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| December 29, 2011 Shelton Mason County Journal |  |
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Shelton-Mason County Journal
By NATALIE JOHNSON fbtl time," she said. "I totally
trust her."
After 25 years Harmony Holland first became ac-
Hill Retreat Center Ex- quainted with Harmony
ecutive Director Gretchen Hill 11 years ago when she
Elaine Holland, Schodde is stepping down. was living in New York
left, took over as Her replacement, City.
executive director though, is no stranger. "A good friend of mine
ElaineHolland has been came out here for a cancer
of the Harmony on the Harmony Hill Board retreat," she said.
Hill Retreat of Directors for eight years When her friend came
Center in and officially took overback to New York after
December. as executive director last the retreat, Holland imme-
Founder and week. diately noticed a positive
former "The number one objec, change in her attitude and
director Gretchen tire is that Gretchen and I general well-being.
Schodde, right, have a smooth transition," Harmony Hill's cancer
will stay on in a she said. retreats include yoga, eat-
part-time capacity Schodde called Holland ing whole foods, stress re-
as director a "heart-centered business ducing techniques, medita-
emeritus, woman." tion and guided imagery.
"Turning it over to
Journal photo by Natalie Johnson Elaine feels like a wonder- See Harmony on page B-6
Get involved
in CERT this
new year
I wish all a Merry Christmas and
now a happy new year. During this
lull between the two big holidays, the
island is quiet; most creatures aren't
stirring, except for an occasional
mouse.
It's Thursday, so you only have a
couple more days to plan your new
year's night. Things should have set-
tled down in the household, so between
breaths may I suggest the new year's
dance at the Com-
munity Hall? Judy
and I have attended
many of these and
always had the
greatest time. If you
are here and want to
bring the new year
in with a lot of joy
and happiness and
MIKE fellowship, make
CALLAGHAN plans to attend. Back
by popular de-
mand 'Swing Fever'
will again take the stage and play from
8 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. A buffet dinner
will be served at 8 p.m. and the doors
will open at 7 p.m. Mixers will be pro-
vided but BYOB. Tickets are $20 per
adult in advance and $25 at the door,
so get your tickets early. Tickets can be
purchased from Jim Irving 432-9231,
Gary Benz 427-3180 or Jim Irish.
I think sometimes I lose an email
or two from people who have sent in
information. One of those was from
the troops that put on the Thanksgiv-
ing dinner a while back. The Bensons
and the Irishes, as usual, did a bang
up job organizing and cooking. They
wanted to make sure the island knew
that Walmart should also be thanked
for their donation of over one hundred
pounds of turkey. It's dinners like this
that make island life so exceptional.
So far it has been a pretty mild win-
ter here on the island, but we never
know what Mother Nature has in store
for us. Diane Edgin has been very ac-
tive with the CERT program and try-
ing to get it started. What is CERT?
The Community Emergency Response
Team (CERT) program educates people
about disaster preparedness for haz-
ards that may impact their area and
trains them in basic disaster response
skills, such as fire safety, light search
and rescue, team organization and
disaster medical operations. Using
the training learned in the classroom
and during exercises, CERT members
can help others in their neighborhood
or workplace following an event when
professional responders are not imme-
diately available to help. CERT mem-
bers also are encouraged to support
emergency response agencies by taking
a more active role in emergency pre-
paredness projects in their community.
The CERT concept was developed
and implemented by the Los Angeles
City Fire Department (LAFD) in 1985
See Harstine on page B-6
Dottle, left, and Dave Bonnett
river-dwelling mammal.
Local couple
makes rare
recordings of
elusive mammal
By NATALIE JOHNSON
Dave and Dottle Bonnett
have spent much of their lives
living in the shadow of the
Olympic Rainforest, but it's
an entirely different rainfor-
est that keeps calling them
back year after year - the
Amazon.
Every year since 2000, the
Bonnetts, who split their time
between Mason and Kitsap
Counties, travel along the
Amazon River to experience
wildlife and volunteer with
non-governmental organiza-
tions (NGOs), but above all to
study the rare Pink Dolphin.
"It's one of the key animals
in the Amazon," Dottle Bon-
nett said. "The top predators
on the food chain are the pink
river dolphins."
Few people know about
Inia geoffrensis, or the Pink
Dolphin, a freshwater, river-
dwelling dolphin only found
Journal photo by Natalie Johnson
travel to the Amazon every year to study the Pink Dolphin, a freshwater,
Courtesy photo
Inia geoffrensis, or the Pink Dolphin, is extremely
rare and occurs only in rivers in the Amazon. Dave
and Dottle Bonnett travel to the Amazon every year
to study the elusive creature.
in the Amazon. The dolphins "This animal is sort of the
have no natural predators canary in the coal mine for
and have not been historically the Amazon," Dave Bonnett
hunted by native tribes, said. "The whole food chain is
However, numbers of the being impacted."
dolphins have been dwin- Now, Dave Bonnett, a re-
dling, the Bonnetts said, tired Navy flyer and subma-
showing that the dolphins riner, and 'Dottle Bonnett, a
might be an indicator species retired biology teacher, are
for a broader impact on the working to develop a way to
entire food chain, count the number of dolphins
Thursda~
in the Amazon through voice
print technology.
After years of using high
quality underwater recorders
to catch the elaborate pat-
terns of clicks used by the
dolphins to communicate, the
Bonnetts chartered a nearly
silent boat in 2007 in order to
get even better quality record-
ings.
With that software, the
Bonnetts caught something
they never expected - a re-
cording of the dolphins mak-
ing a sound that they don't
believe anyone else has re-
corded.
While recording some dol-
phins feeding, Dave Bonnett
heard the standard squeaks
and clicks that occur in ev-
ery recording of the dolphins.
However, when he slowed the
recording down by 90 percent,
sounds that normally don't
occur within an audible range
for humans suddenly became
clear.
"I think they communicate
with far more sophistication
than anybody's reported be-
fore," Dave Bonnett said.
One sound in particu-
lar, the Bonnetts said, when
See D61phins on page B-6
December 29, 2011 - Shelton-Mason county Journal, PageB.1