September 10 - 16, 2020
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Community Newspaper of Blaine and Birch Bay HHHECRWSSHHH Postal Customer
IN THIS
ISSUE
Golfers make $14,000 donation to food bank, page 3
145 invasive European green crabs caught in Drayton Harbor
Don Hrutfiord, raising cattle at 91, page 8
Labor Day weekend fun at Birch Bay, page 15
PRSRT STD U. S. Postage PAID Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
Living Pantry opens on Peace Portal Drive
By Grace McCarthy
(See Crabs, page 2)
s The City of Blaine and Blaine Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon cutting at Living Pantry, a new store selling natural food and products at 684 Peace Portal Drive, in Blaine. Owners Seppi and Shawna Morris are third and fourth from right.
Photo by Kyra Planetz
New natural products store hopes to educate By Kyra Planetz It’s easy to place convenience before healthy and sustainable choices, foregoing environmentally-friendly products for cheaper, disposable ones. Seppi and Shawna Morris of Living Pantry, a new Blaine business, will not only sell sustainable products but hope to educate customers on the impacts their choices have on their health and on the environment. “We had this idea that we wanted to create a space where we could inspire ourselves and other people to do better,” Shawna Morris said. Living Pantry, at 684 Peace Portal Drive,
has everything from household products, such as shampoo and laundry detergent, to bulk food items like granola and herbs. Each item is made of natural materials without chemicals and dyes while most of the food is organic and made without additives. Living Pantry intends to provide locally sourced products whenever possible and the owners encourage customers to bring their own clean and dry, reusable containers to fill. The couple had the idea for creating the “refill market and zero-waste living resource center” 15 years ago after discovering a passion for natural, whole foods while living in Costa Rica. Shawna Morris
Blaine schools working to phase in some students By Grace McCarthy New state and federal amendments allowing flexibility for food service and transportation funding are coming as the Blaine school district plans to open its doors to a small cohort of students before the end of the month. On August 31, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced its Food and Nutrition Service would extend free meals to students until December 31, or until
funds run out. The waiver means summer meal programs can continue operating, which include exemptions allowing meals to be served outside normal locations and times and allows guardians to pick up meals for their students. Children up to 18 years old can receive five breakfasts and five lunch meals on Wednesdays in the parking lot behind the Borderite stadium grandstands. Pick up times will be 12-2 p.m. and 4-6 p.m. The school district asks families who
qualify for free and reduced meals to still fill out their application, although not needed to receive meals this semester, so the district can continue to receive additional funding for school programs. The USDA is unable to guarantee funding through the 2020-21 school year because Congress has not yet allocated enough money. Summer meal program waiver extensions are based on current (See Schools, page 6)
has a background in occupational therapy while Seppi Morris studied pre-medicine, ecology, biochemistry and food science. Together they made their dream a reality when they finalized plans to open Living Pantry earlier this year and held the grand opening on September 5. Though some products may be more expensive than at the local supermarket, Seppi Morris explained that mass-produced products come with non-monetary costs such as negative health and environmental impacts. For example, 8 million metric tons of disposable plastics end up (See Pantry, page 5)
INSIDE
Scientists trapped 33 European green crabs last week, 28 of which were in the mouth of Dakota Creek – one of the highest week’s capture since trapping for the invasive species began in late May. Allie Simpson, ecosystem project coordinator for Northwest Straits Commission, described the find as “alarming” and said the presence of juvenile crabs in Dakota Creek indicated the green crabs could be settling in the Drayton Harbor area – something an array of environmental agencies are working to prevent. “We caught a lot, lot more than we were expecting,” Simpson said. “That’s a lot for an area we didn’t know about.” The crabs caught last week in Dakota Creek were trapped in experimental traps, which were set in different areas to inform the scientists if there are population changes over time. These traps are an attempt to trap as much of the Drayton Harbor shoreline as possible, Simpson said, which requires getting permission from many private landowners on tideland and shoreline. There are four core sites where the crabs were primarily trapped: the Blaine marina, the jetty inside Drayton Harbor, the old Cherry Street pier and a small tributary between Dakota and California creeks. About 85-90 percent of green crabs caught this summer were trapped at the old Cherry Street pier, Simpson said. The first week of trapping this summer yielded the highest number of crabs, at 40, but most weeks only 10 crabs have been trapped, Simpson said. As of September 4, 145 green crabs were caught this summer in the Blaine area. Emily Grason, a marine ecologist with Washington Sea Grant marine research program at the University of Washington, said in an email that the number of crabs caught is significantly higher than at other locations in the Salish Sea. The three sites most concerning for Washington’s inland shorelines are Drayton Harbor, Lummi Bay and Samish Bay, Grason said. Other inland trapping loca-
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