Yacht club hosts special event speaker

The Sequim Bay Yacht Club hosts a tribute to the veterans of World War II, featuring club members John Johnson and David Richardson, at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 8, in the Hendrick’s Public Meeting Room at the John Wayne Marina, 2577 W. Sequim Bay Road.

Part of the club’s Community Speaker Forum series, the event highlights Johnson and Richardson, both veterans, who participated in the 75th End of World War II commemorations in August and September 2020. They traveled from Sequim to San Diego in a World War II-era T6 Texan Trainer and joined 13 other plane pilots/crew at the Naval Base San Diego prior to boarding the USS Essex for passage across the Pacific to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

They will share photos and video of their story of the flight to San Diego, the COVID impacts on the mission, loading the aircraft aboard the Essex, the Pacific passage and the formal activities in Hawaii, and why the event was important.

Masks will be required.

For more information, contact Rear Commodore Anna Richmond at 360-681-5135 or vanderspekas@gmail.com, or visit sequimbay yacht.club.

Learn about ‘Klallam Ethnography’

The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Library, in collaboration with the North Olympic History Center, presents “A Closer Look at the ‘Klallam Ethnography’: S’Klallam Interviews with Erna Gunther,” from 3-4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 9, in an online presentation.

David Brownell, the North Olympic History Center’s executive director, will offer information about Erna Gunther, an ethnographer and ethnobotanist from the University of Washington who spent extensive time with the tribes of the Olympic Peninsula.

While researching and writing the “Klallam Ethnography” in the early 1920s, Gunther made multiple trips to Jamestown to interview tribal ancestors Robert Collier, John and Nora Cook, Mary Hunter-Hall Wood, and Joe, Lilly and Wilson Johnson about the history of the S’Klallam people.

No registration is necessary. The presentation can be accessed at tinyurl.com/GuntherKlallam (meeting ID 864 4871 4613, passcode 096339).

For more information, call 360-681-4632 or email to library@jamestowntribe.org, or visit library.jamestowntribe.org/home/ ProgramsEvents.

Library’s Friends group sets monthly sale

The Friends of Sequim Library hosts a sale from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 11, at the group’s Rock Plaza location, 10131 Old Olympic Highway.

Of interest this month are hundreds of sheet music issues (mostly for guitar), a New Yorker collection of 10 books, local gardening publications, collectible novels in slipcovers and a 45-volume collection of Automobile Quarterly.

Masks and distancing will be observed. Come early for the best selection, organizers say.

Funds raised go to special functions hosted by the North Olympic Library System.

Sequim Grange shifts flea market outside

Sequim Prairie Grange plans to host its Flea Market on Saturday, Sept. 25; however, because of the recent increase of COVID-19 cases, the event moves to outside-only. Vendors have been notified.

To participate at the flea market, held at the grange at 290 Macleay Road, call Philomena Lund at 360-477-4742. Spots cost $20 each.

Sequim Soroptimists close medical loan closet

The Soroptimist International of Sequim organization announced this week the group has decided to temporarily close its Medical Loan Closet because of the rising numbers of Clallam County COVID-19 infections and “several incidents in recent weeks that have put loan closet volunteers at undue risk,” the organization said in a press release on Sept. 7.

Individuals who need to borrow medical equipment on a short-term basis are advised to call Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County at 360-452-1511.

“We appreciate the community’s understanding during this time,” Soroptimists said Monday. “We sincerely hope that everyone in our community will come together, follow the science, and effect a significant decrease in the spread of COVID.”

Biotoxin downgrade set

The Clallam County Health Department’s Environmental Health Division announced last week an all species closure of shellfish harvesting from Cape Flattery east to Low Point/Lyre River.

The Strait of Juan de Fuca from Low Point/Lyre River east to the Discovery Bay/Jefferson County line remain open to shellfish harvesting, as is Dungeness Bay.

Sequim Bay is closed to butter and varnish clams, while Discovery Bay and ocean beaches (seasonal) are closed.

The health-related closures are in addition to harvest season closures regulated by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Check doh.wa.gov/shellfishsafety for all recreational shellfish closures and advisories in effect. A beach must be displayed as open for harvest by both DOH and WDFW.

For more information about this closure, call the Shellfish Safety Hotline at 800-562-5632, or visit the Department of Health’s Shellfish Safety Website at doh.wa.gov/shellfishsafety.

Free park day set for Sept. 25

In recognition of National and Washington Public Lands Day, Washington State Parks, Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) will offer free entrance to state lands on Saturday, Sept. 25.

On this day, visitors to Washington state lands will not need a Discover Pass to park. Discover Pass free days apply to all visitor parking on DNR and WDFW lands and in day-use areas at Washington state parks.

In 1994, National Public Lands Day was established as the fourth Saturday in September. The National Environmental Education Foundation coordinates the special day every year. In 2019, the Washington state Legislature passed a bill proclaiming the fourth Saturday in September as Washington Public Lands Day.

Free Stream Stewards class open this fall

The WSU Clallam and Jefferson Extension offices are offering a six-week Stream Stewards Training course this fall that includes field trips and experiences across the North Olympic Peninsula focusing on the rivers/streams that flow into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the environments that impact them.

Classes are held 9 a.m.-noon on Tuesdays, Sept. 28-Nov. 2. Thanks to a grant, the class is offered for $25; scholarships are available. Register at 2021-fall-stream-stewards.eventbrite.com.

Field trips will be supplemented through online presentations by regional experts. These lectures will be pre-recorded so they can be watched on participants’ own schedule. Attendees learn about connections between the Olympic Peninsula’s lands and waters, and the life that depends on their health.

For more information, email to bridget.gregg@wsu.edu or monica.montgomery1@wsu.edu.

Purser elected to Energy Northwest board

At its Aug. 25 meeting, the Energy Northwest Executive Board elected Clallam County PUD commissioner Will Purser to serve as board chair for a two-year term.

Purser has served on the PUD’s board of commissioners since 2001 and Energy Northwest’s executive board since 2010. In his capacity as a PUD commissioner he also is the delegate for the PUD to the Energy Committee at the Washington PUD Association, and represented the PUD as a past member of the Public Power Council Executive Committee.

“It is an honor to be a part of Energy Northwest’s vision to be a regional leader in clean power generation,” Purser said in a press release last week, adding, “As a member utility, Clallam PUD customers benefit in receiving power from a utility that is over 95 percent sourced from clean energy generation.”

Energy Northwest provides clean energy generation solutions from projects it owns including hydro, solar, battery storage, wind and nuclear. See energy-northwest.com for more information.