The Record KUOW

For this week's Thursday with Jenny, Mayor Durkan takes your calls on vaccination, pandemic road closures, and public broadband.

In 2013, a plague of sea star wasting disease began killing scores of west coast sea stars. Hit hardest was the sunflower sea star, the largest of its kind, whose population was decimated by close to 90 percent. But thanks to folks like Jason Hodin, lead scientist at the University of Washington Friday Harbor Marine Biology Lab, the sunflower star is making a rebound in captivity, a vital development that could save our coastal kelp forests.

You might think of the outdoors as an opportunity to escape human problems like racism. Yet, 77 percent of national park visitors are white, and racist place names permeate many of our favorite recreation sites. Bill Radke speaks with Crystal Huddleson and Michael Manuel from the local non-profit Climbers of Color about the need to confront racism in outdoor recreation.

Researchers in the San Juan Islands have successfully matured a brood of captive sunflower sea stars, which became critically endangered after a 2013 plague killed 90 percent of the giant ocean creatures. Also, we discuss the need to combat racism and diversify outdoor recreation. Lastly, our weekly conversation with Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan.

For those who have had beavers destroy property, the word ‘nuisance’ may come to mind when describing the rodent.

The killer whale population is the only whale listed as endangered by the federal government – only 75 of them remain.