11:38 AM / Aug 16, Brinnon -- A layer of smoke has descended on Dabob Bay and, approaching noon, the air is still thick with the smell of a fresh forest burn. Sunrise this morning was a brilliant red and orange. I presume this is from the Hopper Fire southwest of here, looks like its between the Dosewallips and Duckabush drainages. I last fought forest fires in 1984 in the St. Joe National Forest of Idaho, before the Internet age. We had Walkie Talkies and spoke in code and we had three different arcane channels to deal with. Now, anybody with a computer can see the fire, track the fire, get immediate constant updates on the fire, map the fire. As of the last update, the fire had grown to 325 acres and was being allowed to burn.

See InciWeb, Incident Information System, on the Hopper Fire. This is a multi-agency web portal for everything on the fire (including pictures, closures, Facebook link, other social media tools), along with contact to an actual human being. Follow fires from all over the country through inciweb Twitter. They Tweet news about the Hopper fire through this hastag: #Hopper_WAOLP

See raw aerial footage of the Hopper Fire on Mount Hopper

See 8/15 Peninsula Daily News story on the Hopper Fire.

See active discussion of Brinnon ShrimpFest on Chowhound - "For Those Who Love to Eat" - What was at the ShrimpFest 2010? See Peninsula Daily News story.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091
http://wdfw.wa.gov/ May 12, 2010 -- Due to the extremely high catch rates this season in Hood Canal the quota has been attained in four days and no additional days of fishing will be allowed in 2010. Marine Area 12 - Hood Canal.

YOGA IN QUILCENE

Every Monday and Friday
2:30 - 3:30 PM

(DISCONTINUED UNTIL AUGUST 25, 2010 - Gary is traveling, training, teaching writing and learning to play the blues.)

Quilcene Community Center
(360) 765-3321

Gary Lemons, highly accomplished, gentle, compassionate Yoga teacher leads a class for all ages, all levels of experience

Limber up your body, clear your mind, get more energy. Join us! Only $9 per session or whatever you can afford. Don't let money prevent you from realizing the youness of you.

Mason County PUD serves Brinnon.
To Report Outages: 1-800- 544-4423

Brinnon school levy passing with
61 percent approval rate

Feb. 12, 2010 -- Voters in Brinnon School District 46 were asked to approve collection of an additional $572,000 in property tax over two years starting in 2011. The levy would replace a two-year maintenance and operations levy that expires in 2010.

If approved, property owners would pay $1.04 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, which would provide $278,885 for 2011, and $1.10 per $1,000 of property, which would raise $293,661 in 2012.

See Port Townsend Leader story

Connie Gallant of Quilcene,
Receives Washington Wilderness Coalition Award

Thursday, November 12, 2009 in Seattle Connie Gallant received the Karen M. Fant Founder's Award from the Washington Wilderness Coalition for her accomplishments as a conservation activist. She says "it will be a great honor to receive this award on behalf of all the organizations and folks who work so hard to save and protect our corner of the world."

Karen Fant was one of the founders in 1979 of the Washington Wilderness Coalition. She was credited with a major part of the grass-roots work in which Congress enacted the 1 million-acre 1984 Washington State Wilderness Act. Those who knew Karen praise her dedication, determination, and passion to protect many wilderness areas, including helping to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

See some of Connie's work: Save Mount Walker | She is Vice President on the Board of Olympic Forest Coalition

Jan. 29, 2009, BRINNON -- Four years after a plan to log parts of a sensitive forest in one of America's oldest Boy Scout camps ignited public outrage, the Chief Seattle Council has clearcut a different section of Camp Parsons on Washington's scenic Hood Canal. See Seattle P-I story on 'Chainsaw Scouting'

Planning behind proposed Brinnon mega-resort sound, state growth board rules - see Sept. 17, 2008 Peninsula Daily News See Kitsap Sun "Watching Our Water Ways" blog entry on Brinnon resort is close to approval See Seattle Times Sept., 2008, Hood Canal: nature on the half-shell It's one of Washington's hidden jewels, a fishhook-shaped natural fjord dividing the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas. It's a deep breath, a moment of silence.

QUILCENE, Feb., 2008 — Timber won't be harvested on Mount Walker as part of an upcoming timber sale, an Olympic National Forest Olympic National Forest supervisor said. See Peninsula Daily News story. The Olympic Forest Coalition (OFC) reports in its 1/31/08 newsletter that this is indeed good news:

Said Olympic National Forest Supervisor Dale Horn: "The Northwest Forest Plan introduced approximately 15 years ago changed the cultural and economic landscape of the Olympic Peninsula that continues to evolve today. Gone are the days of the Forest Service clear cut." See BrinnonInfo Hiking for Mt. Walker Viewpoint and Mt. Walker Trail info.

Ecology station 16D070 Dosewallips nr Brinnon is online and posting real-time stage and temperature data to the web. Department of Ecology has posted a very cool web site for the Dosewallips River @ Brinnon stream flow monitoring station. Check it out.

Want to be updated on WRIA 16 happenings and get involved in watershed planning? Contact Susan Gulick, Sound Resolutions, Susan@Soundresolutions.com, (206) 548-0469 (office). See BrinnonInfo Planning page for more on WRIA 16 & 17, shoreline, and more planning contacts.

Finally! Don't tap your toes waiting for that file to download.
High speed Internet access is here!

Call 888-840-0825 or see:http://embarq.com/highspeed