Here are summaries of previous Panorama Green Team meetings.

PREVIOUS MEETINGS – 2024

• Tuesday, October 8, 1:30 p.m. – Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan (TCMP) and Lacey’s attack on carbon emissions   In collaboration with Thurston County, Olympia, and Tumwater, the Lacey City Council adopted the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan (TCMP) in 2021. This aggressive 30-year plan consists of 72 action items with the goal of reducing the County’s carbon emissions (now 3+ million tons annually) by at least 85% by 2050. Now two years into the implementation phase, how are we doing?  To answer this question and more, City of Lacey Councilmember Robin Vazquez with City Staff assistance presented a status report of Lacey’s TCMP progress. Many of the TCMP items are actions only each jurisdiction can do, e.g., replace street lights with LEDs, and replace city gas vehicles with electric vehicles (EVs). Other TCMP items require county-wide coordination among jurisdictions to determine and implement the best solution possible and thus increase efficiency and consistency. (Example: establish home energy efficiency rating system for homes or rentals on the market.) But successful implementation of most TCMP items ultimately depends upon each resident’s efforts to reduce his/her own carbon “footprint”. As Thurston County residents, each of us has an average “footprint” of about 11 tons annually. What Lacey government and other jurisdictions (including County, State and Federal) CAN do (and ARE doing) is provide incentives to help us make financial or moral decisions to reduce our own emissions. Panorama residents and our Corporation are responding well to the TCMP intent. In 2021, 129 Panorama residents petitioned the Lacey City Council, urging TCMP adoption. More than 45 residents have now given up their gas-guzzler for an EV. The Corporation has installed six EV charging stations for residents’ use, installed solar photo-voltaic systems on three large building areas, and they are installing heat pumps and other energy efficiency upgrades in homes as they are remodeled. We learned what the City of Lacey is doing to help Lacey residents reduce their carbon emissions, electrify their homes, and reduce their utility bills.  You can see the next steps of TCMP implementation at thurstonclimatecollaborative.org The presentation was followed by Q&A. This was a joint Learning in Retirement/Green Team program in the main Auditorium.
  
  
• Tuesday, September 10, 3  p.m. – A representative from Thurston County Public Works gave a presentation in the Quinault Auditorium about emerging trends in solid waste disposal in Thurston County.
  
  
• Wednesday, June 5, 1:30  p.m. – Community Land Trusts  – Creating an affordable, equitable future for home ownership and local agriculture, presented jointly by Learning in Retirement and the Green Team. The Community Land Trust (CLT) movement is growing nationwide.  CLTs are similar to Conservation Land Trusts (like Capitol Land Trust, Nisqually Land Trust or the Nature Conservancy) in that they are non-profit organizations that enable communities to protect land ownership and management to support goals determined by the community. In this presentation we learned why and how the CLT model offers solutions to problems like the lack of affordable farmland for local food production and the barriers to affordable home ownership for low-and-moderate income families. Community Land Trusts provide an opportunity for community, private and public partnerships that assure affordable land ownership for community goals such as these in perpetuity. The program included excerpts from two documentary video productions – “Arc of Justice: The Rise and Fall of a Beloved Community” and “Homes and Hands: Community Land Trusts in Action.”  These were followed by a panel of representatives from our two local CLT organizations (Community Farm Land Trust and Thurston Housing Land Trust), two Panorama residents who have been active in these organizations and a local elected official. Learn more about the  Community Farm Land Trust and the Thurston Housing Land Trust.
  
  
• Tuesday, May 7, 2024 3 p.m. via Zoom – Heather Trim, Zero Waste Washington – The speaker at our May 7 Zoom meeting was Heather Trim, Executive Director of Zero Waste Washington. Before joining Zero Waste Washington in 2016, she was active in zero waste issues, including helping lead the Seattle bag campaign and helping to ban Styrofoam serviceware products. Previously, Heather was Director of Science and Policy at Futurewise, focusing on habitat, shoreline, storm water and other issues related to land use. Earlier she worked on similar issues including toxic pollution and plastics. Heather earned a BS in geology from Yale University and a PhD from UCLA in geochemistry. Zero Waste Washington is a state-wide non-profit, with a goal of making trash obsolete, using three strategies: help pass laws at city, county & state level; conduct research; and do pilot projects. Their focus areas are producer responsibility, excess packaging, reuse/repair, toxic chemicals, recycling, innovation, and plastic pollution. As she has done for the past three years, Heather brought us up to date about legislation that will help move toward the goal of zero waste. Bills worked on in the Washington State legislature addressed recycling, battery stewardship, plastics, right to repair, compostable products, mercury light bulbs, and more. Learn more at the  Zero Waste Washington website.
  
  
• Tuesday, March 12, 2024  – Karen Fraser discussed the future of fresh water in Thurston County –Will Thurston County Have Enough Fresh Water in its Future?  Will We Be Facing a “Big Squeeze”?
  
  These critical questions came to the forefront recently as the League of Women Voters of Thurston engaged in a study of freshwater resources in Thurston County. The study projects that Thurston County’s population will increase dramatically by 2050, but that annual freshwater resources in the area by 2050 will either remain at their present levels or decline. 
  
  Of particular concern is that groundwater levels might decline due to predicted changes in precipitation patterns stemming from climate changes. Precipitation (rain and snow) is the source of nearly all our groundwater.
  
  Scientists project that climate changes will result in shorter wetter winters, with more intense rainfall events, and longer drier summers. These more intense winter rainfall events are likely to produce—in a short period of time—more water than local soils can absorb quickly.  Therefore, a greater percentage of our annual rainfall is likely to become stormwater runoff, with a smaller percentage seeping into the ground to become our precious groundwater.
  
  Nearly everyone in Thurston County relies on pumping groundwater—for homes, businesses, governments, and industries. As groundwater flows through the ground to lower elevations, it also becomes an important source of water for streams with fish populations, and an important source of soil moisture needed for commercial timber growing and agricultural production. 
  
   All will be affected by a decline in groundwater. Thus, strategies to adapt to this rainfall pattern shift must be developed. Some approaches are underway, but intensification of these strategies will undoubtedly be needed in the future. Serious choices loom! The study is available on the website of the League of Women Voters of Thurston County: http://www.lwvthurston.org/ > Get Involved > Water Study
  
  Karen Fraser, a member of the study team, summarized the study and replied to questions. Other members of the study team were also available to answer questions.
  
  Karen Fraser has extensive background in public policymaking. She was a state legislator for 28 years, including serving as chair of environmental policy committees in the State Senate for many years.  She was a Thurston County Commissioner, President of the Washington State Association of Counties, and Mayor and City Council Member in Lacey.  She chaired multi-state legislator association committees on environment and water policy and was a speaker at a global conference on water. Learn more about Karen Fraser.
  
  
• Tuesday, February 13, 2024 – Documentary: Brave Blue World: Racing to Solve Our Water Crisis. 1:30 p.m. , Panorama Auditorium Theatre
  
  Brave Blue World is a documentary that paints an optimistic picture of how humanity is adopting new technologies and innovations to re-think how water is managed.
  
  From reuse to energy generation, new innovations across five continents are explored in this documentary about building a future for sustainable water.
  
  This in-depth documentary is narrated by Liam Neeson and features interviews with advocates Matt Damon and Jaden Smith.
  
  Links related to the film and solutions mentioned in the film:
  Brave Blue World
  https://www.braveblue.world/films-1
  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11921004/
  Jaden Smith’s Water Box
  https://www.waterbox.org/
  Flint Water Crisis
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis
  https://www.nrdc.org/stories/flint-water-crisis-everything-you-need-know
  Majik Water – Atmospheric water generators
  https://majikwater.co/
  Sanivation – A Sanitation Partner for African Secondary Cities
  https://sanivation.com/
  Orange County Water District Purification Process
  https://www.ocwd.com/gwrs/the-process/
  L’Oreal Groupe – Managing Water Sustainably
  https://www.loreal.com/en/commitments-and-responsibilities/for-the-planet/managing-water-sustainably/

• Wednesday, January 10, 2024, 1:30 p.m. Learning in Retirement presents: The Nisqually Watershed, sponsored by the Green Team.  in the Panorama Auditorium Theatre. The Nisqually River rises high on the slopes of Mount Rainier and plunges to Puget Sound in its 80 mile length. Jeanette Dorner, Executive Director of the Nisqually Land Trust, presented a program on this remarkable watershed. Its headwaters are in a National Park, its estuary is a National Wildlife Refuge. The Nisqually Indian Tribe has called this place home for countless generations. Salmon and steelhead spawn in its waters. Executive Director Jeanette Dorner grew up in south Pierce County on the banks of Muck Creek, a tributary to the Nisqually River. She has a B.S. in Earth Sciences and a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Pacific Lutheran University and an M.S. from the University of Washington’s College of Forest Resources with a focus on Restoration Ecology.  She worked for 11 years as the Salmon Recovery Program Manager with the Nisqually Tribe, coordinating the protection and restoration of salmon habitat in the Nisqually watershed. She then moved to work on Puget Sound wide and Central Puget Sound salmon recovery for the last decade, and joined the Nisqually Land Trust as Executive Director in 2020.  Learn more at the Nisqually Land Trust website.

PREVIOUS MEETINGS – 2023

• Wednesday, January 11, 2023 3-4:30 p.m., Quinault Auditorium – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: An Assessment of Where We Stand on Our War Against Climate Change

Wayne Olsen discussed the results of the recently-completed 27th annual meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP27), the assembly of nations implementing the goals set by the United Nations-sponsored Paris Climate Agreement. This presentation updated the information he gave to the Green Team  in November 2021 during the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow Scotland.

The goal of keeping the global average temperature increase well below 2.0C (and ideally no more than 1.5C) through the year 2100 appears to be in jeopardy, based on findings and conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the science experts supporting the COP. The solution is simple, but implementing it is hard…. the nations must act in unison to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to net-zero by about mid-century. The means to achieve this solution is rapid transition to renewable energy, away from fossil fuels.

Wayne’s presentation also highlighted the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as a major step for the U.S. to catch up to its share of global GHG emission reduction. Good news, but much more action is still needed.

Download pdf file with Suggested Reading related to this topic.

• Wednesday, February 8, 3 p.m., Quinault Auditorium –  Bashing the Great Green Invaders: The Eco-Showdown That Saved Willapa Bay – by Dr. Dave Milne This presentation will enlighten us about the great grass invasion of Washington’s coastal waters, and how our communities, tribes, government agencies and volunteers defeated the Invaders. The Invaders were non-native grasses from North and South Atlantic saltmarshes that found their ways into Washington’s coastal waters beginning in about 1900. Where they took over, they converted intertidal mudflats, sand flats, gravel bottoms and native saltmarshes into dense monocultures of tall grass. Had the grasses not been stopped, they would have wiped out almost all intertidal shellfish beds in Puget Sound, Willapa Bay, Grays Harbor and smaller estuaries. They would have drastically impacted the migrations and reduced the western populations of shorebirds, with other negative effects likely on fishing, recreation, local employment, navigation and flooding. Stopping this massive invasion in its tracks, then rolling it back to near-extermination, is the topic of this month’s presentation. The speaker, Dr. Dave Milne, is a Panorama resident and retired Evergreen State College professor who participated in the statewide effort to wipe out the invasive grasses. He is the author of the book about this topic, Bashing the Great Green Invaders: The Eco-Showdown That Saved Willapa Bay. Learn more about the book.
  
  
• Wednesday, March 8, 3 p.m. , Quinault Auditorium – Using Modeling and Sampling to Assess the Impacts of Septic Systems to Water Quality in the Long-Pattison-Hicks Lakes Area of Northern Thurston County  – presented by Kevin Hansen, LHg, LG, LEED AP – Thurston County Hydrogeologist   Thurston County is finalizing the results of a recent study of water quality impacts from septic systems in the Tri-Lakes area using grant funding from the Washington State Department of Health and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). The so-called ‘Tri-Lakes’ area, comprising the region near Long, Pattison and Hicks Lakes in Northern Thurston County, saw rapid post-World-War II growth peaking in the 1980s. Most of the growth was dependent on septic systems: in-ground sewage treatment systems that now have a median age above 40 years. More than 50,000 septic systems were installed Countywide, with over 5,000 installed in the Tri Lakes area alone. The study made use of two long-term efforts to advance understanding of groundwater quality impacts from densely clustered septic systems. To assess the impacts of these systems, between March and October 2022, fifty-eight water wells were sampled in the Tri-Lakes area for total coliform, E. coli bacteria and nitrate-nitrogen – as well as a screening for additional ‘Chemicals of Emerging Concern’ (CECs). The groundwater flow and transport predictive modeling was used to assist in the selection of sampling locations.  Results from the study indicate that septic-related wastewater has affected groundwater quality, and that new consumer products are detectable in groundwater samples. Kevin Hansen, LHg, LG, LEED AP is County Hydrogeologist for Thurston County. He has over 40 years of experience with hydrogeology, water resource evaluations, and environmental remediation at hundreds of sites in the U.S., Taiwan and Mexico. He holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees, multiple professional certificates, and one U.S. Patent. He was an early responder at numerous leaks, spills, fish kills, fires, floods, an explosion and an earthquake. Mr. Hansen and his wife produced the 2010 documentary “Nicotine Bees” and the 2019 documentary “The Commons”.

• Wednesday, May 10, 3 p.m. Heather Trim, Zero Waste Washington (via Zoom). The speaker at our May 10 meeting was Heather Trim, Executive Director of Zero Waste Washington, a state-wide non-profit with a goal of making trash obsolete, using three strategies: help pass laws at city, county & state level; conduct research; and do pilot projects. Their focus areas are producer responsibility, excess packaging, reuse/repair, toxic chemicals, recycling, innovation, and plastic pollution. Heather told us about legislation that will help move toward the goal of zero waste. Bills making their way through the Washington State legislature address recycling, battery stewardship, plastics, right to repair, compostable products, mercury light bulbs, and more.

• Wednesday, June 14, 1:30 p.m. , Panorama Auditorium Theater – Special showing of “Fantastic Fungi – The Mushroom Movie”
  
  Imagine an organism that feeds you, heals you, reveals nature’s mysteries, and could help save the planet…today. It’s right under your feet. This special showing of the film “Fantastic Fungi – The Mushroom Movie”, told us about the efforts of Paul Stamets, the preeminent mycologist in the U.S., and others whose discoveries support the health of people and the planet. Paul has pioneered numerous discoveries, written many well-known environmental books and produced films. He is a graduate of The Evergreen State College. His central premise is that mushrooms are vital to a healthy immune response in both people and habitats. This beautiful film is a life-affirming, fascinating story about mushrooms and their mysterious mycilium network – interwoven rootlike filaments which connect individual plants together to transfer water, nitrogen, carbon and other nutrients and minerals. This network has been called the “wood wide web.” The film enlightened us about many ingenious and safe uses of fungi, including saving bees, killing termites, cleaning up oil spills and numerous medicinal applications. We were delighted to have fungal diplomats from Fungi Perfecti, Paul Stamets’ company, join us for mushroom trivia and to answer our questions and bring catalogs and free samples of their beneficial mushroom products. Paul Stamets also joined us via a video connection. For more information about the film, Paul Stamets’ work, and benefits of mushrooms, see panoramagreenteam.org/articles/mushrooms/ Everyone who attended the film showing was invited to join us after the film for gourmet mushroom appetizers, with a no-host bar offering beer and wine for sale.

• Wednesday, September 13, 3:00 p.m. (via Zoom) Grounds Maintenance Manager Jody Sangder gave us an update on grounds at Panorama. Grounds maintenance faces many ongoing challenges in order to keep Panorama’s 140+ acre Arboretum not only looking good but healthy and sustainable given limited resources, climate change and resident expectations.  Tthe Grounds department has adopted several new “best practices” moving forward with sustainability being one of our primary objectives.  Grounds is currently planting substantially more native plants and trees than ever before in addition to several varieties of perennials and annuals for seasonal interest and habitat biodiversity. Sod elimination followed with plant vegetation and/or recycled wood chip paths if necessary is reducing the need for gas-powered mowing and adding to biodiversity also. Rotational mowing including less bagging and more mulching is another practice we’re adapting to and are seeing beneficial results including less watering. Expanding our arsenal of green tools and equipment is proving to work well as we are now incorporating electric hand mowers, blowers, vacuums, chainsaws, line trimmers and more in an effort to reduce noise, air pollution, fuel consumption and extensive ongoing mechanical maintenance. Limiting our use of toxic herbicides for weed control is something we’re focused on and instead are increasing the use of non-toxic herbicide solutions in addition to other weed preventive measures.
  
  An audio file of Jody’s presentation is available for listening.

• Wednesday, October 18, 1:30 p.m., Panorama Auditorium Theatre – The Other IRA – The Inflation Reduction Act – The Most Important Act for Your Grandkids’ Futures, Learning in Retirement presentation by by Wayne Olsen, Meteorologist / Oceanographer In October, instead of having a general Green Team meeting in the Quinault Auditorium, Green Team member Wayne Olsen gave this Learning In Retirement presentation in the Panorama Auditorium Theatre. The Individual Retirement Arrangement (IRA) was enacted in 1974 to help us through retirement, but the other IRA – the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 – contains the largest effort of any nation to date to address climate issues which threaten the lives and livelihood of our offspring. National polls show that most Americans don’t know what is in this IRA, and Wayne helped us to understand more about what this Act contains and what the impacts are for American citizens and corporations. This includes significant potential cost savings for individuals and many new jobs created. After just one year the IRA has enticed numerous corporations to move their manufacturing and jobs to the U.S., with more to come. The 2022 IRA is ambitious, but by itself will fall short of achieving the national goal of net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. Some of that gap is being picked up by state and county plans, such as the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan. Challenges to full IRA implementation and other federal climate actions were also discussed. Wayne Olsen is a retired Navy Captain, with most of his 30 years as an operational meteorologist and oceanographer. After Navy retirement, he taught these subjects, including climate change, for a number of years at Pierce College. He is an active member of the Panorama Green Team, the Thurston Climate Action Team (TCAT), and Climate Reality Project local chapter, giving presentations on climate, carbon emissions, electric vehicles, and the environment. In this presentation, Wayne explained exciting cost savings and tax credits in the IRA and review the reasons for the global and national GHG emission goals. 
  
  View the slides from the presentation “The Other IRA” in pdf format.
  
• Tuesday, November 7, 1:30 p.m. Special showing of the documentary film “The Lost Salmon”,  in the Panorama Auditorium Theatre. The Spring Chinook (“springer”) is the keystone species of the Pacific Northwest and the most revered of all salmon. Today springers face imminent threat of extinction due to dams, habitat loss, poor fisheries management, and climate impacts. In this feature-length documentary, filmmaker Shane Anderson sets out on a two-year journey through Washington, Oregon, California and Idaho in search of the last wild runs to try to understand how the iconic species has shaped the ecosystems and cultures of the West – and its hope for survival. Along the way he meets the scientists who have made a seminal genetic discovery that just may hold the promise of saving the Spring Chinook before it is lost forever. This film was the winner of the 2023 Emmy Award NW for Topical Documentary and an Official Selection of the 2023 Jackson Wild World Wildlife Day Film Showcase. Learn more about the film at   www.swiftwaterfilms.com/the-lost-salmon The one-hour film was followed by a discussion of issues related to salmon.  
  

PREVIOUS MEETINGS – 2022

• Thursday, January 27,  2022, 3-4 p.m., Quinault Auditorium – Special meeting honoring Sally Vogel The Green Team held a special, informal meeting to honor Sally Vogel as she is stepping down from the Green Team Board.  Sally arrived at Panorama in 2006 and immediately saw a need for an environmental group that would work with Panorama management to improve practices and policies that would be more environmentally appropriate. Sally gathered friends with similar concerns and in 2008 established the Panorama Green Team.  Since that time, she has been the inspirational leader and creative force behind the many Green Team Programs. We presented her with a special plaque to acknowledge her contributions and to announce that a Mountain Ash tree will be planted in her honor.
  
• February 9, 2022, 3 p.m.  via Zoom –  Electric and Autonomous Vehicles in Washington – Karin Landsberg, Senior Policy Specialist – Air Quality and Climate, Washington State Department of Transportation The emergence of electric vehicles (EVs) as the preferred sustainable alternative is becoming very well known these days, but much less is known about how emergence of autonomous EVs will be affecting us much sooner than we expect. Despite the current media hype about how unsafe some autonomous EVs currently are, in fact they will ultimately be much, much smarter and safer than we human drivers. The autonomous phenomenon is coming on so quickly that even now the Washington State Department of Licensing (DOL) has a process for manufacturers to self-certify so that they can test autonomous vehicles on public roadways!! So in February we heard from Ms. Landsberg on how autonomous vehicles play into efforts to address climate change.
  
• April 13, 2022, 3 p.m.  via Zoom – Recycling and Other Waste Reduction in Washington State The speaker at our April 13 Green Team meeting wa Heather Trim, Executive Director of Zero Waste Washington. She has had a long-standing career with recycling and waste reduction and has a BS in geology from Yale and a PhD from UCLA in geochemistry. Zero Waste Washington is a state-wide non-profit. Their goal is to make trash obsolete, using three strategies: help pass laws at city, county & state level; conduct research; and do pilot projects. They have seven focus areas: producer responsibility, excess packaging, reuse/repair, toxic chemicals, recycling, innovation, and plastic pollution. Learn more at the Zero Waste Washington website. With recycling in Washington State actually declining in recent years, we’re sure Heather will have a lot to tell us about what is happening to reverse that sad trend and about legislation that will help move toward the goal of zero waste. 
  
• May 11, 2022, 1:30 p.m. – Special showing of “Kiss the Ground” movie in the Panorama Auditorium Theater. All residents were invited to special showing of the award-winning documentary film “Kiss the Ground”, narrated by Woody Harrelson. took the place of the May general Green Team meeting. This compelling film is positive and hopeful, discussing simple solutions with huge beneficial impacts. It reveals that regenerating the world’s soils will rapidly stabilize the earth’s climate, restore lost ecosystems, and create abundant food supplies. Following the showing, Peggy Mee and Sally Vogel led a discussion of the ideas presented in the film. The discussion led to several positive recommendations for future Green Team efforts. For more information go to kissthegroundmovie.com

• June 8, 2022, 3 – 4:30 p.m., Bill Lange – Sea Level Rise Flooding
  Quinault Auditorium. Bill Lange, Panorama resident and local movie maker, discussed his award-winning video series that illustrates how different local government agencies can come together to develop and implement an adaptation plan for sea level rise flooding due to climate change. Bill received a 2022 Hometown Media Award from the Alliance for Community Media Foundation for this video series. See the full video series at www.lightplustime.com/sea-level-rise-flooding-blog/ or youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZhPohpdNkkLI8aa7Xs0Ypx8GNyOXg06f
  Find out more about Olympia’s plan to protect the downtown area from sea level rise.

• September 14, 2022, 3 p.m.  via Zoom – Drawdown
  Jim Bronson and Sandi Goldie discussed Project Drawdown, a leading resource for climate solutions.  The mission of Project Drawdown is to help the world reach “drawdown” — the point in the future when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to decline steadily, thereby stopping catastrophic climate change—as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible. Sandi and Jim were founders of Drawdown BC, bringing the work of Project Drawdown to British Columbia, Canada, and they have recently been giving presentations on this topic in the United States. Learn more about Sandi and Jim and the Drawdown Project.

• Thursday October 13, 2022, 1:30 p.m., Panorama Auditorium Theater – Film “Eating our Way to Extinction” was shown in the Panorama Auditorium Theater, with discussion after the film led by Peggy Mee.  Jointly sponsored by Lifestyle Enrichment and the Green Team, this took the place of the October Green Team meeting. This documentary film was narrated by Kate Winslet and featured Sir Richard Branson, Tony Robbins and many more. The documentary includes original footage from some of the most beautiful places on  Earth, including the Amazon rainforest, the Mongolian desert, the Norwegian Fjords, and the Taiwanese Mountains. At these far-reaching locations, the filmmakers interviewed locals and Indigenous peoples who are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis. Learn more about the film at www.eating2extinction.com

• Wednesday November 9, 2022, 3 p.m., Quinault Auditorium – Urban Stream Bed Restoration – To Revive a River, Restore Its Liver, presented by Paul Bakke.
  Paul Bakke is a river scientist with 30 years of experience with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service. Paul created the website thescienceofrivers.com – a place for curious adults to learn the science of rivers. Paul told us about restoration of Seattle’s Thornton Creek, which originally wound through rich lowland rain forest, draining a watershed before emptying into Lake Washington. Developers had straightened it and armored it with rocks or concrete, squeezing it into channels only a few feet wide in places. Thornton had a reputation as the most degraded creek in Seattle—and as a dangerous one: it flooded a major road nearly every year. A critical factor in recovery from this damage turned out to be restoring the creek’s hyporheic zone (from the Greek hypo, meaning ”under” and rheos, meaning “flow”), the region of sediment and porous space beneath and alongside a stream bed, where there is mixing of shallow groundwater and surface water. The hyporheic zone had been almost completely scraped away. After many ineffective attempts to correct the problems with the creek, Katherine Lynch proposed a solution which involved restoring the hyporheic zone. She hoped that restoring the stream’s gut would help Thornton Creek better maintain itself, reducing the need for ongoing, expensive human assistance. She also argued that if the revolutionary approach succeeded, it would set a new standard for urban stream restoration at a time when flooding around the world was routinely costing human lives and billions of dollars in damages. Paul Bakke and others worked together to restore the creek, and the neighborhoods around Thornton Creek have not flooded since the restorations were finished in 2015. The stream’s temperature and flow are more consistent year-round. The city needs to dredge less often, saving money, and neighbors love spending time in the expanded green space. After just four years, Chinook salmon returned to the creek to spawn. Everyone is encouraged to read the following Scientific American article –
  scientificamerican.com/article/to-revive-a-river-restore-its-hidden-gut1
  Additional Reference: Article in Engineering Nature –
  researchoutreach.org/articles/engineering-nature-innovative-streambed-restoration-seattle

PREVIOUS MEETINGS – 2021

• January 13, 2021, 3:15 p.m. Zoom presentation – “Charging into the Future: A Primer for Panorama Residents on Electric Vehicles” presentation by Cleve Pinnix and other Green Team members.This was a discussion of facets of Electric Vehicles focused on Panorama and Panorama residents. Topics included range anxiety, costs and maintenance.
• February 10, 2021, 3 p.m. Zoom presentation – “What is happening on the solar and battery industries in general regarding technology and costs and what South Sound Solar is doing at Panorama.” presentation by Kirk Haffner, President of South Sound Solar. Panorama is in the process of installing solar panels on the roof of the new Assisted Living addition along Sleater Kinney. Solar is also planned for all of the new Willow Lane residences. Kudos to Panorama for jumping into the solar age!!In recent years the cost of solar energy generation has come down dramatically, making it a much more attractive alternative particularly since energy generated via solar DOES NOT release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as do other more commonly used resources such as coal and natural gas combustion. Because it is known to increase global warming, atmospheric CO2 has become the climate change alarm indicator for us all.South Sound Solar is the company doing this exciting work for Panorama. The Green Team invited them to come and tell more about their projects here on campus as well as some more about the solar energy field in general. This was an interesting an informative presentation.
• March 10, 2021, 3 p.m. Zoom presentation – Water Issues in Thurston County.Mike Gallagher, Washington State Ecology,  talked on Water Rights; Kevin Hansen, Thurston County Hydrologist,  explained his role as well as giving details about our regional water sources; and Linsey Fields, City of Lacey, discussed the water sources used by Lacey, the challenges the city faces, and the need for conservation.
• April 14, 2021, 3 p.m. Zoom presentation – Zero Waste – The Recycling Dilemma. No doubt most of us recall living through the years when landfills were getting so overcrowded that we turned to “recycling” to reduce the amount of waste put in them. Then we began shipping most of our plastic and paper recyclable materials off to China to be cleaned up and then shipped back for reuse. But that move ended abruptly a few years ago when the Chinese rejected our shipments because they’d gotten just too dirty to clean up! So what’s next? What has been happening and what is happening now? At our April Green Team meeting Ms. Heather Trim, PhD, Executive Director of ZERO WASTE WASHINGTON, informed us about the issue and how her organization Is addressing the problem. Learn more at https://zerowastewashington.org/.
• May 12, 2021, 3 p.m. Zoom presentation –  Another Milestone: What Will Lacey Do Next With The Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan (TCMP)?
  By the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, the world’s nations agreed to the goal of keeping the global average temperature from increasing more than 2.0C (and strive to keep the increase well below that number) in order to delay or avoid the worst consequences of climate change. The scientists concluded by 2017 that to achieve those goals, the world must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by about 50% by 2030 and to nearly eliminate carbon emissions by 2050. In response, in 2018 the Thurston County Commissioners and the City Councils of Olympia, Lacey, and Tumwater agreed to develop and implement the TCMP as our county’s share of the solution to this worldwide crisis. The writing of the TCMP is now complete, was accepted by the jurisdictions in January 2021, and is now ready for implementation. The Lacey City Council has taken a different adoption route than the other jurisdictions, in part due to opposition to the Plan by several Council members. This opposition is based on the belief that not enough residents care about the Plan to justify the cost of implementing it. They further state that the cost of building code upgrades will raise housing prices out of range of most would-be buyers. Thus, the Council’s plan is another Public Hearing (hosted by the Lacey Planning Commission on May 18th), and then after further staffing, a vote by the City Council in July whether to include the Plan as an annex to the Lacey Comprehensive Plan.
  To discuss Lacey’s future course, and how we can affect its outcome, our May 12th Green Team meeting featured an all-star panel discussing these issues:
  1. Rick Walk – Director of Community and Economic Development, City of Lacey
  2. Jessica Brandt – Associate Planner, City of Lacey
  3. Gail Madden – Lacey Planning Commissioner and Chair, Lacey Planning Commission (2010-2013); Vice-Chair (2020-present)
  4. Don Melnick – Lacey Planning Commissioner (about 2008-2011)
  5. Thad Curtz – Retired Evergreen Faculty Member; Thurston Climate Action Team volunteer; Manager of the blogs Climate Action Toolbox ( https://climatetoolbox.info) and Climate at the Legislature (https://www.waclimateleg.info)
  We met by Zoom. You can learn more about the TCMP at https://panoramagreenteam.org/issues/thurston-climate-mitigation-plan/
• June 9, 2021, 3 p.m. via Zoom  –  Annual Green Team meeting – Celebration and Opportunities
  Celebrating what the Green Team has done in the past and considering future programs. Highlight of the meeting was Sally Vogel’s slide show reviewing the history and past accomplishments of the Green Team.
• September 8, 2021, 3 p.m.  via Zoom –  South of the Sound Community Farm Land Trust – Pat Labine and Russell Fox. This group may be heading toward a more prominent local role since the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan calls for significant work to preserve and restore agricultural lands for carbon sequestration. Learn more about the Land Trust at www.communityfarmlandtrust.org
• October 13, 2021, 3 p.m.  (via Zoom) –  Grounds at Panorama – Jody Sangder, Grounds Manager at Panorama. At the October Green Team meeting, Jody presented the challenges and opportunities of Grounds Care at Panorama, followed by questions and answers. Issues addressed included: How can Panorama maintain its beautiful grounds in an environmentally sustainable way in light of the challenges of needed resources, covid-19, and climate change? How can residents be involved as part of the process? Jody joined Panorama in 2011 with several years of experience in landscape design/construction and management and served as a Supervisor on the crew for several years. In 2021, Jody was promoted to Grounds Manager, where she oversees all aspects of grounds maintenance and installation, roof and gutter cleaning, pressure washing hardscape, trash removal, pest control, campus improvement projects, and snow and ice removal.
• November 10, 2021, 3 p.m.  (via Zoom) –  The Current International Response to Climate Change: Will it Be Enough?  – Wayne Olsen. The presentation  discussed the pivotal Conference of the Parties (COP)26 meeting in November, the latest report from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scientists, the urgency for nations to double down on pledges to greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the stakes involved if they do not, which nations are the leaders or laggards, and what we can do about it. Related links:
  – UN Climate Change Conference COP26: https://ukcop26.org/
  – The UNFCCC story:  https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings
  – The IPCC homepage: https://www.ipcc.ch   and
   https://www.ipcc.ch/about/
  – The IPCC 6th Assessment Report of Working Group I (The Physical Science Basis) Summary for Policymakers  (39 pages)(released Aug 9, 2021):  https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_SPM.pdf 
  – Headline Statements from the Summary for Policymakers (2 pages)
  https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_Headline_Statements.pdf
  – Climate Action Tracker  (Excellent analyses and ranking on each nation’s contributions to GHG reduction, updated as changes occur.) 
  https://climateactiontracker.org

PREVIOUS MEETINGS – 2020

• January 8, 2020, 3 p.m. Quinault Auditorium – Dual Estuary / Lake Idea (DELI) – A Plan to Fix Capitol Lake. The controversial status of what to do about the future of Capitol Lake has gone on for many years. One large group would prefer to remove the dam to allow the lake to revert to being the estuary of the Deschutes River. An opposing group would retain the dam and the lake, but it would require periodic dredging.Now a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) is being prepared by the Washington State Department of Enterprise Services to solicit input from the public and other interested parties to ultimately select a preferred alternative for managing Capitol Lake. The primary alternatives to be evaluated include:
  • Estuary
  • Hybrid
  • Managed Lake
  • No Action   Our January Green Team meeting featured a presentation by Steve Shanewise of his Dual Estuary/Lake Idea (DELI), a hybrid system that features an isolated lake and reversion of the rest of the current lake to an estuary. The DEIS is planned to be released early in 2020, at which time public comment will be sought. Read background information about the plan. This was the first in a series of presentations about the future of Capitol Lake.
• February 12, 2020, 3 p.m. Quinault Auditorium – Presentation by Josh Trunnell, Executive Chef at seventeen51 Restaurant. Josh will present information about the improvements he has made since his arrival in March, and will also talk about his plans for future operational changes.You may have noticed the launch in June of a seasonally-rotating cycle for the menu. In October, he introduced a new banquet menu. His plans include developing a new dessert menu, a new brunch menu, and adding many more monthly special events to the schedule.Josh’s background includes training at the Western Culinary Institute in Portland, Oregon. His years of experience began as opening chef at Mercato Restaurant in Olympia in 2002. He served as Corporate Kitchen Manager for McMenamins Pub & Breweries from 2005-2010. Then from 2010 to 2013 he was the Executive Chef for Leisure Care, managing food service for a 165-unit senior community. Since then he has worked in Dallas and Seattle. Now he is glad to be finally back home in Olympia where he plans “to spend the rest of my career.”
• March 11, 2020, 3 p.m. Quinault Auditorium – “Capitol Lake: Washington’s Environmental Treasure” by Dr. Dave Milne, retired Evergreen faculty member.Capitol Lake has been clean enough and safe enough for swimming and boating since year 2000. The Lake meets all water quality standards for these recreational activities and in addition never has the toxic blue-green algae blooms that plague our other County lakes. The rich biodiverse community of freshwater plants and animals that live in Capitol Lake consists mostly of native species. (The most troublesome non-native plant species, Myriophyllum, has been practically wiped out by a biocontrol program started in 2009. The non-native New Zealand Mud Snail, much feared after it was introduced to Capitol Lake, has never created problems and is now food for many native Lake species, including mallard ducks.) The Lake provides a refuge habitat for certain imperiled fish and shellfish whose survival in other waters around our state in precarious.Capitol Lake is the only lake in Thurston County that doesn’t run out of oxygen at the bottom during the summers. This favorable environment sustains aquatic insect populations, which in turn sustain one of the biggest bat colonies in our state.The Deschutes River is heavily polluted with nutrient nitrogen, which if released in Budd Inlet, would cause serious low-oxygen problems for marine life. Capitol Lake’s plants capture most of these nutrients and hold them all summer long, releasing them in late October when they can do no harm. The Lake protects Puget Sound.This was the second in a series of presentations about the future of Capitol Lake.
• September 9, 2020, 3 p.m. Zoom meeting – The Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan, presented by Allison Osterberg, Senior Planner, Thurston Regional Planning Council. Allison was responsible for developing the Plan, which will be released for public review in late August or early September. The Plan provides a guide for addressing climate change, which is already affecting our communities, by providing a strategic roadmap for reducing climate polluting greenhouse gases while maintaining—and even improving—our quality of life. The presentation will focus on how the Plan affects all of us living at Panorama and in Thurston County. Allison will be joined by Wayne Olsen, Panorama resident, who will show us how we can take action to support the Plan with local officials.
• October 14, 2020, 3 p.m. Zoom presentation – “Restoring the Deschutes Estuary, Another Approach to Capitol Lake” presentation by Dave Peeler, Board President of the Deschutes Estuary Restoration Team (DERT). He discussed the environmental issues of Capitol Lake and the compelling reasons for fully restoring the Deschutes Estuary of Budd Bay in Olympia, thus protecting the entire Deschutes watershed.To accomplish restoring the Deschutes Estuary, DERT, which has been active in the South Sound region for over ten years, is advocating first to remove the dam at the mouth of the Deschutes River and then restore the sediment reservoir known as Capitol Lake into a functioning estuary. This will help mitigate a serious water quality issue plaguing the South Sound and negatively impacting local residents economically.Dave Peeler has degrees in Zoology and English Literature from the University of Washington and has studied environmental policy and sciences at The Evergreen State College. Dave had a 33-year career with the Washington Department of Ecology in water resources, water quality, shorelines management, and Puget Sound restoration as Water Quality Program Manager and Special Assistant to the Director.For more information about DERT see: https://deschutesestuary.org/.
  This was the third in a series of presentations about the future of Capitol Lake.
• November 11, 2020, 3 p.m. Zoom presentation – “A Natural History of Mount Rainier National Park” presentation by Jeff Antonelis-Lapp.Did you know that Native Americans have traveled to Mount Rainier for over 9,000 years to gather resources unavailable near their lowland villages? Did you know that the effects of climate change extend far beyond the mountain’s retreating glaciers? Jeff Antonelis-Lapp, Emeritus Faculty at The Evergreen State College, gave a presentation about Tahoma’s Biggest Stories, an image-rich book talk from Tahoma and Its People, his natural history of Mount Rainier National Park, published this spring by Washington State University Press. Tahoma and Its People was recently selected as a finalist in the Banff Mountain Book Competition. Learn more at https://jeffantonelis-lapp.com/.After graduating from college, Jeff Antonelis-Lapp worked two summers at Mount Rainier National Park, igniting a connection to the mountain that endures today. He has summited the mountain, hiked all of its mapped trails, and completed the 93-mile Wonderland Trail five times.Jeff began writing Tahoma and Its People after being unable to find a current natural history for a course he planned to teach at The Evergreen State College in Olympia. He conducted over 250 days of fieldwork for the book, many of them in the company of park archaeologists, biologists, and geologists.
  While at Evergreen, he taught Native American Studies, natural history, and environmental education, and served as the Library Dean before retiring in 2015.

PREVIOUS MEETINGS – 2019

• January 10 – Film: The Wonderful World of Fungi. Learn how these organisms affect your life. (52 minutes)
• March 13 – Jodie Buller of White Eagle Memorial Preserve discussed natural burials (also known as green burials). For more information, see https://naturalburialground.org.
• April 10, 2019, 3 p.m. Quinault Auditorium – Speaker was Joe Kane from the Nisqually Land Trust, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to acquire and manage critical lands to permanently benefit the water, wildlife, and people of the Nisqually River Watershed. Reference: http://nisquallylandtrust.org/.
• May 8, 2019, 3 p.m. Quinault Auditorium – What Plants Talk About, 54-minute PBS video. Hard core science is effortlessly integrated with a light-hearted look at how plants behave, revealing a world where plants are as busy, responsive and complex as we are.Web reference: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2582790/
• June 12, 2019, 3 p.m. Quinault Auditorium – Pat Rasmussen talked about regenerative agriculture and its relation to climate change. She discussed how we can greatly improve the quality of our soils and sequester more than 100 percent of our annual CO2 emissions in the ground by changing our agricultural practices to those that regenerate soil with organic carbon. Pat Rasmussen is Coordinator of the local non-profit Edible Forest Gardens which has planted more than 80 edible forest gardens in yards, community gardens, schools, businesses, churches, and neighborhood pathways in Olympia.
• Sept. 11, 2019, 3 p.m. Quinault Auditorium – Emmett Brown will bring us up to date on recycling. Emmett Brown is the Commercial-Residential Recycling Coordinator for Pacific Disposal / LeMay. He will discuss pertinent information about the changing nature of recycling, how it impacts Thurston County, as well as his suggestions for Panorama residents. There will be a Q and A segment following his presentation. Come with your questions.
• October 9, 2019, 1:30 p.m. Panorama Auditorium – the film Dammed to Extinction will take the place of our October meeting. Note change in time and location. See details below.
• November 13, 2019, 3 p.m. Quinault Auditorium – Robyn Wagoner. from the Olympia Food Co-op ‘Outreach’department, explained its operations and some advantages to shopping at the Co-op. The Co-op seeks to makehealthy food accessible and affordable and to promoteenvironmentally wholesome foods and other products. Co-op members receive a price discount, but the membership fee is waived for seniors. Learn more at the Co-op website.

PREVIOUS MEETINGS – 2018

• January 10 – Lance Winecka, Executive Director of the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group (SPSSEG), was the featured speaker. His presentation covered the status of salmon populations in our local region, the threats these species face, and the work being done by SPSSEG and others to restore healthy populations of these magnificent fish. SPSSEG is also the managing organization of the Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail, which a number of Panorama residents visited in November.
• February 14, 2018 – Panorama CEO/CFO Bill Strader and Panorama President/COO Matthew Murry brought us up to date on Panorama plans and answered our questions related to sustainability and other environmental issues.
• March 14, 2018 – Representatives of the Pacific Shellfish Institute gave a presentation about shellfish and water quality in south Sound.
• June 13, 2018 – Review 2017-2018 and Preview 2018-2019.
• Sept. 12, 2018 – Green Initiatives In and Around Panorama.
• October 10, 2018 – Panorama CEO/CFO Bill Strader brought us up to date on Panorama plans and answered our questions related to environmental issues.

PREVIOUS MEETINGS – 2017

• January 13 – “Restoring Our Soil, Going Native and Preserving Our Earth”, presented by Tristan Vaughn.
• February 10 – ONE EARTH – Native Americans Address Climate Change”, presented by Lennee Reid.
• March 8 – Engaging with the Green Team – Focus on Introductions, Interests & Initiatives.
• May 10 – Judy Murphy gave an illustrated talk about a Citizen Science project monitoring and studying Pigeon Guillemots.
• June 14 – Green Team leaders gave brief reports on various Green Team activities, and asked for volunteers to help with ongoing projects.
• September 13, 2017, 3 p.m. – QUINAULT AUDITORIUM – Christine Graff, Operations Manager at Panorama, and Wayne Post, Supervisor of Building Maintenance, discussed activities and plans of Operations, including recycling and parking.
• November 8, 2017 – Darcy Bird, a representative of the Stream Team (www.streamteam.info) and the City of Lacey presented a program describing how the City improves the quality of water which runs off our streets and gardens.  Also joining us was Sasha Medlen, Executive Director of the Puget Sound Estuarium (www.sseacenter.org). She discussed the work of her organization and the effects of toxic runoff on aquatic life.

PREVIOUS MEETINGS – 2016

• January 13 – Consumerism, with video “The Story of Stuff”.
• February 10 – Preparing for “Envision Lacey” Town Hall meeting.
• March 9 – Planning for Panorama Town Hall meeting, Activity Fair, Bullitt Center trip and Earth Day activities; Report on Lacey Town Hall meeting.
• April 13 – Discuss areas of focus for Green Team 2016-2017
• May 11 – Kim Adelson talked about the Audubon Society program “For the Birds”, encouraging people to make changes to help birds weather climate change or to help slow down the rate of climate change. Learn more about this campaign at http://blackhills-audubon.org/for-the-birds-campaign/
• June 8 – Follow-up discussion of Green Team areas of focus.
• September 21 – Election of officers for Sept. 2016-August 2017
• October 12 – Integrated Pest Management
• November 9 – Living Simply & Reducing Waste and Discussion of the film The Clean Bin Project

PREVIOUS MEETINGS – 2015

• January 14 – Emmett Brown from LeMay
• February 11 – Grounds Supervisor Cathy Brown
• March 11 – Julie Rodwell, author of Tiny Footprints
• April 8 – Rayne & Eli Pearson and Donna Smith-Hursh & Tracy Hursh talked about veganism and shared recipes.
  Learn more about our guests.
• May 6 – Sally Vogel gave an illustrated talk about bees and explained what we hope to accomplish in our Pollinator Garden.
• June 10 – LOTT presentation by Ruth Shearer and Dennis Burke
• August 19 – Presentation by Yoram Bauman on the need to pass legislation to limit output of carbon dioxide. Learn more about the presentation.
• September 9 – Election of officers and discussion of what members think we should address during the coming year. Informal potluck refreshments  followed by the general meeting starting at 3 p.m.
• October 14 – Brain-storming about how individuals can reduce global warming. Discussion of potential field trips to recycling center, organic garden, and Bullitt Center.
• November 18 – Presentation about recent results of “A Survey of Attitudes Toward Climate Change and Clean Energy in Thurston County.” Graeme Sackrison and Tom Crawford, from Thurston Climate Action Team board, were our presenters and led the discussion with us afterward. Learn more about TCAT from their website at: oly-wa.us/thurstonclimateaction.