Luminary Procession and Procession of the Species celebration returns after a 4 year interlude caused by the COVID lockdown. The free community art studio that is…
Since 1990, Holly Gwinn Graham has been a treasure of Olympia’s music and activist communities. In September 2023, she released her 10th album, Hopeful Traveler, at Traditions Cafe, the site of many of her concerts over the years, to a crowd of friends and fans. Sadly, she passed in February, leaving her wonderful songs to enlighten our hearts and minds for years to come.
I’ve been alive for a long time. I survived the rain, ice, floods, wind. I found a home here in Thurston County as the glaciers receded. Under the prairies. Over the meadows. I swam the vast marshes with beaver dams. As those habitat creations evolved to airports and farms, I…
Privilege weaves blinders so soft and light they are almost not there. I could peek, but guilt is the price of seeing. No matter that I started with a leg up, a few rungs up the ladder. Life isn’t fair or so my parents told me. I never…
Fern Roush is a writer, teacher, organizer, long-distance runner and hiker based out of Olympia, WA. Her/their work has appeared most recently in the Cooper Point Journal, Slightly West, The Jackson Hole Poetry Box, and The Mobile Moon Collective Zine. She was a featured poet at the 2023 Cultivating Voices…
Like it or not, our world has become so interconnected and interdependent that events that have hitherto been regarded as regional in nature now threaten our well-being everywhere. The Ukraine war triggered global food and energy crises, global inflation, exacerbated the worldwide refugee crisis, and renewed the specter of a…
Brydon Stewart is a longtime Olympia artist whose work may be found at the Saturday Farmers Market
Zine Workshop -- Food Planet Future -- Music of the Forest -- Lacey Cultural Celebration -- Greet your creatures -- Capitol Theater -- Story Swap... More
Zine Workshop -- Food Planet Future -- Music of the Forest -- Lacey Cultural Celebration -- Greet your creatures -- Capitol Theater -- Story Swap... More
Works in Progress, or WIP, is transitioning. The workers of the past few years will no longer be with the paper; also, a key philanthropist has died and we must adjust to the loss of his funding. Until other sources of funding can be secured, after this WIP will be an online paper.....
Native Art Exhibition, Past, Present and Future, TESC ♦ Native Art Exhibition: Chehalis Baskets, SPSCC ♦ Olympia's History
Is there a market for serious reporting that seeks the truth? You might think the Olympian would be a robust and widely read paper. It covers the state capital, after all...
Ask about the public’s appetite for local news, and journalists naturally reach for a nutritional metaphor. People say they want local news, but plenty of tastier fare vies for their attention online...
The first time I submitted an article to Works in Progress, I was nervous. I had no idea who the editors were, or what the process for reviewing submissions was. Much to my surprise, a very friendly and encouraging person—Sylvia Smith—reached back to me. It turned out that, in contrast to what I was imagining, Works in Progress ran on a shoestring. A shoestring and at least a hundred hours per month of unpaid labor from the managing editor, plus the contributions of writers, artists, poets, photographers, tech savvy students, advertisers, proofreaders, distributors and many many others.
In the Natural Climate Solutions provisions of the WA Climate Commitment Act, Washington legislators for the first time affirmed the carbon storage benefits of lowland forests, acknowledging that Legacy Forests are critical to the health and wellbeing of the broader ecosystem.
READER WRITES: The Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is selling off trees to be logged on public land that includes mature (legacy) and old-growth trees. Three parcels with legacy trees in Capitol Forest may be auctioned in the next eight months. For many reasons, the sale of the Juneau, Carrot and Evergreen Gold parcels must not go forward. .
Thelma Jackson will be the keynote speaker for the YWCA 2023 Women of Achievement awards gala. The year 2022 was a very busy year for Dr. Jackson. In February, she published a book titled “Blacks in Thurston County, Washington, 1950-1975: A Community Album.”
“Olympia’s Hidden Histories” is a collection of self-guided multimedia walking tours that make visible the stories of Olympia’s diverse communities, natural ecology, and connections to the world.