Wild Olympic Salmon Festival Rekindled

Did the festival rekindle the salmon, or did the fish rekindle the festival?

It's a question we may ponder interminably, but regardless of opinion, both the fish and the festival have returned:

Wild Olympic Salmon Festival
(15:42)

Organic Seed Alliance Turns Ten

Back in the 1970s a network of farmers from the north Olympic Peninsula formed a non-profit to serve as a marketing platform for the organic vegetable seed they were growing and saving. They called their enterprise the Abundant Life Seed Foundation, and worked in close collaboration to develop new varieties of vegetables that were well-adapted to local conditions and then sold them through a catalogue until, about ten years ago, their store house burned to the ground, destroying their inventory.

But a phoenix rose from the ashes in the form of the Organic Seed Alliance, which this week is celebrating its tenth anniversary.  The OSA no longer sells seed, but the continuing work to develop better local varietals, to train farmers to save seed, to monitor the spread and diversity of organic seed, and to advocate for open sourcing of plant genetics has brought the organization to national prominence.

Organic Seed Alliance Turns Ten
16:45

Are GMOs Dangerous?

Jeffrey Smith is the author of two self-published international best-sellers, and as a result is also one of the most vilified authors on the planet.   His books, Seeds of Deception and Genetic Roulette, detail the dangers of genetically-engineered food to both human health and planetary ecology, a journalistic endeavor that has earned him both acclaim and the kind of smear tactics the biotech industry has usually reserved for scientists who dare to investigate the effects of a technology that has the potential  to either save or doom the world.

In this edition of KPTZ Compass, the radio news magazine for the northeast Olympic Peninsula, I talk to Smith and to a scientist who helps to interpret his claims.

Are GMOs Dangerous?
30 minutes

Tribal Canoe Journey

Port Townsend is the one stop on the epic tribal canoe journey each year that is not on a reservation.  Nonetheless, working in tandem with the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, the town manages each year to roll out the red carpet for the paddlers, welcoming them with baked goods and fruit at the shore, providing campsites and dinner for up to 1300 visitors, along with traffic direction, signage, parking and shuttle services.  KPTZ Compass went behind the scenes this year to bring you this collage of voices from the people who make it happen:

Canoe Journey

11:47

David Walker on his life

My good friend David Walker didn't let even the news of his own impending death interrupt his daily routine.

For many years, David entertained what he called his "breakfast club," a group of men (mostly) who would come by the house he shared with his wife Della (who almost never rose to join the party) at what seemed to Della to be an ungodly early hour.

I was invited to only one breakfast club meeting, just a month before David died of cancer, and I interviewed him about his amazing and exemplary life:

David Walker Breakfast
27:46

Tales of the Town Tavern

For about a decade, the Town Tavern was Port Townsend’s living room, the place where a good part of the town partied, lived, worked, and dreamed.  It was a place where wandering souls cut loose by the blossoming counter-culture came to find new definition.   This is a special feature report on Tales of the Town Tavern, which was the title of a festive reunion of some of Port Townsend’s most colorful characters, who came together recently under the aegis of the Jefferson County Historical Society’ First Friday Lecture Series to swap stories about the legendary drinking establishment and rooming house that in the 1970s came to define the heart of the town.

Tales of the Town Tavern

30:25

The New American Revolution

A spreading community rights movement is being hailed as a return to Constitutional basics and governance by “We the People,” putting community rights above corporate rights in battles to protect local environmental and social values against corporate predation.  Paul Cienfuegos, a prime promoter of the movement, brought what might be called a new chapter of the American Revolution to Port Townsend:

The New American Revolution
7:11

Threshold Choir

I guess you really are some kind of angel if you comfort the sick or dying by singing.  And that's exactly what the Threshold Choir does.  Listen here:

Threshold Choir
9:53

Photo Revolution

I went down to the A-1 Hour Photo Center on its last day of operation, and covered what turned out to be a sort of memorial service for that victim of the digital image revolution—film photography:

Photo Revolution

Winter Shelter

In a town where almost everything seems to run on volunteer power, there is perhaps no institution that better exemplifies the spirit of giving than the Emergency Winter Shelter at the American Legion Hall downtown.  I visited a few days before Christmas:

Winter Shelter