Event to support National Park System
On Saturday, Aug. 16, from noon to 2 p.m., Indivisible Sequim will host an event honoring and celebrating Olympic National Park at the Visitor Center at the base of Hurricane Ridge, 3002 Mount Angeles Road in Port Angeles.
Participants are invited to show support for the National Park System amid budget changes and an uncertain future for federal lands while learning various ways to volunteer to maintain the health of the park system.
There will be a raffle of park-related prizes.
“Olympic National Park is not only a treasured beauty, but it generates a large revenue stream and gives life to our robust tourism industry,” said organizer Jamie Ross in a press release. “This will touch all of us. Remember … only you can protect our parks.”
OPAS nets honor
On Saturday, Sept. 6, at 10 a.m., representatives of the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) will present the Community Wildlife Habitat certificate to the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society (OPAS) in a special celebration at the Dungeness River Nature Center in Sequim.
The program will also recognize National Hummingbird Day with a Backyard Birding seminar.
The Sequim City Council recently issued a proclamation recognizing OPAS and its new certification from the NWF.
Last September, OPAS launched the North Olympic Wildlife Habitat Project to inspire property owners and managers across north Clallam and Jefferson counties to transform outdoor spaces into habitats friendly to birds and other wildlife. The individual properties met NWF requirements with necessary shelter, food, water, places to raise young, and sustainable gardening practices.
Going forward, the project will facilitate educational programs to further increase the number of certified properties across the area, expanding them into “wildlife corridors” – neighborhoods with several certified properties that together provide safe passage for birds and other wildlife to travel between natural areas.
The city’s proclamation cites a 2019 study published in “Science” that stated that the numbers of breeding birds in North America declined by nearly 30% (or 3 billion) since 1970. Declining bird populations and diversity of species warn of impending environmental threats to all life locally, and eventually to the planet as a whole, OPAS stated in a press release.
Faith news
The Rev. Bruce A. Bode will present the message “The Question of Evil” when he speaks at Olympic Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 1033 N. Barr Road, at 11 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 17.
Bode — minister emeritus at the Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (QUUF) in Port Townsend, from which he retired in 2018 as senior minister — will address whether the use of the word “evil” is currently useful.
Before coming to Port Townsend, Bode was the interim minister of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, Texas (2002-2004) and the Hope Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma (2001-2002). Prior to that, he served 22 years (1978-2001) as an associate minister at the Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a large, independent, religiously liberal congregation.
One can attend the service either in person or via Zoom.
For more information, visit olympicuuf.com.
