the university of washington (uw) offered a screening of “these sacred hills” on nov. 6, 2025, sponsored by the burke museum, the nature conservancy washington state, uw center for nature and health, uw department of history, and uw school of environmental and forestry sciences.

the documentary featured elected member of the yakama nation council jeremy takala, rock creek band elder elaine howtapat, rock creek band chief bronsco jim jr., and rock creek band activist and uw alumnus elaine harvey. the film was directed by jacob bailey and christopher ward, and is centered around the implications of the northwest’s largest proposed pumped storage facility.

according to the documentary, the energy storage project would be located in goldendale, washington, and would destroy five indigenous archaeological sites, as well as three cultural ones.

“these sacred hills,” which alternated scenes of indigenous cultural practices, public hearings, and interviews with tribal members, followed the broader trend of the “green rush,” or influx of clean energy development, in washington.

there has been increasing pressure for emitters in washington state to decarbonize, especially following the climate commitment act (cca), passed in 2021.

the cca, according to indigenous affairs reporter b. ‘toastie’ oaster at high country news, contained a provision prior to its passing that granted tribes the right to consent to development on sacred lands. on the day of the bill’s passing, after the cca had been approved by the governor’s office, state legislators, and a coalition of 19 tribes, governor jay inslee vetoed all tribal civil rights provisions. 

“there’s nothing out there protecting indigenous rights,” oaster said.

the treaty of 1855 granted tribes the right to hunt, fish, and gather on public lands. the privatization of land, compounded with resource depletion, have increasingly threatened indigenous ways of life.

yakama nation peoples have been overlooked and displaced numerous times throughout history, as outlined in the documentary.

in 1941, after the attack on pearl harbor, tribes residing in the pine creek canyon were forced to relocate so that the area could be used for war plane target training. in 1971, subsequent to the completion of the john day dam, the army corps of engineers informed the rock creek band that they must relocate so that the area could be flooded.

protection of indigenous sacred lands, despite being a united nations standard, is absent in state and federal law in the united states.

the united states geological survey began assessing the columbia river for hydroelectric storage in 1967. klickitat county began working on the goldendale energy storage project in 2008, with the initial goal of completing it through their public utilities district. it wasn’t until several years into the process that the yakama nation was even notified of the proposal, giving them less than 60 days to conduct surveys on the site and give comment.

renewable energy in washington is usually developed on “low value” or low biodiversity land. but these lands often contain critical resources for tribes. according to the documentary, the goldendale energy storage project would be incredibly detrimental to the local shrub steppe habitat.

the goldendale energy storage project is just one of nearly 50 proposed renewable energy projects in the state, many of which overlap with yakama or colville reservations in eastern washington.

this history and sense of urgency was conveyed throughout “these sacred hills;” nearly every scene spanning the natural area of the yakama nation contained imagery of wind turbines.

rye development, the company leading the goldendale energy storage project, brought oaster to tour the project site. though they stressed the importance of indigenous rights, according to oaster, they also spoke of displacement almost as if it were inevitable, “us[ing] the rhetoric of manifest destiny.”

tribes are not against renewable energy, harvey emphasized. they are in favor of “responsible decarbonization,” which should respect tribal sovereignty.

while filming “these sacred hills,” tribal members had to share personal parts of their culture in order to encourage respect and understanding for tribal sovereignty.

the documentary was made with the intention to spread awareness, according to harvey. it’s been screened to the washington department of ecology, and will be screened to legislators in the future.

“we hope that this deepens the conversation about green energy,” bailey said.

as of november 2024, rye development plans to break ground on the goldendale energy storage project in 2026. according to the documentary, the federal energy regulatory commission has never directly consulted the yakama nation on the project.

a study published aug. 4 in nature ecology & evolution outlines a recent breakthrough in sea star wasting disease (sswd) research: scientists have identified a causative agent.

sswd emerged unexpectedly in 2013 and quickly spread along the pacific coast. it destroys the tissue within sea stars, deforming their arms and causing them to break off. since 2013, it has killed billions of sea stars, including more than 90% of sunflower sea stars.

especially on the coast of california, sunflower sea star populations have been decimated, causing trophic cascades in kelp forest ecosystems. die-offs have led to a boom in sea urchins, which have then depleted kelp, their primary food source.

“there’s a lot of regions along the california coast where the kelp forests are severely declined and that has huge impacts,” a doctoral student in the school of aquatic and fisheries sciences, grace crandall, said.

kelp acts as a carbon sink, making it crucial for combating global warming, crandall explained.

a 2014 study suggested a virus as the causative agent of sswd, leading initial research in that direction. instead, the causation was found to be a bacterium known as vibrio pectenicida.

researchers used a method known as koch’s postulate to identify the cause of sswd. they began by performing a series of experiments to identify whether the disease was transmissible. they then boiled a sample of coelomic fluid, which is comparable to the human bloodstream, of the diseased sea star to determine whether the cause was alive. the boiled sample was no longer infectious, suggesting that the disease is caused by a living source, rather than environmental conditions.

researchers used a subtractive technique to isolate the causative agent; they removed everything from the diseased sample that was also highly present in the healthy sample.

“there’s this one type of bacteria that was hugely abundant in these sick stars that was not present in the healthy stars,” jason hodin, a senior research scientist at friday harbor labs (fhl), said.

this finding was a match for vibrio pectenicida fhcf-3, the same genus of bacteria that causes cholera (vibrio cholerae) in humans.

in early 2024, there was an outbreak of sswd at the friday harbor laboratories (fhl), a uw marine research station. scientists were able to isolate the full sequence of the bacterium from that sample for the first time

“the title of the paper talks about a strain called fhcf-3, and the fh in that is friday harbor,” hodin said.

the bacterium found in sea stars afflicted with sswd was a match to a scallop larval culture in france, indicating that it may have jumped species. identifying what drove the outbreak in sea stars is a next step for the research, according to hodin.

researchers are also looking to breed sea stars with more resistance to the disease. ochre stars, for instance, are already showing signs of recovery, indicating that they’ve developed some resistance to sswd. by breeding the most resistant stars, scientists could utilize artificial selection for recovery efforts. additionally, researchers could inject sea stars with a low dose of sswd, which would function similarly to a vaccine. however, scientists are uncertain whether sea stars’ immune systems work in a way that would be amenable to this.

a treatment for the disease has already been developed by the oregon coast aquarium. the process involves altering environmental conditions so that sea stars have the strength to fight off the disease themselves.

“[sea stars] are actually very robust and adaptable organisms, but they have this specific sensitivity to this disease,” hodin said.

to treat sswd, scientists put the sea stars in cooler water, adjust the ph, clean their wounds using iodine, and add probiotics to the water to support the sea stars’ microbiomes.

that afflicted sea stars heal in colder water is one piece of evidence of a correlation between sswd and warmer water temperatures.

“in 2014, there was a massive marine heat wave that coincided with the outbreak of this disease,” hodin said.

exploring this correlation is another next step for researchers.

if you stumble upon a diseased sea star while tidepooling, crandall suggests documenting it with an app like inaturalist.

“a way that people can help is if they see a sea star that looks like it’s sort of melting or has white spots or its arms are twisted up, to not touch it,” crandall said.

if you do touch the diseased sea star, wash your hands before touching anything else to prevent transmission, crandall recommends.