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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Down To Earth

Upcoming Events

Bust out your iPhones and BlackBerrys - here are some upcoming events.  And notice also that we try our best to keep our Events Calendar section updated with all of the events that come our way.  And if there's an event you'd like to publicize on DTE, you can submit it via the site.

Tomorrow, the Sierra Club is hosting a presentation in the Lobby of the Saranac Building (25 W Main) called Coal Power: Washington's Dirty Secret. The event is from 7 - 8:30 and is free and open to the public.


Join Brad Hash of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign as he details the environmental and human health effects caused by coal-fired power plants, what role coal plays in Washington, and what you can do to help create a cleaner, safer place to live. This 35 to 40-minute presentation will be followed with discussion and opportunities to get involved.

Contact Brad Hash for more information or to RSVP -  brad.hash@sierraclub.org or 406-549-1142

This Thursday, at 7 p.m., Spokane City Councilman Jon Snyder will host The Council Connection on City Cable 5 where for the second half he'll be talking about Complete Streets with Heleen Dewey of the Spokane Regional Health District and Judy Gardner of the Cliff/Cannon Neighborhood Counci.  See more events courtesy of Councilman Snyder here on his webpage.

Remember when we wrote about our reverence for the great Missoula Floods a few weeks ago?  If you feel the same way we do about that historical event, or you want to learn more, there's a grea opportunity coming up - and it involves bikes.  The Ice Age Floods Institute Cheney and Spokane chapter is hosting a Geology adn Railroad History on Bikes event next month (April 24th) and registration is limited.  The tour will be lead by Dr. Gene Kiver and Dr. Charles Mutschler.  Here's a description of the bike field trip:

Rock Lake, south of Cheney, Washington, is the deepest and most rugged of the Missoula Flood canyons in eastern Washington. The history of the now defunct Milwaukee Railroad and the origin of the deepest lake and canyon in eastern Washington will be highlighted. The Milwaukee was the last of the transcontinental railroads completed to the Pacific Northwest. Engineered for heavy traffic, it was completed as a combination of economic forces reduced the need for it. Transportation routes across the Inland Empire were shaped by the flood formed geography. The Milwaukee Road was no different than other routes, but the advances in construction technology made the route feasible in a way that had not been possible when the first railroad crossed the Channeled Scablands. The now abandoned rail bed is mostly owned by Washington State Parks and will eventually be opened to the public. By special permit, we will explore the northern part of the rail grade for an 11-mile roundtrip on relatively easy trail. Along the trail are steep cliffs, rockslides, and a trestle requiring extreme caution.  For more information, and to register, click HERE. 

Other Ice Age Floods Institute Cheney/Spokane chapter events:

April 29, Thursday, EWU Science Building, Room 137. Free Lecture by Dr. Gene Kiver, “Ice Age Flood Path Complications Along the Eastern Cheney-Palouse Scabland” Learn about some of the lesser known Missoula Flood paths north of Spokane and others east of Cheney in the Rosalia area. Hundreds of feet of water moving at velocities as high as 60 mph briefly roared through these areas leaving distinctive Ice Age landforms and deposits. May 1, Saturday, Spring Field Trip-“Eastern Spillways into the Cheney-Palouse Scabland”. Leaders are Dr. Gene Kiver and Bruce Bjornstad. This all-day field trip visits some of the lesser-known Ice Age flood spillways along the eastern margin of the Cheney-Palouse Scabland Tract. Field stops in the Hangman Valley-Pine Creek-Rock Lake spillway area will help explain the complex history of catastrophic flooding in the Cheney-Spokane area and its importance to the recently established Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail. Detailed information, registration form and liability release form are attached. Sign up now to reserve your place.

Bios:
Dr. Gene Kiver is Professor Emeritus in Geology from EWU where he taught for 32 years. He has been involved in Missoula Flood research in eastern Washington and the Scabland area for over 35 years. He is on the Board of the Ice Age Floods Institute and is program chair for the Cheney-Spokane Chapter.
Bruce Bjornstad is a Senior Research Scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington. Bruce has studied the Ice Age floods for over 30 years and recently published “On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods: A Geological Field Guide to the Mid-Columbia Basin”. He and Dr. Kiver are preparing a new guidebook to the Channeled Scabland due out in 2010.



Down To Earth

The DTE blog is committed to reporting and sharing environmental news and sustainability information from across the Inland Northwest.