Attend Society for Ecological Restoration Northwest conference at Seattle Convention Center starting April 5, 2005
Terry Tempest Williams, is an author and activist who writes compellingly about our human relationships to nature, She will be the keynote speaker at SERNW 2005, the Society for Ecological Restoration Northwest's bi-annual conference, held in Seattle, Washington, USA, on April 5 - 9, 2004. Delegates from around the Cascadia Bioregion will share cutting-edge knowledge in the field of ecosystem restoration. Presenters will speak on a range of restoration topics including urban restoration and green infrastructure, forest and riparian restoration, eco-cultural restoration, invasive species, and watershed-scale restoration. Reclamation of mines and other industrial areas will also be featured. The conference theme is posted online. Field trips are also on offer to restoration habitats throughout the bioregion. More information is available on the SERNW 2005 webpage and at www.sernw.org/ . Inquiries may be sent to info@sernw.org.
A hundred years ago, farmers created pasture land by
building dikes near the mouth of the Nisqually River to keep out the salt water
of Puget Sound. Jeanette Dorner -- who works for the Nisqually Indian tribe --
explains why, after a century, the tribe is breaching those dikes. This is good news for salmon because the
estuary -- the place where the fresh water meets the salt water -- is a really
critical place for salmon to grow and get strong before they leave to go out
into the ocean. Once the dikes are removed, the pasture grasses will
gradually be replaced by a salt marsh. And that will be one more step toward
restoring habitat for the threatened Puget Sound Chinook salmon. For more about
the Nisqually Delta project, contact Jeanette Dorner at 360-438-8687 Rockfish, ling
cod and other bottom fish mature very slowly, and they've been getting
harvested faster than they can grow back. Jim Slocomb with the San Juan County
Marine Resource Committee says islanders responded by identifying local areas
where bottom fish had gotten scarce.
And they took these areas and basically drew lines around them and
said, Well, please don't fish here. Slocomb says so
far, most fishers are respecting the voluntary restrictions. And the idea of
leaving certain fishing areas alone so they can recover is catching on. There
are now over two dozen marine protected areas in place or being considered in
the Puget Sound. For more
information, contact Jim Slocomb, San Juan County Marine Resource Committee at
378-2390 or look on the web at http://www.sanjuanislander.com/county/mrc/mrcnews.html/ In South Seattle and Bellevue, high school students are
learning how to evaluate their neighborhood creeks for water quality and
habitat. Then, they teach elementary school kids how to recognize plants and
wildlife in those streams. Greg Burke -- with the Mercer Slough Environmental
Education Center -- says linking people to each other is the first step toward
linking them to their environment. I
think environmental awareness starts with community awareness and once you
start to learn a little bit about your community and who's in your community,
forming a relationship with what's around you even becomes more important. The data the
student interns gather about their local streams is posted to a national online
database that contains information about watersheds across the country. To learn more
about the Mercer Slough Environmental Education Center, visit the web page at http://public.spl.org/seeh/homepages/Mercer_Slough.htm/ or give Greg Burke a call at
425-450-0207. Just about
everyone enjoys using Washington's many public trails and campgrounds. But a
disappointing number of folks treat those areas as a garbage dump. Wade Holden
-- with Friends of the Trail -- says his group cleans up a lot more than just
stray candy wrappers. Y'know, you have
everything from meth lab trash, debris, to cars in the rivers. You name it,
we've found it. People performing court-ordered community service provide
most of the labor. In the past few years, the group has hauled off over
6-hundred tons of trash, 2-hundred-25 vehicles and hundreds of washing machines
and other appliances dumped on public lands. To become part
of the solution, contact Wade Holden at
(425) 831-5486 or visit the
Friends of the Trail website at http://www.friendsofthetrail.org/ We often like to
blame environmental problems on big industries. But a lot of damage to water
and habitat is done by the way we live our everyday lives. Naomi Maasberg --
with the Stillwaters Environmental Education Center in North Kitsap County --
explains the center's Growing Green Residents Project. What we're trying to do
is get local residents to change their daily habits in order to protect the
environment. The program
offers tips on how you can use fewer toxic household products, reduce your need
for chemical fertilizers and pesticides, drive your car less and other
earth-friendly alternatives that can help make the difference for a healthy
environment. Want to know
more? Contact Naomi Maasberg at (360)
297-2876. To read about the Stillwaters
Environmental Education Center, visit http://www.b-e-f.org/accomplishments/carpenter.shtm The Children's
Garden project at El Centro de la Raza in Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood is
an urban oasis for native plants and small wildlife. Becky Chaney is a master
gardener who helps maintain the site. She says the Nootka rose, Oregon grape,
and other native plants are not only beautiful; they're friendlier to the
environment. The native plants grow
well without a lot of fuss and bother. You don't need to be fertilizing them or
spraying them with lots of pesticides because they're well-adapted here. Chaney teaches
an after-school program for elementary school children that focuses on how
diversity in a garden or an ecosystem goes hand-in-hand with diversity in a
community. To learn more
about the Childrens Garden, contact Becky Chaney at (425) 880-4220. Information about El Centro de la Raza is on
the web at http://www.elcentrodelaraza.com/ Nearly two hundred
acres of state-owned forest near Alder Lake southeast of Olympia may soon be
preserved. The parcel had been slated for logging as part of the state's
school construction fund. But Jane Chavey with the Department of Natural
Resources says the land is likely to be transferred to Tacoma Public Utilities
as part of the Alder Lake watershed.
That's one of the goals of the program too is to help create habitat
all along that area, so it will remain in open space. The state
legislature created the program to trade state land near recreation areas for
other land more suitable for logging. A final decision on the transfer is
expected later this summer. For more
information, contact Jane Chavey, Washington State Department of Natural
Resources, at (360) 902-1721. Several dozen
bankers in Lynnwood recently took a day off work to pull invasive weeds,
replace them with native plants and install filters in storm drains in the
North Creek watershed. Dirk Douglas with Washington Mutual Bank says that -- before
the work project -- most of the bank employees hadn't known much about what it
takes to keep a watershed healthy. Well, I think they got a better idea of the
overall perspective and also just the impact that one person can have in taking
care of thing. The volunteers
installed several storm drain filters that absorb oil from the rain water that
runs off parking lots. Several of the bank employees said the experience
inspired them to find out more about what they can do to safeguard water
quality in their own neighborhoods. Want to know
more? Contact Tom Murdoch of the
Adopt-a-Stream Foundation at (425) 316-8592 or visit them on the web at http://www.streamkeeper.org/. Everybody knows salmon and
steelhead trout swim upstream to spawn. But over the years, humans have put a
lot of obstacles in their way, sometimes making that crucial journey
impossible. Blake Smith with the Puyallup Indian tribal fisheries says a small
dam on the Upper Puyallup river has been a dead end for fish for nearly a
century. The wild steelhead, basically
we'd see them beating their heads on the dam, trying to get past but they were
never able to. The Tribe and Puget Sound Energy, which uses the dam to make
electricity, built a series of pools that lead the fish over the dam and back
to their spawning grounds. Now, salmon and steelhead are once again returning
to the river. For more information on the Puyallup dam retrofit, call Blake
Smith at (253)845-9225 The Puget Sound's report card is in. There's good news and bad
news ... The good news is that there's
been progress in preserving wildlife habitat and keeping contaminants out of
Puget Sound. But too much habitat is still being lost or degraded and some fish
and bird species are still declining at an alarming rate. According to Pete Dowty, The most important
thing that can come out of releasing this report is an increased awareness, of
the environment around us and of the fact that the population living around the
Puget Sound basin has an impact. Dowty
is with the Puget Sound Water Quality Action Team, the group that issues the
report card every two years. He says it helps local residents better understand
how their everyday activities can help -- or harm -- the environment. To learn more about Puget Sounds health, check out the web at http://www.wa.gov/puget_sound/ or call Pete Dowty at (360)407-7561. If you're concerned about
the Puget Sound's orca whales, you should be concerned about eelgrass. Eelgrass
is that thin, grassy sea plant you'll often find in shallow waters. This year,
volunteers in the San Juan Islands will be mapping the location and size of the
local eelgrass beds. The maps will help determine what areas of shoreline most
need protection from development.
To find out more about the San Juan Eelgrass Survey by the Friends
of the San Juans, call Stephanie Buffum at
360-378-2319 or send her an email at stephanie@sanjuans.orgor visit their web site at http://www.sanjuans.org/ A dedicated group of hardworking neighbors is creating a leafy
oasis on a pair of acre-sized lots in one of Seattle's oldest and most
densely-developed neighborhoods. They've removed tons of rubble dumped when the
Queen Anne trolley was built a century ago. And they've cleaned out overgrown
ivy and other invasive weeds to let native trees and plants make a comeback.
Volunteer Rich MacDonald says the hard work is worth it. When you live in a city you kind of feel
like you have to go outside the city to experience nature but when you've got
these urban forests that people don't really know about, it's really
wonderful. A new trail through the Queen Anne greenbelt connects the new
parks. And the neighbors are taking pride in working together to bring a bit of
natural habitat back to the city. To find your way to this leafy urban oasis, contact Rich MacDonald
at (206)386-0088 Alien invaders are landing in Washington! It's never really certain when they're
gonna get out of control or how they're gonna get out of control ..... John Rupp, curator at the Point Defiance
Aquarium in Tacoma, says exotic plant and animal species such as green crabs
and spartina grass are finding their way to local waters. When we bring in non-indigenous species,
there is a chance that one of them will begin to establish itself. When they do that, they can push out native plants and
animals. That's bad news for the natural ecological balance. It's also costly
for local fisheries and other businesses that depend on native species. The
Point Defiance Aquarium has a new exhibit all about the alien invaders, and
what you can do to help. To learn more about the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium visit their
web page at http://www.pdza.org/ or call (253)591-5337. In 1792, Archibald Menzies was the first to record the animals and
plants of the Puget Sound as part of the historic Vancouver expedition. Now, everyday folks are following in his
footsteps by helping scientists explore the mysteries of the local marine
environment. Judy D'amore is with the Menzies Project in Port Townsend. Nature is variable, there's a lot of
variation and in order to see the changes humans may be causing on the
environment we have to be able to understand all the natural cycles. Folks who sign up for a half or full-day cruise work side-by-side
with scientists on the research vessel Mary Beth, taking readings, gathering
samples for analysis and studying the bottom with the boat's underwater video
camera. The results help keep researchers up-to-date on the health of Puget
Sound. To schedule a half or full-day research cruise, visit the Menzies
Project web page at http://www.menziesproject.org/
or to, call them at (800) 566-3932 or (360) 385-5582. How we plan for the future will have a big impact on what our
communities look like in the years to come. The Kitsap Department of Community
Development is using a new type of planning to get a glimpse into the future.
The county's Paul Nelson says projecting scenarios of different alternative
futures helps the public get better information and be more involved in land
use planning. It won't be just a
couple of planners sitting in their cubicles defending this plan. It's going to
be this community that came up with it and it's based on analysis specific to
that watershed. Using computer analysis of water sources, soil types and other
kinds of data, planners can project how different types of development will
affect watersheds. And that helps residents weigh the trade-offs between
development and preservation. For more information, give Sara Simrell at (360)337-4841 a
call. Or, check out more information on
Kitsap County at http://www.kitsapgov.com/ for more information. Some people say "pavement is forever." But Tom Murdoch, with
the Adopt-a-Stream Foundation, knows better. Murdoch's group took a 3-acre
parking lot near I-5 south of Everett and restored a wetland that had been
destroyed by development. More than 400 dump truck loads of construction fill
had to be removed and native plants and soils had to be trucked in. Now,
Murdoch says ... If you were to come here today and look at the wetland that was
a parking lot in 1995, you'd think it had been here for a thousand years, it's
just an absolutely amazing transformation. Ducks, herons and frogs once
again live where for years only cars could go. The wetland is part of a planned
Northwest Stream Center with exhibits and classes about how local watersheds
work. Learn more about this incredible
restored wetland at http://www.streamkeeper.org/habitat/journal.htm
or call Tom Murdoch at (425)316-8592. It's a
bit like a P-Patch community garden. But in Drayton Harbor in Blaine, they're
not growing vegetables; they're growing oysters. Betsy Peabody -- with the
Puget Sound Restoration Fund -- says a community shellfish farm gets local
residents directly involved in the health of their bay. "They experience
it first hand. They grow oysters that become their oysters that they want to
harvest, and so they become much more engaged in protecting that
resource." Community
members not only work the oyster beds, but also track down failed septic
systems and other pollution sources that contaminate the harbor. The group
hopes to have the bay sufficiently cleaned up that they can start to harvest
and eat their shellfish in 2004. To
learn more about the shellfish of Whatcom County, visit http://whatcom-mrc.wsu.edu/ Most of
the state's quarter-million dairy cows are in Western Washington. And the tons
of manure they produce daily can be a real water pollution headache. But some
farmers are looking at turning that waste into electricity. Jay Gordon with the
Washington State Dairy Federation says making power from manure's methane gas
could be a good deal all around.
"It has the potential to produce some electricity for the farm and
some environmental benefits as well as maybe having the potential to produce
one more product that the farm can sell." Biogas
isn't a new technology. But rising power costs and tighter farm profits could
mean generating electricity from manure makes economic sense someday soon. Visit
the Washington State Dairy Federation at http://www.wsdf.org/. To learn more than you might ever want to know about biogas
visit http://www.roseworthy.adelaide.edu.au/~pharris/biogas/beginners.html The
city of Seattle is testing environmentally friendly ways to handle rain runoff
from streets and other paved areas. John Arneson with Seattle Public Utilities
says normal stormwater systems channel runoff into streams faster than the
natural ecosystem can handle it.
"By having the water rush down there very quickly and causing the
stream level rise quickly, it just damages that system." The
city has installed an experimental project in the Broadview neighborhood near
Carkeek Park mimics natural rainwater processes. Grassy swales with natural
soils and vegetation hold and filter the runoff so it enters the nearby stream
slowly and with less oil, pesticide and other contamination. For
more information on Seattles SEAStreets, visit http://www.cityofseattle.net/util/urbancreeks/SEAstreets/default.htm/ It's
shiny black with white patches, it has big antennae and it flies. It's the
citrus long-horned beetle. The insect is common in Asia but now it's trying to get
a foothold in Western Washington. Bug expert Chad Phillips with the state
Department of Agriculture says that would mean big trouble. "It
could really do a lot of damage. Kill trees in people's backyards, kill trees
in the general environment and in our greenbelts, out in our forest
lands." To head
off a mass infestation, the state plans to cut down more than one thousand
trees in the Tukwila neighborhood where the beetle was found in a shipment of
maple trees from Korea. Officials hope this will avoid the widespread damage
it's caused in New York and other East Coast cities. Find
out more about the beetle at http://www.wa.gov/agr/CitrusLHBeetle.htm Last
year's energy crunch fueled calls to construct more gas-fired power plants. But
a tiny utility co-op in the San Juan Islands is hoping to get a boost from the
sun. The Orcas Power and Light Company is encouraging homeowners to install
solar panels on their houses, then sell the juice back to the utility. Orcas
Power manager Doug Bechtel says every little bit of green power help. It may not be a big chunk, it may never be
a big chunk. But if someone generates a thousand kilowatt-hours a year, that's
a thousand kilowatt hours that's not going to be generated with natural gas. To help
get the ball rolling, Orcas Power is building three small solar collecting
stations of its own to feed sun power into the utility grid. Orcas
Power and Light is on the web at http://www.opalco.com/
or email Doug Bechtel at mdbechtel@opalco.com Many
people in rural and even suburban areas of Puget Sound love their horses. But
as Alayne Blickle explains, the animals can cause environmental problems, too.
Horses are big heavy animals that can easily churn up a pasture and turn it
into mud or they create 50 pounds of manure a day. Blickle
heads Horses for Clean Water. She teaches horse owners how they can manage
their animals to minimize their impact on pastureland and to keep manure from
running into streams and lakes. By following some simple guidelines, Blickle
says, horses will be happier and healthier -- and so will the environment. Visit
Horses for Clean Water on the web at http://www.horsesforcleanwater.com/ Many Washington
employees donate part of their paycheck to the United Way, which funds a host
of community service organizations. Now, an increasing number of workers are
using the same technique to support environmental groups. Joelle Burgess with
Earth Share of Washington says donations go to a wide range of uses. One gift
will help reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality, it helps educate
the public to alternatives to toxic chemicals, it helps preserve our wildlands
and open spaces. Employees
in more than 50 workplaces in Washington last year donated over $600,000 to
Earthshare. It was spread among Friends of the Earth, the Audubon Society and
nearly 70 other groups. Participating employers include R-E-I, Adobe, and the
City of Seattle. To find
out more about Earth Share of Washington, visit http://www.esw.org/ Foraging for Forage Fish in the San Juan Islands Who are those people digging around on the beach in the San Juan Islands? They're volunteers who've been trained to look for the eggs of small fish such as surf smelt and sand lance. Those fish are a crucial link in the food chain for fish, birds and mammals in Puget Sound. Biologist Dan Pentilla says docks and other shoreline development can make it difficult for the little fish to reproduce. "We're trying to preserve all the existing places where the fish spawn rather than presuming we can destroy whatever we want and they will move aside to somewhere else," say Dan Pentilla. By identifying spawning habitat for these so-called "forage fish," those areas can be protected. And preserving the habitat of the fish they eat is a key element of bringing back the wild salmon runs of Puget Sound. To find out more about this project, visit New to Jefferson County? Here's an Eco-Welcome Wagon Big-time population growth -- and the toll it can take on the environment -- has led some folks in Jefferson County to re-invent the Welcome Wagon. Katherine Baril says people moving in from other places often don't understand the impact that they can have on their new neighborhood. "They may fill the wetlands, pick the wrong toxic paint or build their house right in the middle of a deer run without even knowing what they've destroyed." Katherine is with the Washington State University Co-operative Extension Service in Port Townsend. Now, when people buy a house or property in the area, the Extension Service sends a packet welcoming them and offering suggestion about how they can go easy on the local ecology. The packet also includes coupons for earth-friendly products and services. For more information, visit http://jefferson.wsu.edu/ Salmon are one of the wonders of the Northwest. And thanks to the Kitsap Kiwanis Club, students at a handful of Central Kitsap schools are able to bring that miracle into their classrooms. The club delivers salmon eggs from a nearby Suquamish Indian hatchery and plants them in cold-water aquariums in the schools. Sam Holcombe helps run the project, "So the kids get to observe the eggs actually hatching, and once they start to free-swim we deliver food and the kids actually feed the salmon." Once the fish are ready, the students release them into a local creek to continue their epic life journey to the ocean. Several years later, some of those hardy fish will return to the creek to spawn and begin the ancient cycle again. For more information visit the Kitsap Kiwanis Club website at Do You Know Where Your Whale Is Today? Watching whales pass by is one of the pleasures of living near the Puget Sound. If you want to know where the whales are today, get hooked up with the Orca Network. Every day, the Whidbey-Island-based group gets reports of whale sightings, then sends out daily e-mail notices saying where the whales have been seen. The Orca Network's Howard Garrett says keeping track of the whales helps people realize how important it is to protect and restore the marine environment. "This ecosystem that we live in, that we share with the whales, is essential for their survival." Aside from the region's famous killer whale families, grey whales and even the occasional humpback whale have been spotted. If you want to find out where the whales are -- or to report a sighting of your own, call the Orca Network at 1-866-ORCANET. Please respect the whales and keep your boat at least 100 yards away, or better yet, watch the whales from the bluffs and shoreline. Visit the Orca Network at They're called "ghost nets", fishing nets that drift below the surface for years after they're lost or abandoned, snaring everything in their paths. Tom Cowan -- with the Northwest Straits Commission says the situation is more serious than most people realize. "There's hundreds of tons of gear in the waters that are continuing to kill fish, shellfish and marine birds and mammals." The Northwest Straits Commission is using federal and local funds to locate and clean up at least 24 tons of ghost nets and other derelict fishing gear. Professional divers will carefully clean up parts of Hood Canal and Puget Sound, following rules for safely retrieving the deadly gear without endangering their own lives. For more information visit the Northwest Straits Commission at Clean Water is a Walk in a Bellingham Garden The streets, parking lots and other pavement that cover urban areas can contribute to water pollution in Puget Sound waterways. Rain run-off can flush oil and other toxic chemicals off the asphalt and into local streams. In Bellingham, a rain garden being built in a parking lot behind City Hall will use native plants and natural soils to filter runoff before returning it to Whatcom Creek. Renee LaCroix with the City of Bellingham says building a rain garden is cheaper than cleaning up polluted waterways. "And so you can either pay for it after you've polluted your water body or you can pay for it before the water gets polluted." Rain gardens can also help protect salmon and other wildlife by slowing down heavy runoff from paved areas before it floods into streams. Visit the City of Bellingham website at Volunteering to repair damaged streams and creeks is a popular way to help native salmon runs recover. But for disabled people, it's been nearly impossible to take part. Now, the Puget Creek Restoration Project in Tacoma is helping those with hearing -, sight- and mobility-impairments get in on the action. Scott Hanson -- who helps run the project -- says specially-trained helpers are there to give a hand. "So it's pretty much personally assisting each individual so they can become involved, because everyone has a part in restoring salmon in the Northwest." Specific jobs are also tailored to fit the abilities of those taking part. The effort is paying off. The first salmon to return to Puget Creek in nearly one hundred years have begun to come back to spawn. You can reach Scott Hansen at 253-845-6578 or email at SPECIAL EVENT! Get Your Feet Wet and Your Brain Trained! The streams that flow through Western Washington are delicately interwoven webs of life. And unless someone is paying attention, they're often damaged and neglected. Next week, you can learn how to monitor the health of your local watershed. Ed Chadd with Streamkeepers of Clallam County explains what you should expect if you take their training course. "You get probably wet feet and you'd have a lot of fun. You'd learn a heck of a lot not only about your particular creek but how watersheds work in general." Streamkeepers gather information on wildlife, water quality and plants in local waterways. For details on Streamkeepers training in Port Angeles, call Ed Chadd at 360-417-2281. Visit their website at Saturday, July
13, 2002 was when People for Puget Sound held their Skagit Dig Day, a project to remove spartina grass from Padilla
Bay near Mount Vernon. Spartina is an invasive sea plant that damages the
eelgrass beds that are crucial habitat for herring and other important links in
the marine food chain. Event organizer Brita Eschete says, It takes over the
eelgrass beds very quickly so it's sort of like dandelions. They come in and
they're taking all the nutrients the eelgrass uses. Participants dug up their mud boots
and brought a lunch when they came to root out the aggressive plant. For more
information, contact Brita Eschete at 360-336-1931 or visit the People for
Puget Sound website at http://www.pugetsound.org/. Volunteers gave salmon a hand and got some fresh air and
exercise, too. The Mid-Sound Fisheries Enhancement Group challenged volunteers to help
remove invasive plants such as thistle and blackberry from the Sammamish River
in Bothell. By replacing invasives with native trees and shrubs, river banks
get more shade. And that creates the colder water temperatures salmon need. But
organizer Laura Wilson says fish aren't the only ones who benefit. Restoring
habitat around salmon is also giving habitat for other wildlife and for people,
as well. It's nice to have a little forest in your community that you can
escape to. For more information, call Laura Wilson at
206-529-9467 or look them up on the web at http://www.midsoundfisheries.org/ Restoring stream
habitat is a major part of bringing back the threatened Puget Sound salmon.
Now, the City of Issaquah has a group trained to assess how well those efforts
are working. Chrys Bertolotto says the
Issaquah Stream Team plays an important role in the city's salmon restoration
program. The Stream Team really does give us some meaty information, some
meaty data, that we are in dire need of to make sure we're doing a good job. Volunteers walk
sections of stream, performing detailed inventories of pools, nesting gravel
and erosion. Training sessions occur regularly. To get on the Stream
Team, call Chrys Bertolotto at 425-837-3442 The
Bellevue Park system has 50 miles of trails to enjoy. Volunteers are crucial to help
keep them in good shape. Assistant Park Ranger Bob Schaffer says volunteering
for trail maintenance is a good way to get familiar with the trails in your
neighborhood. By putting in your
effort and your sweat and working hard out there you take some ownership in
that trail and basically through the whole park system. Volunteers
resurfaced trails with wood chips to help prevent erosion and to
encourage hikers to use the existing trails instead of making unauthorized
ones. For more information on how you can become a volunteer, call Geoff Bradley at 425-452-2740. Visit the Bellevue Parks website at http://www.ci.bellevue.wa.us/page.asp?view=2036 It takes a lot of work to build and maintain the mountain trails we all love to hike. And as government funds for trails disappear, volunteers become more essential. Volunteers helped to help build a trail on the popular Bandera Mountain, east of North Bend last summer. Deb Cooke -- with Volunteers for Outdoor Washington -- says a day on the mountain is more than just hard work. "You meet people you would never meet, all ages and all types. It's fun to be outdoors, even if you're covered with mud. And you feel good afterwards." For details, call Deb Cooke at 206-517-4469. Visit the Volunteers for Outdoor Washington at their website, The
Mountains to Sound Greenway is a scenic and recreation corridor that follows
I-90 from Seattle up into the Cascades. Volunteers can join in to help
keep the greenway healthy and vibrant. Volunteer Coordinator Kelly Kirkland
says helpers are needed to maintain trails, care for young nursery trees and
remove Scotch broom and other invasive plants.
Those plants can out-compete our native plants and so if we remove
those, there'll be more habitat for wildlife. Work
projects are taking place at a number of locations between Bellevue and North
Bend. For more information, contact Kelly Kirkland at 206-812-0122. Learn more about the greenway on the web at
http://www.mtsgreenway.org/ Bringing
native plants back to a retired Naval base in Seattle is a big job. Bonnie
Miller with the Magnuson Environmental Stewardship Alliance says invasive
plants such as blackberries have pushed out native species such as ocean spray
and goat's beard. Were getting a
fairly limited number of kinds of birds. So in planting a variety of native
plants, we expect to get a variety of native birds. The group needs volunteers to help keep an eye on the new native plantings at Magnuson Park. For more information, call
Bonnie Miller at 206-524-8713. To find
out about volunteer activities at Sand Point Magnuson Park, visit http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/parkspaces/spmp/volunteer.htm Tacoma's Commencement Bay is making a comeback from being one of
Washington's most polluted waterways. Commencement Baykeeper
Lisa Harris is looking for volunteers to patrol the shorelines, keeping a
look-out for polluters. The more eyes
and ears we have out there the more
likely we are to identify a problem and get it corrected before it becomes
an environmental disaster. Citizens for a Healthy Bay sponsors one-day
courses in pollution detection, reporting and prevention. Volunteer graduates
will monitor Commencement Bay and the surrounding watersheds in kayaks, bikes,
even on foot, helping make sure the bay keeps getting cleaner. To learn more, call
Lisa Harris at 253-383-2429 Visit Citizens for a Healthy Bay on the web at http://www.healthybay.org/baykeeper Lawns Sprout Salmon Friendly Signs Don't be surprised if you see small signs with a fish on them stuck on front lawns in your neighborhood. The signs declare the homeowner to have a "Salmon-Friendly Lawn." That means they don't use herbicides, pesticides or fertilizers that can damage salmon habitat. The signs are the brainchild of the Snohomish Sierra Club group and Project SeaWolf's Michael Kundu. "The whole goal is to educate the people around your home that whatever happens on the lawn usually washes off with stormwater runoff and impacts the streams and the habitat around them." As well as getting a lawn sign, participants get information on keeping a healthy lawn without using toxins that can contaminate local waters and make life harder for salmon and other wildlife. To obtain a sign for your yard, call 360-653-4780.
Terry Tempest Williams to Keynote
Listen to Radio EcoCity, Francesca Lyman's latest report on green building in the Pacific Northwest
Salt Marsh Became a Wet Pasture, Now Wet Pasture Becomes
a Salty Marsh
Fishers Volunteer to not Fish Fish
High School Students Teach Elementary School Kids at
Mercer Slough
Friends of the Trail Keep Hauling, and Hauling, and Hauling, and Hauling, and Hauling...
Growing Green in North Kitsap
Childrens Garden Blooms at El Centro
Alder Lake Land Swap
Bankers Help Watershed
Puyallup Salmon Swam and Swam Right Around that Dam
Does Puget Sound Make the Grade?
Why All This Fuss About a Bunch of Seaweed?
Why all the fuss about a bunch of
seaweed? Eelgrass beds are like
underwater prairies, grasslands that are essential habitat for herring and
other small fish. Those fish are the main food source for salmon. And salmon
are the major prey for the whales. Researchers are still trying to figure out
why the orcas are declining. But scarce salmon is almost certainly a factor. So
protecting eelgrass means more herring for the salmon, and more salmon for the
whales.Neighbors Restore Queen Anne Forest
Aquatic Invaders Get Tanked at Aquarium
Get Out on Puget Sounds Water with Half-Day Research Cruises
Kitsap Plans Alternative Futures
Restored Paradise, and Took Out a Parking Lot
Grow Your Own Shellfish
Now we call it Biogas!
Farms Find Cash in Manure
Experimental Streets Mimic Natural Run-off: Seattle's
SEAStreets Project
Invasion of the Eco-Snatchers: Long-Horned Citrus Beetle
Wants to Be Your Neighbor
Sunny San Juans Fuel the Grid
Horses for Clean Water are Happier and Healthier
Green Cash Finds Green Causes
Skagit Dig Day!
Sammamish Habitat Gets a Hand!
WALK THE STREAM, JOIN THE TEAM! Stream Team Training in Issaquah
Volunteers Chipped In for Bellevue Trails
Mountains to Sound Greenway Rewards Volunteers
Native Birds Flock to Magnuson Park
Volunteers Patrol and Protect Commencement Bay
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