The Pierce Conservation District is a local government agency that works to preserve and manage Pierce County's diverse endowment of natural resources. It's an agency whose portfolio of programs is constantly evolving and whose work touches every corner of the county. The Town Hall Tourist fired a few questions the direction of PCD Executive Director Ryan Mello - yes, the same Ryan Mello who serves on the Tacoma City Council - to learn more about his agency's work and mission. 

TOWN HALL TOURIST: Can you briefly describe what it means to work with landowners to help manage natural resources? Is if often difficult to bring these landowners to the environmental/sustainability table?

RYAN MELLO: Working landowners are often the best stewards of the land.  Whether in an urban, suburban, industrial or rural setting, what we find at the Conservation District is that landowners typically are eager to "do the right thing" by the land, but what they are lacking is education about the best management practices or techniques and the funding to make the necessary improvements to their land or practices. That's where the Conservation District comes in. The District works one-on-one with all kinds of landowners to educate them on everything from how to better manage polluted rain water runoff, how to create more sustainable farm practices, or how to improve marine shoreline practices to ensure the long-term health of our shorelines for people and wildlife.  Helping landowners manage natural resources means giving them the know-how to manage their property and helping them implement the best practice and seeing them through to completion in helping with technical assistance, volunteer help and/or financial assistance. 

TH TOURIST: PCD seems to be a crucial player in a lot of the work being done to restore and protect the Puyallup River Watershed. What is the most important thing Tacomans should understand about the watershed - besides, of course, the fact that we live in it?

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Tacoma likes to believe that in the last 20 years it has grown more socially tolerant. The economic downturn has blended many communities in financial equality. The city's numerous festivals have started to resemble a certain 1971 Coco-Cola commercial. And much of the intermediate neighborhoods of the New Tacoma and Central districts have seen astounding renaissance.

Regardless of all our forward thinking, we the citizens of Tacoma, still live with a striking symbol of our disunions. Along the Division Avenue line separates north from south, new from old, affluent from disenfranchised. The image and idea of the divide has grown so much a part of the city we live in that we just accept it.

Mayor Marilyn Strickland describes her experience in realizing the divide. "The first time I traveled north of Division was when my first-grade teacher took me to the Shrine Circus with her family at UPS. After that, a volleyball match against Truman when I was at Gray Jr. High. As a kid, I wasn't aware of social class.  As a teenager, I had friends who went to Wilson and Bellarmine. Visiting some of their homes made me aware of socio-economic differences. We had a nice yard, a picket fence and a garden. They had huge homes with views of the water and large outdoor patios."

The issues involved in socio-economic are not new to our city. For over a hundred years a symbol of our city's disjointed social issues runs the mile stretch that is Division Avenue. This article is about how the people, the real estate market and local government have contributed to this divide.

Read the rest of my findings in the Weekly Volcano's Mudroom section.

Shifting to mass transit is not only critical to staving off an ecological crisis, it is also key to getting out of our economic one: the expansion of rail and bus lines drives development, creating jobs while making it easier for the rest of us to get to our existing ones. The reverse is also true. The dismantling of mass transit has, like cuts to other public services, erects a massive roadblock on the path to economic recovery. While the private sector adds jobs, public sector austerity is driving the American economy off the tracks.

This past November, voters rejection of Proposition 1, a measure that would have funded Pierce Transit by raising the sales tax 3 cents for every $10 spent. Its failure to pass by barely more than 700 votes means service reductions, including limited bus service on Saturdays and Sundays and no holiday service.

Plenty has been written about the failure of Prop 1. The bottom line is, people will lose their jobs due to the cuts. That's were the Weekly Volcano chooses to focus this week.

Elizabeth Corcoran Murray reports on how the Pierce Transit cuts jeopardize employment for people with disabilities.

It isn't easy to get a job; harder still when you have a disability - and virtually impossible without transportation. The 28 percent cut in service announced by Pierce Transit on Feb. 11 will devastate most individuals with disabilities trying to find work or to hold on to their job.  

"People lost jobs with the last round of cuts (in 2011) and more will lose them with this round," said Debbie Graham, the director of Centerforce, which links people with disabilities to employment. "We support people who work janitorial shifts at night and weekend shifts at places like Walmart. Employers change the schedules week to week. The most vulnerable people in our community will be impacted." Indeed, 55 percent of Pierce Transit's riders come from households with annual incomes below $20,000 and 45 percent of riders have no cars.

Read Murray's complete report on how the transit cuts will affect people with disabilities in the Weekly Volcano's Mudroom section.