News Archives - Page 186 of 456

Traveling Grocery: On the Road Again

Intertribal Agriculture CouncilThe Mobile Farmers Market on the 101 Pacific Coast Highway — Intertribal Agriculture Council
The Mobile Farmers Market on the 101 Pacific Coast Highway

If you listen closely, you can hear Dan Cornelius singing his favorite Willie Nelson theme song—“I’m on the road again…”—as his Mobile Farmers Market vehicle heads down the highway.

Cornelius, of Wisconsin’s Oneida Nation, is general manager of a three-month-long, 10,000-mile foodie road show designed to showcase Native American foods in conjunction with a reconnection of tribal trade routes. “A lot of native communities are remote, literally food deserts, and don’t have good access to healthy traditional fresh foods. Part of our mission is to access food resources, take those great products and distribute them as part of a tribal trade reintroduction,” he says.

“There’s a lot of product that is traditionally grown, harvested and processed—lots of time and labor that goes into that—but the traditional foods aren’t made available to the general public as a sustainable economic resource.”

The interest is there, but the connection still needs to be made. “It’s about health issues, maintaining our traditions, and turning the effort into a form of economic development by selling excess product for profit.”

The “Reconnecting the Tribal Trade Routes Roadtrip” is an effort to bring attention to the unique Native food products and artwork from across the country. The Mobile Farmers Market van started the roadtrip in mid-December when it picked up wild rice, maple syrup, and other products in northern Minnesota. The roadtrip officially kicked off in early January, making the drive from Wisconsin to Louisiana before heading to Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and the West Coast. The trip then visited Montana and the Dakotas en route to concluding during March back in Minnesota. (Intertribal Agriculture Council)

The Mobile Farmers Market traveled across the country earlier this year as part of the Intertribal Agriculture Council‘s efforts to improve Indian agriculture by promoting Indian use of Indian resources. “Prior to our founding in 1987, American Indian agriculture was basically unheard of outside reservation boundaries,” notes the group’s web page.

”The Mobile Farmers Market utilized a large capacity fuel-efficient cargo van to transport a number of products across a region, all the while providing support to start farmers markets in interested tribal communities,” says Market Manager Bruce Savage. The vans’ insulated interior lining ensured correct temperature control, and a chest freezer allowed for transport of frozen goods.

“For a variety of reasons, traditional native products are frequently difficult to obtain, and the Mobile Farmers Market hoped to change that by making things more accessible to tribal communities,” says Cornelius. In the Pacific Northwest, canned and smoked salmon were frequently obtainable items while the Southwest offered up cactus buds and syrup. The Great Plains provided a prairie-grown protein-packed wild turnip. In the Great Lakes region it was sumac berries. “Soak them in water, add honey or syrup, and you get a tea-like lemonade that you won’t find commercially,” Cornelius says.

Coyote Valley Tribe’s community and Head Start garden and greenhouse (Intertribal Agriculture Council)

Success of the project was contingent on cultivating supportive relationships with local partners and that part of the plan came together nicely, very reminiscent of the early trade and barter days.

“Trade routes once connected regional tribes across the continent where different local areas produced unique resources,” says Cornelius. “As an example, the Objiwe exchanged meat and fish for corn from the Huadenosaunee in the Northeast. And, of course, the Three Sisters combination of corn/beans/squash gradually moved from South and Central America throughout all of the North American Continent. “

The Reconnecting the Tribal Trade Routes Roadtrip got underway in December 2013 by first picking up wild rice, maple syrup, and other products in Minnesota before heading off to Wisconsin, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and the West Coast and finally heading home to Minnesota earlier this year via Montana and the Dakotas.

The Mobile Farmers Market’s main focus is food, but it also supports Native artisan by carrying a small selection of jewelry, crafts, and artwork. Pictured here: inlaid earrings from Santa Domingo Pueblo. (nativefoodnetwork.com)

As Cornelius and crew bought and sold the wares of North America’s indigenous communities, the grocery list grew to include tepary beans from the Tohono O’odham people to chocolate produced by the Chickasaw Nation.

The mobile van discovered a gold mine at Ramona Farms in Sacaton, Arizona, on the Gila River Indian Reservation. Ramona and Terry Button have been growing crops for small ethnic grocers on the reservation for over 40 years and still have plenty to share with the outside world, everything from Southwestern staples like garbanzo and Anasazi beans to white Sonoran and Pima club wheat as well as alfalfa and cotton.

“Part of our mission was to build an awareness and an excitement of all the things available ‘out there’ and we succeeded,” Cornelius says. “One of the great things about our initial effort (discussions are currently underway to find funding for more vans and an increased regional visability) was the ground level opportunity to talk with community growers face-to-face discussing products, challenges, and opportunities to introduce traditional items to a larger world.”

The Mobile Farmers Market in Southern Oregon (Intertribal Agriculture Council)

Grand Ronde Tribe to Host 2014 Contest Powwow; $35,000 up for Grabs

Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Tribal member Marcus Gibbons dances in the Grand Entry of the 2010 Grand Ronde Contest Powwow at the Uyxat Powwow Grounds in Grand Ronde, Oregon.

Indian Country Today, 8/14/14

More than $35,000 in prize money will be on the line during the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde’s annual Contest Powwow set for Friday, August 15, through Sunday, August 17, at Uyxat Powwow Grounds, in Grande Ronde, Oregon.

The annual powwow – one of the largest in the Pacific Northwest – drew more than 250 Native dancers in 2013. This year, dancers will compete for prize money in 20 categories.

Registration begins at 5 p.m. Friday, August 15; followed by the first Grand Entry at 7 p.m. Grand Ronde Royalty coronation also will be held Friday evening.

On Saturday, August 16, a parade between the pow wow grounds and Fort Yamhill State Park will be held at 10 a.m. and include cash prizes. Grand entries will be held at 1p.m. and 7 p.m.; the deadline for dancer registration is set for 2 p.m.

On Sunday, August 17, the lone Grand Entry will occur at 1 p.m.

Scheduled host drums will be Young Bear and Young Spirit, with The Woodsmen as the honorary host drum. The women’s Traditional, and men’s Round Bustle are this year’s dance specials, which include an $800 first-place award and four consolation prizes for each dancer. Day pay is guaranteed for the first 20 visiting drums.

The Master of ceremonies is Edmund Nevaquaya. Charlie Tail Feathers will act as head judge, and Fred Ike Jr. will be the arena director.

Camping at Uyxat Powwow Grounds is available for $5, which includes a parking pass. Parking is copy a day or a donation of canned food. Weekend passes are available for $3.

A shuttle also will transport pow wow enthusiasts from Spirit Mountain Casino to the pow wow grounds.

No pets are permitted around the powwow arena and the powwow is a drug- and alcohol-free event.

For more information, call 503-879-2037; or go to, GrandRonde.org.

Native Americans key to border security success

By Chuck Brooks, Contributor, The Hill

According to the most recent stats from the Pew Research Center, 11.7 million illegal aliens resided in the United States as of March 2012. To put that into perspective, there are 46 states that have a population less than 11.7 million. Fox News reported that from October 2013 to the end of May 2014, 162,000 people from countries other than Mexico have entered the U.S. across the southern border and 52,000 were unaccompanied children. This is approximately a 100 percent increase from the previous year and it is estimated that 150,000 minors might attempt to cross the border next year.

For this reason, illegal immigration, which has ties to drug smuggling and human trafficking, is continuing to get a lot of attention. In fact, according to Gallup, Americans recently cited immigration as the No. 1 issue in the U.S.; ahead of dissatisfaction with government, the general economy, unemployment/jobs and healthcare.

The cost of ignoring the problem and leaving our borders vulnerable is one that we cannot risk. The White House is unable to handle the growing issue and asked for $3.7 billion in emergency funding. Furthermore, thousands of troopers are being deployed to help protect our borders.While I believe that additional security funding is necessary, I also think there is a group that can help immensely and they should not be ignored: Native Americans.Gary Edwards, CEO of the National Native American Law Enforcement Association, states that there are 25 tribal reservations located on and/or across the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico and 41 tribal reservations are within 100 miles of those international U.S. borders. Since Native Americans are around a large part of our borders, they are, and should continue to be, a part of our border security initiatives.

Cooperation between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Native Americans has already played a significant role in our boarder security, especially in remote areas where drug smugglers and citizens try to enter the U.S. illegally. Today, more than 22,000 Native Americans serve in the Armed Forces and have the highest per capita serving in the military of any ethnic group protecting the homeland.

Additionally, the “Shadow Wolves” are Native American trackers who are part of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Since 1972, the Shadow Wolves have been tracking aliens and drug smugglers attempting to cross the border by looking for footprints, tire tracks, items snagged on branches, bent or broken twigs or even a single fiber of cloth. Their patrol area covers 2.8 million acres and officers estimate that recently they have seized an average of 60,000 pounds of illegal drugs a year.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the DHS need to remember the dedication, skill set and strategic geographical intelligence that Native Americans bring to the mix. In order to create a lasting relationship that utilizes their knowledge and aptitude, tribes must have complete access to intelligence and information pertinent to border security. This is something that the government needs to ensure because uninformed tribes will not be useful when protecting the homeland.

Brooks serves as vice president/client executive for DHS at Xerox. He served in government at the DHS as the first director of legislative affairs for the science & technology directorate. He also spent six years on Capitol Hill as a senior adviser to the late Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and was adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University where he taught homeland security and Congress. Brooks has an M.A. in international relations from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in political science from DePauw University. He is widely published on the subjects of innovation, public/private partnerships, emerging technologies and issues of cybersecurity. He can be followed on Twitter @ChuckDBrooks.

Native Hawaiians insulted by proposed recognition

More than 100 years after illegally overthrowing the Hawaiian Monarchy, DOI seeks to restore government-to-government relations with the Kingdom of Hawaii

By Andrew Gobin, Tulalip News

On Friday, August 1, the United States Department of the Interior held a consultation at the Tulalip Resort Casino to discuss whether or not they should restore government-to-government relations with the Kingdom of Hawaii, and what that might look like. The meeting is one of five consultations with tribal leaders, following 15 public meetings in Hawaii. Approximately 30 people attended the meeting, and of the Native Hawaiians in attendance, none of them support the proposed recognition of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

“Recognition is a slap in the face to Hawaiian people. I say no to recognition,” said Gabriel Makanani Reyes-Gomez, a Lahaina native now living in Seattle.

That sentiment seems to be the popular opinion of Native Hawaiians. The meetings in Hawaii were all ill received as well, rejecting what the DOI is proposing.

The suggested method of restoration of the government-to-government relations would follow the model most tribes operate under, which is a recognized sovereignty that allows for tribes to deal with the federal government on a nation to nation basis, holding them to their treaty obligations. For tribes who entered into treaties with the United States, that works. But for the Kingdom of Hawaii, there never was a treaty.

In 1898 the Hawaiian Islands were unlawfully annexed by the United States. Through a serious of more than 150 congressional acts and executive orders between then and the time Hawaii was granted statehood in 1959, the United States began asserting authority in the territory. Those acts also assumed a trust relationship with the Native Hawaiians. Unlike tribes, there is no treaty with the Hawaiians in which the federal government is obliged to trust responsibility. Some Native Hawaiians are upset that the tribes are even being consulted in this matter.

Hawaiian elder Herb Kai said, “It is our issue. With respect to the 200 plus U.S. tribes, it is not your issue, it is ours.”

The trust obligation to Hawaiians only exists in the way the United States has defined it.

“When I met with members of the Native Hawaiian community last year during my visit to the state, I learned first-hand about Hawaii’s unique history and the importance of the special trust relationship that exists between the Federal government and the Native Hawaiian community,” said Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell. “Through this step, the Department is responding to requests from not only the Native Hawaiian community but also state and local leaders and interested parties who recognize that we need to begin a conversation of diverse voices to help determine the best path forward for honoring the trust relationship that Congress has created specifically to benefit Native Hawaiians.”

The issue, as viewed by the Native Hawaiian community, is not about a trust relationship, it is about reconciling the unlawful annexation of their country. Is recognition the way to do that? In 1993, Public Law 103-150, which is the formal apology for the act of war 100 years prior, acknowledged the coup as an interruption of Hawaiian self-determination. Based on the trust relationship built since that time, the apology also called for action by the United States in restoring Hawaiian self-determination. The proposed answer is recognition, though the tribal model shows that the United States maintains too much control. With no treaty, they then have the power to reinterpret that relationship at will.

Native Hawaiian Brad Slavey said, “I do not want the United States to dictate our self-determination. I do not want their assistance in defining how we govern ourselves.”

In 1893, the provisional government of Hawaii, backed by the United States military, overthrew the monarchy of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Up to that time, the Kingdom of Hawaii was an independent nation state with several constitution drafts. At the time of the last accepted draft in 1864, the Kingdom of Hawaii had longstanding international trade relations with England and the United States, mainly, as well as others. Under duress of gunpoint, the last queen, Liliuokolani, surrendered her authority to the provisional government. This illegal action was acknowledge by President Cleveland as an atrocity.

“The military occupation of Honolulu by the United States on the day mentioned was wholly without justification, either as an occupation by consent or as an occupation necessitated by dangers threatening American life and property,” reads Cleveland’s official report to the Committee of Foreign Relations. “It must be accounted for in some other way and on some other ground, and its real motive and purpose are neither obscure nor far to seek.”

In the surrender of her authority, Queen Liliuokalani wrote, “Now to avoid any collision of armed forces, and perhaps the loss of life, I do this under protest and impelled by said force yield my authority until such time as the Government of the United States shall, upon facts being presented to it, undo the action of its representatives and reinstate me in the authority which I claim as the Constitutional Sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands.”

Cleveland responded in kind, “Believing, therefore, that the United States could not, under the circumstances disclosed, annex the islands without justly incurring the imputation of acquiring them by unjustifiable methods, I shall not again submit the treaty of annexation to the Senate for its consideration.”

After Cleveland’s departure from office, the annexation was passed through Congress under the McKinley administration.

What then is the solution? Ideally, resolution would mean that the United States would have to relinquish its claim to the State of Hawaii, and restore the monarchy, which is unlikely. The United States offers recognition of Hawaiian sovereignty to strengthen the promises that they have made through numerous congressional acts. There is still a movement in Hawaii, however, that holds to the belief that as a sovereign, the Kingdom of Hawaii has the right to seek aid from other sovereigns, or the United Nations.

“There does need to be a dialogue,” added Slavey, “but are we in a dialogue with the right people?”

The taking of Hawaii for the United States was unjust, essentially an act of war on another nation. Now, more than 100 years, deciding how to undo that damage to Native Hawaiians will require concessions on both sides which no one wants to make.

“I do want the Kingdom of Hawaii acknowledged, but at what cost,” added Slavey.

Andrew Gobin is a staff reporter with the Tulalip News See-Yaht-Sub, a publication of the Tulalip Tribes Communications Department.
Email: agobin@tulalipnews.com
Phone: (360) 716.4188

Police to crack down on DUI of alcohol, pot, other drugs

Source: Marysville Globe

With marijuana now legal in the state, police are prepared to crack down on users who drive under the influence.

“Specifically, we want people to know that marijuana doubles the risk of a fatal crash,” said Darrin Grondel, Traffic Safety Commission director.

“With new retail marijuana stores in the mix, we want to remind the public that prescription and over-the-counter drugs, as well as illegal and recreational drugs, can impair driving ability,” Grondel said.

Between Aug. 15 and Sept. 1 extra officers will be on the roads looking for drivers under the influence of alcohol, marijuana, or other drugs during the annual Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign.

Drivers are encouraged to find alternative transportation or ride with a sober designated driver.

“More people may be using marijuana recreationally, but that should never be mixed with driving,” said Lt. Rob Sharpe, commander of the Washington State Patrol Impaired Driving Section.

Additionally, law enforcement reminds young drivers that impairment laws are much stricter for anyone under the age of 21. A young driver who has any marijuana in their system or a blood alcohol concentration of .02 or higher is considered to be driving under the influence and is at risk for arrest.

During 2013 in Snohomish County, 3,121 people were charged with DUI. Arlington and Marysville police, along with the county and many other jurisdictions, are participating in the campaign.

Number of Native American Students in U.S. Public Schools to Drop; Population Rises

Simon Moya-Smith, Indian Country Today, 8/12/14

Although minority students this year will outnumber white students for the first time in American history, Native American students will continue to remain the minority among minorities through 2019, according to federal government projections.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports the percentage of Native American students within the U.S. Public School System for the 2014-15 school year is 1.1-percent, compared with white students who make up an estimated 49.8-percent, black students at 15.4-percent, Hispanic students at 25.8-percent, Asian/Pacific Islander students at 5.2-percent and bi-racial students at an estimated 2.8 percent.

According to federal projections, the number of Native American students in the U.S. Public School System will gradually decrease throughout the next five years. Beginning in 2015, the number of Native American students will drop from 1.1-percent to a mere 1-percent.

While NCES projects a drop in the student demographic, the U.S. Census expects the overall Native American population to grow rapidly throughout the next 40 to 50 years.

Currently, there is an estimated 5.2 million Native Americans in the continental U.S. On July 1, 2060, the population of Native Americans in the U.S. is projected to be 11.2 million, or 2.7-percent of the overall population.

Critics of the U.S. Census regarding demographics concerning Native Americans argue persons of non-federally recognized tribes are not always identified as Native Americans by the census, and non-Native Americans are routinely changing their race to indigenous cultures between censuses, according to Census Bureau investigators.

To read the entire NCES enrollment and percentage distribution report, go here.

Washington State Department of Natural Resources bans all outdoor burning

Source: Courier Herald

With dangerously hot and dry weather driving fire danger to a new high, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is expanding the current statewide burn ban to cover all outdoor burning on all DNR-protected lands, with no exceptions, the agency announced today.

“All indicators are that we’ll continue to have high heat, low humidity, and storm systems with winds and lightning. That means huge potential for wildfires,” said Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark. “We need to do everything we can to minimize danger to people, homes and habitat.”

Hot and dry conditions since early summer have caused very high fire hazard conditions throughout the state. These conditions have caused fires to spread rapidly and challenged firefighting efforts. More than $91 million has been spent so far battling wildfires in 2014, and more than 350,000 acres have burned across the state. There are many weeks to go in this year’s fire season, which usually runs into October.

All outdoor burning on DNR-protected lands is prohibited under this ban, including recreational fires in campgrounds or anywhere on DNR-protected lands. Fireworks and incendiary devices, such as exploding targets, sky lanterns, or tracer ammunition, are illegal on all DNR-protected lands. Charcoal briquettes are also not allowed.

In addition, DNR urges extreme caution around any activity that may cause a fire to start. Under these severe fire-hazard conditions, logging operations, land clearing, road and utility right-of-way maintenance, use of spark-emitting equipment, and other activities that create a high risk of fire ignition should be drastically curtailed.

Those who negligently allow fire to spread or who knowingly place forestlands in danger of destruction or damage are subject to possible civil liabilities and criminal penalties under state law. DNR, as well as anyone harmed by such a fire, may pursue damages that include loss of property and fire suppression costs.

The statewide burn ban will run through September 30, 2014. It applies to all lands under DNR fire protection, which does not include federally owned lands.

Keystone XL will cause more pollution than originally estimated

By: Sara Palmer, Climate Connections

The U.S. state department claimed that the Keystone XL pipeline would increase world carbon emissions by 30 million tons. However, a recent study released by scientists from the Stockholm Environment Institute shows that number could be off – way off. Seth Borenstein writes in an article published by the Portland Press Herald:

The researchers estimate that the proposed pipeline, which would carry oil from tar sands in western Canada to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast, would increase world greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 121 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.,

The U.S. estimates didn’t take into account that the added oil from the pipeline would drop prices by about $3 a barrel, spurring consumption that would create more pollution, the researchers said.

Other scientists and organizations seem to be shrugging of this quadrupled number. The American Petroleum Institute (go figure) claimed that the study was pointless, because the pipeline itself would have nothing to do with the increase. Tar sands oil will reduce the price of oil per barrel, they claim, therefore increasing oil usage regardless of how it is transported. In his article, “Study: Keystone carbon pollution more than figured,” Borenstein interviews other scientists and academics all to happy to chime in their opinions:

Lower prices may be appealing at first, but there needs to be a balance between consumer happiness and environmental happiness, said Wesleyan University environmental economist Gary Yohe, who applauds the study’s findings.
A glass-half-empty perspective came from University of Sussex economist Richard Tol, who believes that 121 million is a “drop in the bucket” when compared to the 36 billion tons of carbon emissions released on 2013.
Ken Caldeira, Carnegie Institution of Washington, rode the fence, agreeing that 121 million tons is relatively small, but believes that we should be moving away from activities that boost carbon dioxide no matter the amount.
And, finally, independent energy economist Judith Dwarkin in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, blew off the study entirely, claiming that consumption of oil drives the price, not the other way around.

Whether millions or billions of carbon emissions, the Keystone XL pipeline will also damage a multitude of other environments. We need to see more studies that illustrate the whole impact of the pipeline and look at them as all interconnected, instead of relevant or irrelevant.

Native Americans rally to protect the Salish Sea

10341663_532813593514925_802681978943181012_n — Supporters raise their fists in solidarity to protect our Salish Sea, our Puget Sound waters. Photo: K. Kalliber

By Kim Kalliber, Tulalip News

Crowds of peaceful supporters came together at Seattle’s Sculpture Park on Monday, August 11, standing in solidarity to protect the Salish Sea and decrease oil train traffic in the Northwest. Proposed terminals include Cherry Point, located on the Lummi Nation’s sacred grounds.

After welcoming friends that arrived from water and land, members of the Duwamish tribe led the group in a healing song for the waters.

Native Americans, environmental groups and concerned citizens joined in the opposition with singing, dancing, prayer and strong words.

Water is one of the first things to go,” said Michael Evans, Snohomish Tribe of Indians Chairman. “We’ve already noticed that some of the fish are starting to die. If the fish can’t live in the fresh water, neither can man. We really need to pay attention to what we are doing to ourselves and to the land, it all affects the Salish Sea.”

One young supporter at the event said it was “all about Indian solidarity” and stressed the importance of standing together to oppose the increase of fossil fuels in our Puget Sound waters.

Monday’s rally was organized by Idle No More Washington, 350 Seattle, Protect the Sacred and Backbone Campaign.

How Ocean Chemistry Threatens The NW Oyster Industry

By: Kathryn Batstone-Boyd, Ben Stone, and Karina Ordell, OPB

NETARTS BAY, Ore. — Mark Wiegardt steps slowly through knee-high water, pausing over some jagged lumps of brown-gray shells with a bent flat-head screwdriver.

He picks up a clump of oysters and rests it on his thigh, stabbing and wrenching until the shellfish crack apart.

The creatures inside are more valuable than ever, so Wiegardt tries his best to make them look nice by bashing off the sharp edges.

Oysters are biologically simple. But nothing is simple about the water in which they live. The Pacific Northwest’s ocean chemistry is changing. A phenomenon known as ocean acidification has shocked the Northwest oyster industry, causing farmers and hatchery owners to modify decades-old ways of cultivating oysters and to reconsider the murky future of their industry.

“Our business has definitely been altered by this changing water chemistry,” Weigardt said.

He understands the concern surrounding ocean acidification better than almost anyone. Wiegardt’s a fourth-generation oyster farmer and one of the managers of Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery in Netarts Bay, Oregon.

Like many hatcheries on the West Coast, Whiskey Creek grows Pacific oysters — a Japanese species introduced to America in the early 1900s. Farmers grow oysters in enclosed waters connected to the ocean, known as estuaries. But the coastal waters of the Northwest are too cold for Pacific oysters to spawn naturally. So, oyster seed suppliers like Whiskey Creek act as incubators.

Whiskey Creek houses huge vats of seawater that serve as swimming pools for young oyster larvae to develop. When the larvae are mature enough, the hatchery packs them in balls of paper towels before sending them to independent oyster farmers along the coast.

The farmers take the oyster “seed” to their nurseries and dump it into giant tanks, where the larvae “set” onto vacant oyster shells. When they are mature enough, the farmers remove the shellfish from the tanks and chuck them into the bay. The oysters will stay here for a couple years, fattening up by filtering algae and other nutrients out of the water. Eventually, the farmers will return and gather their harvest so the full-grown oysters can be bagged and sold.

Why Are The Larvae Failing?

In the late summer of 2007, the oyster larvae at Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery didn’t make it to the bay. Without warning, the larvae began to fail by the millions inside the vats.

“Everything was dying. The larvae were pink. Every larva in the place was not feeding,” said Sue Cudd, owner of Whiskey Creek.

Whiskey Creek couldn’t supply its customers with seed. No one could understand why the larvae were dying.

Read: Acidifying Water Takes Toll On Northwest Shellfish

“The changes were so dramatic, we thought there was a very strong possibility that we were going to go out of business,” Wiegardt said.

A year after the first die-offs, Whiskey Creek engineer Alan Barton scrambled for clues explaining why Whiskey Creek’s methods were suddenly not working. Barton discovered that an upwelling of ocean water with unusually high acidity was corroding the oysters’ shells, causing the larvae to die while trying to form an exoskeleton. He was eventually able to stem the die-offs by adapting simple aquarium chemistry to equalize the pH in Whiskey Creek’s tanks.

Since then, Whiskey Creek has learned to sustain healthy brown larvae in its vat water with a system that constantly buffers the water. However, the effectiveness of buffer chemicals is limited to hatchery tubs.

The die-offs made 2007 a defining year for West Coast oyster farmers.

Hedging Bets In Hawaii

Kathleen Nisbet, a manager of Goose Point Oyster Company in Willapa Bay, saw the die-offs as a signal to change. In 2009, Goose Point began constructing its first oyster hatchery in Hilo, Hawaii, in order to lessen its dependence on hatcheries like Whiskey Creek, which draw water from the Northwestern tides. Though the Nisbets had long done business with Whiskey Creek, and still do, they felt they had to set themselves apart geographically to insulate their business from the acidic waters.

“I employ 70 employees; I’m responsible for 70 families. That’s a big deal to me,” Nisbet said. “I can’t just say, ‘We’ll figure it out.’ I’ve got people I have to feed and it was our responsibility to look at what we needed to do.”

But even as one crisis seems resolved, another one looms. There’s a new concern that mature oysters may soon be at risk. Roberto Quintana, an engineer at Ekone Oyster Company on Washington’s Willapa Bay, has begun to see health defects in oysters out in the bay that he can’t correlate with natural events.

“Last year was when I first heard some of the old-timers from around here who were like, ‘We don’t know what the hell happened,’” Quintana said.

There is no consensus on what to do if water chemistry in the bays turns inhospitable for mature oysters. Quintana says there are a few options: genetically engineer a more hardy oyster species; try to apply buffer chemicals directly into the bays; or perhaps just give oysters more time in their safe nursery tanks.

Can The Oyster Industry Survive?

But for some, the thought of such dramatic changes to old farming techniques makes them question the long-term survival of the Northwest oyster industry.

“Those are big, philosophical questions,” Jambor said. “Do you get out of this business because you think it’s going to go down in 30 years? I don’t know.”

Whiskey Creek’s Wiegardt, however, is not about to idly watch the Northwest oyster industry go down in his lifetime. In the last few years, he has travelled many times with other Northwest shellfish producers to Washington, D.C., to tell their stories and ask lawmakers to pay for monitoring stations that would measure the water’s acidity.

“Farmers in general, I think we all like to complain a little more than we should,” he said. “[But] any time you know a little bit about something that may have a huge impact, you need to communicate that.”

Wiegardt thinks he has been well received in the Capitol, and he accepts these trips as his responsibility to the small community of Northwestern oyster farmers who know each other by first name.

“It’s not all doom and gloom,” Wiegardt said. “We’re solving a problem here as we speak.”

Kathryn Batstone-Boyd, Karina Ordell and Ben Stone are students in the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication. This report was produced as a class project. Video produced by Batstone-Boyd; photography by Ordell; article written by Stone.