This year, the City of Bellingham will host its second annual ALL IN Climate Action Week from September 20 to 27, 2020. The event is a celebration of all the knowledge, progress and resources our community has to offer when looking for solutions to address global climate change at the local level. The week is scheduled to align with Climate Week NYC and the United Nations (UN)​ General Assembly. Among the many events included in the week-long celebration, Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA) will present a virtual screening of its second annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival: A Climate of Change.

Climate change is one of the largest challenges facing salmon recovery. Rising temperatures, climate refugees, droughts and flood events all threaten these environmental, cultural and economic icons here in the Pacific Northwest. This curated program of films will allow audience members to emotionally connect and really engage with the issues.

Thanks to the generous support of community partners Haggen Northwest Fresh and Puget Sound Energy, the event is offered free to the public.

Wild & Scenic Travels the Country

The late 1960s and early 70s were an important time in environmental history in this country. Among the government agencies, legislation and movements was the film festival’s namesake, the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act was created in 1968. Its mission: to preserve certain rivers with outstanding natural, cultural and recreational values in a free-flowing condition for the enjoyment of present and future generations.

Considered one of the nation’s premier environmental and adventure film festivals, the Wild and Scenic Film Festival travels the country to raise awareness, attract new supporters to hosts and raise funds. The films are meant to inspire environmental action and a love for nature. Combining beautiful cinematography and first-rate storytelling to inform, these films inspire and ignite possibilities to restore the earth and human communities while creating a positive future for everyone.

Each of the films illustrate not only the challenges facing our planet but the work communities are doing to protect the environment and the places we love, all while encouraging responsible stewardship of the earth.

Dedicated Hosts & Sponsors

“The festival gives our community a chance to bring world and regional issues to our back door. The films enable us to expand our thinking and explore how we can make a difference here at home,” explains NSEA Board Member of ten years and Chairman of the Advancement Committee, Dorie Belisle. “We’re tasked with reaching out to people in our community, not only for donations, but also to touch people and help them learn about NSEA. We’re trying to provide an opportunity for active community dialogue.”

Since 1990, NSEA has completed over 500 restoration projects, covering more than 15 miles of streams in Whatcom County. Through strategic partnerships with businesses and organizations, direct outreach to land owners, volunteer mobilization and education, NSEA is improving and monitoring habitat for salmon, and therefore for people, other wildlife and water quality, one project at a time.

Many of NSEAs restoration projects include establishing native plants along stream corridors. As trees grow, they absorb and store the carbon dioxide emissions that drive global climate shift. Research estimates that “by planting more than a half trillion trees around the world, we could capture about 205 gigatons of carbon (a gigaton is 1 billion metric tons), reducing atmospheric carbon by about 25 percent. That’s enough to negate about 20 years of human-produced carbon emissions at the current rate, or about half of all carbon emitted by humans since 1960.” But scientists agree that planting trees is not enough. We must also decrease fossil fuel emissions and focus on educating future generations.

NSEA has implemented a range of education and monitoring programs, each focused on a different audience. Everyone can find a way to participate through their range of programs. Explore either online or by calling the office to find the program that is the best fit for you. Programs include Students for Salmon for 4th grade students throughout Whatcom County, Nooksack River Stewards, Future Leaders of Whatcom Waters (FLOW) Internship program and Habitat, Vegetation, Water Quality and Spawner Survey Monitoring. NSEA’s programs have reached more than 10,000 students in Whatcom County and that number continues to grow each day.

A Peek at the Films

Climate change has the potential to affect every level of environment and our society. The virtual screening will include the opportunity to live chat during the program so you can ask questions, post your thoughts and engage with others on these stellar films. Here are highlights of the films we’ll present.

Where Life Begins by Krystle Wright

Along the Arctic Coast, at the northmost point on American soil, this short documentary explores the inseparable bond between mother and child, the sacred and fragile moments after birth, and the importance of protecting the place Where Life Begins.

Pebble Redux: The Bears of Amakdedori by Trip Jennings and Sara Quinn

If you thought the original Pebble Mine proposal was a bad idea for salmon in Bristol Bay, you'll despise Pebble Redux even more. This short documentary film shows the fast-tracked, expanded mine proposal through the eyes of its newest, cutest threatened species representative—a four-year-old grizzly bear. Check out the views this young grizzly enjoys while he plays and snacks in the densest grizzly bear habitat in the world and learn how you can help stop this proposal—again!

Blue Carbon by EarthCorps and Restore America’s Estuaries

"Blue carbon" is carbon that's captured and stored by coastal wetlands, helping to mitigate climate change. This documentary short filmed in the Snohomish Estuary in Puget Sound, WA is about mud and the multiple benefits that estuaries provide for us. "You never go into a wetland and just restore one benefit," says wetlands ecologist John Rybczyk. “It improves water quality, provides salmon habitat, protects our shorelines, and also benefits our climate.”

Last Call for the Bayou by Nadia Gill

Louisiana's delta is a veritable bounty of rich estuarine life, supporting a robust commercial fishing industry, fertile oil fields, millions of migrating waterfowl, and at the heart of it all the mighty Mississippi—a navigation channel that allows the passage of goods worldwide. The erosion of Louisiana's wetlands is one of the greatest environmental threats the U.S. faces today. Every hour a chunk the size of a football field is lost. Without a mitigation strategy, the marine economy, oil and gas, and even the citizens of New Orleans will be seeking refuge elsewhere in 30 years or so. This 5-part digital series chronicles the lives of individuals who are experiencing that loss in the deepest parts of the Bayou. Through them, we learn that Louisiana is the canary in a coal mine for the coastal land loss that will happen worldwide. We learn what the Bayou means to the people who live there as we watch them wrestle with the survival of their home. 

Nature Now by Tom Mustill

This short film was made with no flights, recycled footage, and zero net carbon. It has been given away for free and viewed 53 million times and was played to the United Nations. A personal and passionate call to arms from Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot to use nature to heal our broken climate, this film will inspire and awaken.

A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by Lauren Feeney

Set a couple of decades from now, A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a flat-out rejection of the idea that a dystopian future is a foregone conclusion. Instead, it offers a thought experiment: What if we decided not to drive off the climate cliff? What if we chose to radically change course and save both our habitat and ourselves? What if we actually pulled off a Green New Deal? What would the future look like then? The film inspires the courage we’ll need as a community to take actions that will build a Climate of Change across the nation and around the world.

City of Bellingham’s Climate Protection Action Plan

In 2005, City Council committed to the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign and its five milestones. That process resulted in Bellingham’s 2007 Climate Protection Action Plan, which included emissions reduction targets for 2012 and 2020. The City has completed the initial five Climate Protection milestones, and has now renewed our commitment to greenhouse gas reduction in the Climate Protection Action Plan 2018 Update (51MB) charting a course to meet new targets in 2030 and 2050.

Bellingham’s efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions have worked. Emissions inventories show that both the municipal city government and the Bellingham community within city limits exceeded 2012 emissions targets (Table 1). However, 2015 inventories show an increase in emissions since 2012 so continuing the commitment to action is necessary to reach targets in 2020 and beyond.

Looking forward, the City aims to further reduce municipal greenhouse gas emissions to 85% below 2000 levels by 2030 and 100% below 2000 levels by 2050 – making the city government carbon neutral. The new community emissions targets are 70% below 2000 levels by 2030 and 85% by 2050.

To reach these ambitious goals, the City has identified 24 ongoing and new municipal emissions reduction measures and 56 community emissions reduction measures in six core strategies. Read more about the City’s plans here.

We hope you’ll help us celebrate ALL IN Climate Action Week with NSEA’s Wild and Scenic Film Festival: A Climate of Change beginning September 20. Don’t miss this incredible festival of the most illuminating and engaging environmental films from around the world. Although the event isn’t a fundraiser, NSEA welcomes your donations in honor of ALL IN Climate Action week. Thank you for your ongoing support of our important work.