Proposed Yew Street UGA environmental impact assessment

The purpose of this Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is to analyze the probable significant environmental impacts associated with annexation and increased development of the Yew Street corridor. The proposal will encompass the northern Yew Street UGA and southern Yew Street UGA Reserve. This document evaluates the impacts on elements of the natural and built environment. The most significant impact in the natural environment would be the degradation of water quality due to an increase in impervious surfaces. Two alternatives are presented, as well as required and recommended measures to mitigate significant impacts to the natural and built environments. Proposed Action Yew Street Associates have proposed a reinstatement of the UGA Reserve into UGA status and annexation of the UGAs into Bellingham city limits. Housing density within the entire UGA would increase from 800 dwelling units to 2169-3169 dwelling units. The City of Bellingham would need to provide proper utilities such as sewer, water and gas. Public services would also need to be provided, which include transportation, police, and fire services. All upgrades to services would have to be concurrent and satisfy the regulations set forth by the Growth Management Act and the City of Bellingham\u27s Comprehensive Plan. Summary of Significant Impacts Annexation and increased development of the Yew Street corridor would have several significant environmental impacts. The proposed site influences two watersheds that offer important ecosystem services as well as recreational. The northern Yew Street UGA is within the Whatcom Creek watershed. The southern Yew Street UGA Reserve is within the Padden Creek and Lake Padden watershed. Increased development in the Yew Street corridor would affect all three water bodies. Increasing development will increase the amount of impervious surfaces. Impervious surfaces effectively generate increased surface flow after precipitation events. Increased surface flow carries with it sediments, nutrients and pathogens. These processes encourage adverse impacts on water quality. All of the influenced water bodies are currently affected by anthropogenic activity. Annexation of the two UGAs would significantly increase impervious surfaces, which would further degrade water quality and possibly inhibit their natural functions. Mitigation measures may be sufficient to minimize adverse environmental impacts. Measures are required by the Whatcom County Code (WCC) within the Lake Padden watershed, which include Special Stormwater Districts, Water Resources Special Management Areas and Water Resource Protection Overlay District. These three designations recognize the sensitivity of Lake Padden and require special development techniques and stricter stormwater control. We recommend implementation of Low-Impact Development (LID), Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and Built Green Housing techniques. These mitigation measures aim to decrease impacts on the natural hydrologic cycle, reduce clearing of natural vegetation and promote the sustainability of development. The proposed action, even after the above required and recommended mitigation measures are implemented, will have significant adverse environmental impacts on the natural and built environment. The ecological condition of the Lake Padden watershed is of the highest concern. We recommend that a no-action alternative be taken to ensure no further degradation of water quality in the affected watersheds. We understand that population growth will occur, but less sensitive alternative sites may be better candidates for development

Lake Padden Monitoring Project June -- December 2011 Final Rep

The Lake Padden monitoring project was initiated in 2011 by the citizens group, People for Lake Padden (P4LP), to provide an intensive water quality study of Lake Padden. Water samples were collected between June and December 2011 by Andrew Majeske, a student intern working with the Institute for Watershed Studies (IWS) and the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA). The goals of our study are to identify any apparent problems with the current conditions of Lake Padden, compare our results with historical information, begin to establish baseline data, determine to what degree stratification occurs, and education and involve volunteers and policymakers in the community

The immune gene repertoire encoded in the purple sea urchin genome

Echinoderms occupy a critical and largely unexplored phylogenetic vantage point from which to infer both the early evolution of bilaterian immunity and the underpinnings of the vertebrate adaptive immune system. Here we present an initial survey of the purple sea urchin genome for genes associated with immunity. An elaborate repertoire of potential immune receptors, regulators and effectors is present, including unprecedented expansions of innate pathogen recognition genes. These include a diverse array of 222 Toll-like receptor (TLR) genes and a coordinate expansion of directly associated signaling adaptors. Notably, a subset of sea urchin TLR genes encodes receptors with structural characteristics previously identified only in protostomes. A similarly expanded set of 203 NOD/NALP-like cytoplasmic recognition proteins is present. These genes have previously been identified only in vertebrates where they are represented in much lower numbers. Genes that mediate the alternative and lectin complement pathways are described, while gene homologues of the terminal pathway are not present. We have also identified several homologues of genes that function in jawed vertebrate adaptive immunity. The most striking of these is a gene cluster with similarity to the jawed vertebrate Recombination Activating Genes 1 and 2 (RAG1/2). Sea urchins are long-lived, complex organisms and these findings reveal an innate immune system of unprecedented complexity. Whether the presumably intense selective processes that molded these gene families also gave rise to novel immune mechanisms akin to adaptive systems remains to be seen. The genome sequence provides immediate opportunities to apply the advantages of the sea urchin model toward problems in developmental and evolutionary immunobiology

The Idea of Justice in Climates of Change

The Idea of Justice has been percolating for some time. The essays by Amartya Sen and George Anastaplo featured in this special issue derive from addresses presented at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice Third Biennial Literature and Law Conference, held in March of 2012 in New York City. The theme of that conference was The Idea of Justice, and it was dedicated to Sen’s 2008 book of that title. Sen graciously agreed to deliver the keynote. The conference organizer, Andrew Majeske, who is also an editor of this journal, asked the late George Anastaplo to be the respondent. What ensued was a lively debate over the scope and meaning of justice, with Anastaplo taking a more local and conservative approach and Sen a more global one. Their contrasting views generated numerous provocative yet amiable exchanges. The collegiality had something to do with the academic context, but it may have also reflected the timing: the conference took place prior to most of the polarizing changes that have shaken the world over the past decade

Professor George Anastaplo: A Remembrance

This essay constitutes the author's eulogy for his mentor, Professor George Anastaplo

A Review of Greta Olson’s forthcoming book: with a sneak preview of issue 73: Literature, Law, and the Idea of Justice

This is an advance review of Greta Olson's book From Law and Literature to Legality and Affect, published by Oxford University Press in October 2022.

Amartya Sen & George Anastaplo on Literature, Law, and the Idea of Justice

Both Professor Anastaplo and Professor Sen would agree that a crisis regarding justice exists in the contemporary world. Each of these scholars has endeavored in their work to address this crisis, in one way or another. For Professor Sen, the crisis is global in scope, and its solution also needs to be global. For Professor Anastaplo, the crisis of justice is local, and situatied in the West, and is a consequence of the break from the Western classical tradition of political philosophy and the way it treated justice, a break for which Niccolò Machiavelli can be considered initially responsible. This essay contrasts the thought of these preeminent scholars on justice, without attempting to prefer one's view over the other