Day 1- Bullitt Center and Elwha River Valley, Washington

Did a tour of the Bullitt Center in Seattle, WA. We were shown how the building reaches and exceeds the LEED's platinum rating by having no net energy cost and actually has positive net energy production due to the buildings solar panel array. The building features on site composting toilets which use no water and compost the solid waste. Dirty or "grey" water from the showers and sinks is recycled through a filtration system and used to irrigate the buildings balcony garden. Inside, the building incorporates biomimicry into its carpets, reducing the environmental impact needed to produce the fibers.

The Staircase of the building was built out of pine and steel. Pine is naturally a soft wood and is rarely used for flooring as it is easily damaged but metal struts were incorporated the wood that act as the primary walking surface. This allows for wooden platforms made from unused wood while still keeping the structure resistant to wear.

The Bullitt center also uses passive solar and geothermal to heat the building and large shades that cool the building, this eliminates any energy consumption that would be used for conventional heating or cooling. This would be an excellent model for other buildings to strive towards if it were not for the enormous costs which have made this building possible.The tour of this astonishing building has shown me that our society is capable of working with the technology at hand and using it to create clean, self-sustaining infrastructure. While the initial costs may be high, the long-term life expectancy and cost reductions should make up for the difference all while drastically reducing the impact on the environment.

After leaving Seattle made a quick stop at Walmart to pick up a hitch for the SUV so that we could move the coolers out and make some room. While heading to Olympic National Park we stopped at Port Angeles to discuss Wilderness issues in the area. We learned about the importance of logging and salmon to the area and how wilderness designations have disrupted their local economy. Most of the area around Port Angeles is federal land with portions being designed as National, National Park Area, and Wilderness areas. The citizens of Port Angeles see Wilderness designation as a negative service because it prevents anything besides hunting or fishing, meaning that less timber is available for logging. For a community whose livelihoods are based on logging, taking away timber is taking away jobs. Basically the locals blame Wilderness areas for the lack of work in the area when really it was exporting of timber overseas where it could be milled for cheaper. We also briefly talked about the decline of salmon in the area and that 72% of the species in the area are either threatened or endangered due to over harvesting, habitat loss, competition from hatchery salmon, and hydro-power.

Our last stop for the day was at the Elwha River restoration site in Olympic National Park, the site where the Lower Elwha River Dam was removed back in 2011. The Elwha river Restoration Site is the second largest reclamation project in the U.S. next to the Everglades project. Construction of the dam had displaced Native Americans, completely altered the river ecosystem, and devastated local salmon fisheries. After years of protest restoration of the river ecosystem began in the late 80s and in 2011 a radical step was taken that involved decommissioning the dam and removing from the river entirely. The idea was that by removing the river, river flows would return, sediment would once again flow downstream, and salmon would return.