Interior secretary at Oso: Funding needed for scientific research

OSO — Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell came to Oso on Thursday to see the aftermath of the mudslide that killed 43 people a year and a half ago.

Jewell grew up in Washington and knows Highway 530 well from many trips to the back country. This was her first visit since the slide.

“What’s so striking to me, and I’ve driven this road hundreds of times, is how unremarkable and normal was the hillside that gave out,” she said.

On a hill overlooking the slide zone on a crisp fall morning, Jewell, flanked by Rep. Suzan DelBene, Stillaguamish Tribal Chairman Shawn Yanity and other leaders and scientists, said that events like Oso must be studied to determine their cause so the public can be prepared for future disasters.

That requires an investment of money into scientific research to get at those answers, which hasn’t been forthcoming from Congress, Jewell said.

The government is operating under a continuing resolution that expires in December.

“The budget situation is a mess. This is definitely the most expensive way of going about it,” DelBene, D-Wash., said.

Budgeting for programs at all the agencies within Interior — the U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service among many others — is essentially flatlined at last year’s levels until Congress passes a budget, Jewell said.

Even then, a one-year budget, at best, is a far cry from the long-term investment needed to truly get in front of natural disasters like slides.

“I’m in the forever business,” Jewell said. “We have to get together to run this country in a responsible way.”

While money from Washington, D.C., has slowed to a trickle, plenty was being spent on attorneys in Washington state fighting over what caused the mudslide, even as scientists were researching the site.

On Friday, a King County judge is scheduled to take up a request by the timber company Grandy Lake Forest Associates to be dropped from the case. The company contends that emerging scientific evidence doesn’t support the families’ claim that logging was a proximate cause of the mudslide.

While the role that logging might have played in the disaster remains in dispute, the scientific community is trying to expand its knowledge of this and other geological hazards.

One key to that is expanding the use of high-resolution lidar imaging, which has allowed the state to locate fault lines and other landslides in the Stillaguamish Valley going back thousands of years. Those images will become key to planning efforts and to reducing risks to lives and property.

“You have to have high-res lidar to not make bad decisions,” state geologist Dave Norman said Thursday during a panel discussion at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Western Fisheries Research Center in Seattle.

Norman said that while the state increased its funding for lidar mapping, it will still take 20 years to complete a survey of the 80 percent of the state left to map.

Thursday’s discussion was focused on natural disaster preparedness, especially in the face of climate change, which is expected to make droughts worse, wildfires larger and pose even more risks to the population.

Yanity said that scientific research has figured into how the Stillaguamish Tribe manages its environmental programs, but also into traditional knowledge.

There is a flower that tribal weavers watch for that blooms when cedar bark is ready for harvesting. Usually it blooms in March, Yanity said, but this year it bloomed in January.

Likewise, frogs, whose spring croaking signals the end of duck season, started months early.

“We’re seeing it, we’re actually living it, because it’s so deep-rooted in our culture,” Yanity said.

Jewell said that her department’s budget request includes funding to hire indigenous people with traditional knowledge in six of the department’s climate science centers, to get a broader view of the risks changing climate will pose to people.

It is precisely that sort of reaching out to other agencies, nongovernmental organizations, businesses and the public to truly prepare for disasters, she said.

“Landslides will happen, natural events will happen, but they don’t have to turn into disasters,” Jewell said.

Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_at_Herald.

Wind storm federal aid

President Barack Obama has ordered federal aid to help areas of Washington state recover from a severe August wind storm.

Obama on Thursday signed a disaster declaration because of the Aug. 29 storm that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people in Western Washington.

The president’s action will allow federal funding to supplement state, tribal and local recovery efforts in Snohomish, Island and Jefferson counties.

Associated Press

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

Trader Joe’s customers walk in and out of the store on Monday, Nov. 20, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Trader Joe’s opens this week at Everett Mall

It’s a short move from a longtime location, essentially across the street, where parking was often an adventure.

Ian Bramel-Allen enters a guilty plea to second-degree murder during a plea and sentencing hearing on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Deep remorse’: Man gets 17 years for friend’s fatal stabbing in Edmonds

Ian Bramel-Allen, 44, pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder for killing Bret Northcutt last year at a WinCo.

Firefighters respond to a small RV and a motorhome fire on Tuesday afternoon in Marysville. (Provided by Snohomish County Fire Distrct 22)
1 injured after RV fire, explosion near Marysville

The cause of the fire in the 11600 block of 81st Avenue NE had not been determined, fire officials said.

Ashton Dedmon appears in court during his sentencing hearing on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Everett Navy sailor sentenced to 90 days for fatal hit and run

Ashton Dedmon crashed into Joshua Kollman and drove away. Dedmon, a petty officer on the USS Kidd, reported he had a panic attack.

A kindergarten student works on a computer at Emerson Elementary School on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘¡Una erupción!’: Dual language programs expanding to 10 local schools

A new bill aims to support 10 new programs each year statewide. In Snohomish County, most follow a 90-10 model of Spanish and English.

Cassie Franklin, Mayor of Everett, delivers the annual state of the city address Thursday morning in the Edward D. Hansen Conference Center in Everett, Washington on March 31, 2022.  (Kevin Clark / The Herald)
At Everett mayor’s keynote speech: $35 entry, Boeing sponsorship

The city won’t make any money from the event, city spokesperson Simone Tarver said. Still, it’s part of a trend making open government advocates wary.

Logo for news use featuring the Tulalip Indian Reservation in Snohomish County, Washington. 220118
Woman drives off cliff, dies on Tulalip Reservation

The woman fell 70 to 80 feet after driving off Priest Point Drive NW on Sunday afternoon.

Everett
Boy, 4, survives fall from Everett fourth-story apartment window

The child was being treated at Seattle Children’s. The city has a limited supply of window stops for low-income residents.

People head out to the water at low tide during an unseasonably warm day on Saturday, March 16, 2024, at Lighthouse Park in Mukilteo, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Everett shatters record high temperature by 11 degrees

On Saturday, it hit 73 degrees, breaking the previous record of 62 set in 2007.

Snohomish County Fire District #4 and Snohomish Regional Fire & Rescue respond to a motor vehicle collision for a car and pole. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene, near Triangle Bait & Tackle in Snohomish. (Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office)
Police: Troopers tried to stop driver before deadly crash in Snohomish

The man, 31, was driving at “a high rate of speed” when he crashed into a traffic light pole and died, investigators said.

Alan Dean, who is accused of the 1993 strangulation murder of 15-year-old Bothell girl Melissa Lee, appears in court during opening statements of his trial on Monday, March 18, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
31 years later, trial opens in Bothell teen’s brutal killing

In April 1993, Melissa Lee’s body was found below Edgewater Creek Bridge. It would take 27 years to arrest Alan Dean in her death.

Logo for news use featuring the municipality of Snohomish in Snohomish County, Washington. 220118
Man dies after crashing into pole in Snohomish

Just before 1 a.m., the driver crashed into a traffic light pole at the intersection of 2nd Street and Maple Avenue.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.