Puget Sound Georgia Basin Ecosystem

[Ms. B. Havin]

FYI: a website portal, recently created by the US Environmental Protection Agency, [url=http://www.epa.gov/region10/psgb/indicators/:dd1bf]Puget Sound Georgia Basin Ecosystem[/url:dd1bf]. Lots of information not just on Washington State, but also on Victoria/ Vancouver Island & the Lower Mainland/ Vancouver. From the opening blurb:

We are defined by water in this place we call home. We can see it, sense it, smell it almost everywhere we turn. It defines our collective sense of place and is the touchstone for our communities, economies and lives. The Puget Sound and Georgia Basin is composed of Puget Sound and the Straits of Juan de Fuca, Georgia, Rosario, and Haro and the lands and rivers that drain into these coastal waters. Before re-named by western European explorers, these inland fjords, straits and estuaries together were known by Tribal and First Nations peoples as the Salish Sea – the traditional name for the great inland waterway stretching from Puget Sound to the Johnstone Strait. Humans have inhabited the Salish Sea for over 10,000 years, living richly from an almost indescribable bounty of salmon, berries, elk, bear, marine mammals and forest resources. Today, this diverse and productive ecosystem still provides for both the basic needs and quality of our lives, and for the long-term viability of our communities.

Whulj is a Coast Salish word meaning “the saltwater we know.” This is a more fitting description for the inland marine waters of the Pacific Northwest than the more restrictive term “Puget Sound.” The Puget Sound officially comprises only a small part of the greater inland sea of Washington and British Columbia, also known as the Salish Sea.

(Via [url=http://www.sightline.org/daily_score/archive/2007/04/19/the-saltwater-we-know:dd1bf]Sightline Institute's The Daily Score[/url:dd1bf]).