April 11, 2006

Environmental Watch: WSU, USFS join forces to fight bark beetles

PULLMAN — Researchers at Washington State University in Pullman and the U.S. Forest Service have joined forces to fight bark beetles, which are killing large numbers of trees in Washington, Montana and northern Idaho. Recent warm winters and drought have stressed the trees, making them more prone to bark beetle attacks.

The U.S. Forest Service has released fake bark beetle pheromones in the forest canopy to confuse the insects. Pheromones are chemicals emitted by living organisms to send messages to each other.

Scientists at WSU-Pullman are making models of how the fake pheromone, sulfur hexafluoride, disperses through the forest canopy.

"We are trying to understand how the pheromone gets transported," said WSU researcher Brian Lamb. That will help the Forest Service figure out how much of the chemical to release.

Bark beetles find trees that are under stress and attack them, releasing a pheromone that signals other bark beetles to join in, Lamb said. "The artificial pheromones just confuse that whole situation," he said. "[There are] so many pheromones coming from sources they can't mount an attack on a single tree."

Almost 2 million trees were killed by bark beetles last year on 916,000 acres of forestland in Oregon and Washington, said David Bridgwater, an entomologist with the Forest Service.

Canadians develop flexible solar panel

CAMBRIDGE, Ontario — Photowatt Technologies is developing a new solar panel that it claims is more flexible, lightweight and durable than those now on the market.

The solar panels are manufactured without glass in a process called "spheral technology." Raw crystalline silicon is purified and fused into spheres, which are fed through a diffusion furnace. The spheres are bonded onto two sheets of aluminum foil to create a 600x150mm solar cell, which can be laser cut into different sizes.

Photowatt Technologies is a division of ATS Automation Tooling Systems. It opened Canada's first full-scale solar cell manufacturing plant in 2004 and expects to have the new solar panel on the market later this year. The company expects its new solar panel to be competitively priced.

Seattle port gets clean air award

SEATTLE — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has honored the Port of Seattle with its Clean Air Excellence Award.

The Port is reducing diesel emissions at Sea-Tac Airport by using a new aircraft-fueling system which eliminates the need for diesel-powered tanker trucks. It also has a fleet of 64 natural gas vehicles.

Cruise lines at the seaport can plug into the electrical grid instead of running their engines in port. Also, the airport recycled 25 percent of its solid waste last year.

The Port of Seattle is one of 16 agencies around the U.S. to receive EPA's Clean Air Excellence award.

Ecology has plan for Swamp Creek

BELLEVUE — The state Department of Ecology says public education is the most important element of its proposed cleanup plan for Swamp Creek. The 15-mile-long creek in Snohomish County has high levels of fecal colioform bacteria from animal waste, failing septic systems and other sources. Swimming and wading is banned in three sections of the creek because of the bacteria.

Key elements of Ecology's cleanup plan include educating septic system owners on how to maintain their septic systems and educating pet owners on picking up pet waste.

A public meeting about the Swamp Creek cleanup plan will be held on Tuesday, April 18, from 6:45 to 9 p.m. at Lynnwood High School, 3001 184th St. N.W.

For more info see http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/tmdl/watershed/tmdl_info-nwro.html.

Pierce County wants solid waste help

TACOMA — The Pierce County Solid Waste Advisory Committee is looking for new members to help decide what kinds of recycling, garbage and waste reduction programs the county needs.

The committee will look at electronics recycling, food waste recycling, glass recycling and green building.

The SWAC encourages residents of unincorporated Pierce County to apply for membership.

For more information or an application, call (253) 798-2179 or http://www.piercecountywa.org.

Scandinavian sustainability tour May 7-13

SEATTLE — International Sustainable Solutions, an educational group, is leading a tour to Sweden and Denmark in May to see how Scandinavian cities handle green development.

The tour will go to Malmo, Sweden, and Copenhagen, Denmark. Architects, planners, developers and engineers are encouraged to attend.

The tour will be held from May 7 to 13 and costs $3,450, not including airfare. For more info, see http://www.i-sustain.com.