Renewable Energy at Home: A Look into Purchasing a Wind Turbine for Home Use—The Cost of Blindly Relying on One Tool in Decision Making

Small-scale wind turbines simulations are not as accurate when it comes to costs as compared to the large-scale wind turbines, where costs are more or less standard. In this paper, an analysis was done on a decision for a wind turbine investment in Bellingham, Whatcom County, Washington. It was revealed that a decision taken based only on a software tool could be destructive for the sustainability of a project, since not taking into account specific taxation, net metering, installation, maintenance costs, etc., beyond the optimization that the tool offers, can hide the truth.

First Reports of Vespa mandarinia (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in North America Represent Two Separate Maternal Lineages in Washington State, United States, and British Columbia, Canada

In September 2019, destruction of a Vespa mandarinia Smith 1852 nest was reported for the first time in North America in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. In December 2019, the Washington State Department of Agriculture also confirmed the first detection of an adult specimen of V. mandarinia in the United States, in Whatcom County, Washington. Vespa mandarinia is the largest hornet species and is a known predator of several insects, including the European honey bee (Apis mellifera) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) (Linnaeus, 1758). The establishment of V. mandarinia in North America poses a serious threat to apiculture, and this species is considered an actionable quarantine pest. Here we report details of the first detection of this species in the United States and use genetic sequence data obtained from five specimens across the globe to estimate differences in origin of the Canadian and U.S. detections. The full mitochondrial genomes of four V. mandarinia specimens representing different geographic locations were sequenced and compared with an existing reference genome. A maximum likelihood tree using 13 protein-coding regions from mitochondrial DNA suggests that the Canada and U.S. specimens are from two separate maternal lineages. A large-scale survey is currently underway to assess the level of Asian giant hornet establishment in both countries and to determine the future direction of eradication efforts.

Estimating and comparing cropland nitrogen need with dairy farm nutrient recovery: a case study in Whatcom County, WA

In agricultural regions, like Whatcom County, Washington, crop and dairy production co-exist, but increased agricultural specialization and intensification have divorced what was, historically, an integrated approach to production. This agricultural segregation contributes to farm, regional and watershed-scale nutrient imbalances, and several different management approaches have been devised to improve, correct and close these nutrient cycling disparities. In high-density production regions, utilizing locally produced bio-based fertilizers may provide one avenue toward closing regional nutrient loops. Technologies such as dairy-operated nutrient recovery systems may help improve the flow of nutrients between dairy and cropping systems by extracting nutrients from raw manure and producing materials that are more easily used on farms than raw manure. To evaluate the potential impact of a nutrient recovery system and its related product, we estimated nitrogen balances between cropland use and manure production within Whatcom County, Washington and examined a theoretical scenario in which a specific nutrient recovery product was utilized across the region. We considered one economic barrier, transportation cost, and calculated a hypothetical comparison for transporting nitrogen in two forms, a downstream nutrient recovery product and raw manure. The scenarios presented here demonstrate a potential gap between regional nutrient supply and demand, illustrate the tradeoffs with a technological approach, and make clear that both technological tools and practical management strategies are needed to address the challenges of redistributing nutrients in high-density production areas.

A Simple Method for Estimating the Number of Unconfirmed COVID-19 Cases in a Local Area that Includes a Confidence Interval: A Case Study of Whatcom County, Washington

Along with many other data problems affecting the unfolding of the COVID-10 pandemic in the United States, virtually nothing is known about the number of positive, unconfirmed cases, especially in local areas. We show that it is possible to estimate the number of positive, unconfirmed COVID-19 cases using a simple, long-established method employed by demographers to estimate a population in the absence of a census count. We go on to show how a confidence interval can be constructed around an estimate of positive, unconfirmed COVID-19 cases constructed from this method, using Whatcom County, Washington as a case study.

Urochordeumatidae Silvestri, 1909, a millipede family endemic to Washington State, USA (Chordeumatida, Striariidea, Striarioidea)

Urochordeumatidae Silvestri, 1909 includes a single species, Urochordeuma bumpusi Silvestri, 1909, with U. porona Chamberlin, 1941 as a new junior subjective synonym. The family Urochordeumatidae is removed from the superfamily Caseyoidea and transferred to the superfamily Striarioidea. The species is known only from four counties in Washington State in the North Cascades: Pierce, King, Thurston and Whatcom. The occurrence of U. bumpusi from Whatcom County is a significant range extension.