and other wildlife are

With 14 vessels removed, it was the agency’s largest operation of its kind, officials said.An abandoned ship is lowered from a helicopter on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, in Olympia, Wash. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

An abandoned ship is lowered from a helicopter on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, in Olympia, Wash. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)“It was a very, very weird sight,” said Gervais, who owns Boston Harbor Marina, just north of Olympia. “The sail boat with the mast was the weirdest one to see.”A boat removal by helicopter is typically done by a private pilot, but for this operation, which was funded by a federal grant, the DNR opted to use one of its firefighting helicopters. It was cheaper and helped stretch the $1 million NOAA grant, said Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove.

The state agency opts to airlift boats when towing them would disrupt the marine bed or surrounding environment too much. The aquatic lands where the boats land often include kelp beds, which are critical for supporting the forage fish that salmon rely on.Vessels for this operation where found in hard-to-reach coves, at the tree line or in mud that rendered an airlift a better option, agency staff said.

Since the boat removal program began in 2002, the department has hauled out more than 1,200 derelict vessels. There are at least 300 more out there, with more found all the time, Upthegrove said.

“It’s a real challenge impacting the Puget Sound when people essentially dump their old boats into the water because they don’t want to deal with disposing of them,” he said. “That burden then falls on all of us.”It would bar the state Education Department from approving any additional cyber charter schools through the 2029-30 school year. A new Cyber Charter School Funding and Policy Council would be set up to make recommendations concerning enrollment, governance and funding.

During floor debate Wednesday, Rep. Martina White, a Philadelphia Republican, said the measure will “close real schools, displace real students, strip families of the very choices that they depend on to give their children a chance at success.”The moratorium would be highly damaging to cyber charters, said Rep. Craig Williams, a Delaware County Republican.

“You limit the number of cyber charters now in existence, you choke off its funding, and eventually you can kill cyber charter. Sixty-plus thousand students in our school system, finding another way to learn, and we’re going to choke it off with this bill,” Williams said.The chair of the House Education Committee, Lehigh County Democratic Rep. Peter Schweyer, enumerated cyber charter spending issues raised in the auditor general’s