WACD Reading List

And today, we’re excited to share our list of nominees for Summer 2021. Neither our staff nor our curators have read each and every title below, but we believe that the two best nonfiction books of the season are among them. So if you’re looking for summer reading, the nominees are…

STEVENS COUNTY, Wash. — With nearly six million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine already given in Washington, the state is on the way back to normalcy. But in some rural areas, vaccine hesitancy remains an issue. Even as communities within Stevens County have seen a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases recently, the number of vaccines being given isn’t going up, and many residents are hesitant to get the shot.

If your relationships, work, and life have been disrupted by the pandemic, the weeks and months before you fully reenter the world should not be wasted. They are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to come clean with yourself—to admit that all was not perfectly well before. Here’s how you can make a plan not to return to normal.

Shifting away from large-scale farming would build resilience in the face of climate change and other crises. The authors of new research want to show how to make it happen.

The report offers a measure of clarity—if not a complete road map—for how to reach the 30x30 goal. To get there, stakeholders from all aspects of land use are asked to pitch in. No longer is conservation the exclusive realm of federally protected lands. Instead, the very definition of conserved land is being adjusted to incorporate farms, working landscapes, city parks, and practically any natural environment that stores carbon, provides wildlife habitat, or serves as green space for communities lacking access to nature.

In PwC's latest US Remote Work Survey, PwC surveyed 133 US executives and 1,200 US office workers between November 24 and December 5, 2020, to determine how effective remote work has been. According to their findings, 80% of organizations are planning a hybrid work environment for the long term. PwC's Digital Products Leader, Tom Puthiyamadam, an expert who coaches teams on how to bring the best ideas to life, shared with me three best practices for navigating this transition to a hybrid model.

Public speaking is one thing. Public speaking on Zoom comes with a whole new dimension of challenges, especially if you get nervous about presenting. From potential technical issues to being unable to rely on non-verbal cues from your audience, it’s easy to break a sweat about all the things that could go wrong while giving a virtual talk. But what if you could not only manage your performance anxiety but also learn how to enjoy public speaking on Zoom calls?

The 60-30-10 Rule was developed by leading teams researchers, Ruth Wageman and the late Harvard Professor, Richard Hackman. The rule explains variance in team performance, specifically it says that: 60 percent of the variance in team performance is attributed to the way a team is designed. 30 percent of the variance in team performance is attributed to the quality of team launches. And only 10 percent is attributed to how well the leader coaches the team.

It's a tough time to be a young person. COVID-19 has robbed many of them of experiences and plans. Their unemployment rate remains high. College enrollment is down. To address those concerns and bolster preparedness for a warming world, President Biden wants to retool and relaunch one of the country's most celebrated government programs: the Civilian Conservation Corps.

The big picture: For the first time in a long time, nobody needs to cherry-pick some misleading data to make it seem like things are going well, and the good news doesn’t need an endless list of caveats, either. It’s just really good news. We’re winning. Be happy.

Vaccines may become less effective over time, but there’s no evidence that we’re on the brink of catastrophe. “I don’t think that there’s an imminent danger that we’re going to go back to square one,” says Thomas Friedrich, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine. “We should be concerned, but not freaked out.”

There are some core obligations of the ECA, including the statewide inventory of urban forests; equipping cities with ordinances, management plans, tree inventories, and canopy analyses; and, developing the Evergreen Communities recognition program. That said, there is some flexibility in how our program will be structured and how we will execute the funding.

The May 7th, 2021 Sustainable, Secure Food Blog explores how wind erosion affects farming in Washington and some solutions farmers can use. According to blogger Andrew McGuire, “Wind erosion is a soil health thief. In both sandy and fine-grained silt soils of Eastern Washington, wind erosion lifts, sifts, and then carries away the best part of the soil. Lost are the tiny particles of clay and silt with the organic matter that is stuck to them.” Local soil conditions make matters worse. Low rainfall produces sparse vegetation, therefore low soil organic matter levels.

After a very good statewide snowpack for much of the year, the basins across Oregon have lost most of their snow. Scott Oviatt with NRCS Oregon says snow accumulations were trending in the right direction until the peak of the year around April 1st. “But what we’ve seen, beginning in late March and April is very dry conditions and unseasonably warm temperatures occurring across the region. And as a result, the above average snowpack throughout the northern portion of the state of Oregon have runoff rather rapidly.”

Backlash to such a policy is a near certainty in any venue, but especially one in the sports realm. Sports and politics often don’t play well together because team allegiances unite people from across the map and, thus, the political spectrum. This is a fracturing, and how far it will extend in Washington, and for how long, is still anyone’s guess.

Kim Wyman defended Washington’s Vote at Home system against Trump’s attacks in a 2020 op-ed: “Mail-in voting works, and Washington state . . . is proof that it works. Plus, it’s safe and secure.” She went on to say “drop boxes are secure, convenient and a great way to ensure ballots are submitted on time.” In Vote At Home states like Oregon and Washington, every voter turns in a hand-marked paper ballot: the gold standard for voting security.

What would be best for most office workers—and what’s most likely to happen for many of them—is something between the extremes of old-school office work and digital nomadism. What’s right for you might end up being a little further in either direction, depending on how social or siloed your job is, or if you’re a particularly extreme introvert or extrovert. But I’m here to argue for a particular baseline: three days in the office, and two at home.

But where EXACTLY is the absolutely driest location? Rain sodden western Washingtonians want to know! And the answer should certainly be of interest to agricultural interests...So I next checked locations I thought had the best combination of low elevation and big terrain immediately to the west. First, Desertair, which had nearly exactly 5 inches a year since 2009. Then, Mattawa E. in Grant County. OMG. A 4.6 inches average for 2008 to 2020.

Joint Base Lewis-McChord is adding to its list of on-base services with a weekly farmers market. The JBLM Marketplace launched April 20 and will continue every other Tuesday through Sept. 14. Leaders are hoping the marketplace will become a year-round event. “Obviously it will be subject to vendors availability and the popularity of the event,” said Josh Soldan, business and recreation division chief for JBLM’s Office of Morale, Welfare and Recreation.

Text-based 2FA, where a text with a six-digit code is sent to your phone to verify your identity, is better known and better understood because it uses technology most of us use all the time anyway. But it’s a technology that wasn’t meant to serve as an identify verifier, and it’s an increasingly insecure option as hackers continue to find ways to exploit it. That’s why I recommend using an authenticator app, like Google Authenticator, instead. Don’t let the name intimidate you: There are a few extra steps involved, but the effort is worth it.

The Biden administration has released a report outlining its vision to conserve and restore land, water and wildlife with recommendations for locally led, voluntary efforts to conserve 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. The 24-page report outlining the administration’s “America the Beautiful” initiative recognizes the contributions of farmers, ranchers, forest owners, private landowners and fishers and commits to supporting those efforts.