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"The rivers flow not past, but through us."
-John Muir
New new NOSC logo 
upcoming  events
    
Native Trees and Cider
Finnriver Farm (tasting room location)
June 3rd
10 am - 12pm (nursery)
12 pm - 2pm  (cider garden)

Orca Day Celebration
Fort Worden State Park
June 24th, all day event

Questions? Contact Olivia
360.379.8051

Or click here to view the NOSC Events Calendar
VIDEO: NOSC Programs Train the Next Generation of Stewards

Click here to watch a video made by Tod Spedding about our Real Learning Real Work program. Check out Beverly Mowrer's Interview below to hear more about this dynamic program!
Are You a Current or Prospective College Undergraduate?
Check out this scholarship with the Regional Fisheries Coalition and apply through NOSC at outreach@nosc.org by June 1st. More info can be found here .
Spring Cleaning?
 
NOSC is in need of any spare coat hangers! Contact Olivia to arrange a pick-up or drop-off.

360.379.8051
outreach@nosc.org
Salmon Safe Goods Start on the Farm

Look for this label at the PT Food Co-Op!
More info can be found  here .
Follow NOSC on Facebook
   
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Donate by shopping!
Click the link below and select "North Olympic Salmon Coalition"


Upcoming Events
Native Trees and Cider Event
 
On Saturday, June 3rd, join the Salmon Coalition at Finnriver Farm's tasting room location for full morning of fun in the sun.

From 10 am - 12 pm, we'll be down at the nursery where we'll be talking about native tree and shrub identification and getting some work done (placing pallets, weeding potted plants and organizing plants by species). Then at noon, we'll saunter up to the cider garden for some summertime fun! Salmon Coalition attendees will receive happy hour pours and a 20% bottle discount. Bring a sack lunch, grab a drink of your choice and mingle with fellow habitat enthusiasts! Brats and pizza will also be available for purchase at the tasting room.

Don't think you can make the nursery event but still want to come mingle at the cider garden? No problem! We'd love to see you there.

Orca Day: Summer Kick-Off
June is Orca Awareness Month! We'll be helping to celebrate this charismatic megafauna at the Orca Day Summer Kick-Off on June 24th at Fort Worden State Park and the Port Townsend Marine Science Center. Hosted by Puget Sound Express, the Marine Science Center, and the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce, Orca Awareness Month is an 11 year standing tradition to help raise awareness about the endangerment of our own Southern Resident orcas. We'll have Fin, the giant Summer chum salmon, with us as well as other activities and information about what we'll be up to in the coming months.  More information about the festival can be found at  ptorcafest.com .

Re-vegetating a Dynamic Floodplain
Restoration Underway on the Dungeness with the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe

This past Sunday, a small group of Salmon Coalition volunteers planted a variety of potted stock from our native plant nursery at an active restoration site owned by the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe. The site, which has already received one major installment of plantings earlier in the season, is located along the Dungeness River. Only two years ago, the area contained just a side channel of the mighty river which flowed through residential backyards and was small enough to be jumped across. However after a single storm event, the river diverted the majority of its flow to this area and began actively eating up the streambank creating hazards for homes. After relocating the streamside inhabitants and removing houses and infrastructure, the Jamestown Tribe is working on restoring this area back to its historic state of floodplain zone in an attempt to provide the river an area in which to meander and diffuse its energy.

Water Quality Testing Goes Biological
Students Add a New Technique to their Repertoire
 Blue Heron 8th Graders and Terry Sweeney, one of our newest board members, look more closely at some macros collected from Snow Creek estuary. Terry's benthic macroinvertebrate knowledge was invaluable to the day! 

Six graders at Chimacum Middle School and eighth graders at Blue Heron both got to experience a new form of water quality testing this month to supplement a series of water testing they are already learning in their other classes. Students visited the Snow Creek estuary to test their skills, gathering data on pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity and more before turning their attention to some of the macroinvertebrates hiding in the soil and beneath rocks. Students learned which kind of critters to look for in a healthy stream versus a stressed one. We also visited the classroom to look at these benthic dwelling macros under the microscope.

Introducing Beverly Mowrer
Clallam Bay Middle School Science Teacher
The Salmon Coalition recently wrapped up a great season of learning about riverine restoration on the Hoko River with Beverly Mowrer's Middle School Science class at Clallam Bay Middle School.

Why is science important to you?

As a life long learner, studying science will forever be an unfolding adventure. One line of study always leads to new paths. As a teacher of science, the universe can be my theater. I am never bored, I always have something to ponder or something to research. Finding the connections is my favorite past time.
 
Why do you think it's important to teach science to our youth?

Teaching science (I mean really teaching) to our youth of today is seriously important. So many have been allowed to sit in isolation with their electronic gadgets that they do not know how to think. They have forgotten how to wonder. It is sad because they are literally walking around with access to a connection of vast amounts of scientific data in their palms but instead their time is spent in cyber chat rooms or snap chatting about trivial drama...who is going with whom and what they ate for lunch. Sigh.
 
In what ways do you think our Real Learning Real Work program has helped your students solidify various scientific concepts?

Getting kids out into the real world is always beneficial. As the years pass, I become ever more shocked and troubled by how little kids know about nature, the habitats around them and how they are inseparably linked. How can it be that a middle school student has never seen a living wild snail? Or not know if a tree is a living organism? Being permitted the freedom and time to explore in a safe outdoor environment is needed now more than ever. Having adults that are knowledgeable speaking to them as a team member, an equal, and working with them to learn about new things, especially the ways they can help restore and maintain a fragile environment, totally empowers kids. They are still talking about the two different trips we took and I doubt they will ever forget the experiences.
 
Do you think it's helped them in other ways? How so?

Definitely. They had to see one another in a different setting other than the classroom. The social dynamics were altered. Students that do not get to feel that they are cool enough to socialize with certain clicks were all of a sudden in high demand because others realized that they had knowledge not previously recognized or valued, both out in the field and back in the classroom. Like the student whose father is a logger and had taken the time to educate his daughter about the local native trees. Everyone wanted her on their team when it came time to plot their plantings. And the student who is very shy and tends to be isolated in the classroom who got a chance to shine when the class was designing their thank you cards. Her artistic paper skills amazed her peers as she taught them how to create salmon & environmental settings using paper and a glue stick.
 
Do you feel that your students have grasped the idea of interconnectedness within an ecosystem, such as between trees, salmon, wildlife and rivers?

I do feel that most of my students grasped the idea of interconnectedness within an ecosystem. They have, throughout the rest of the year, continued to make these connections, often repeating the lessons learned on the Hoko. Even the few who were too absorbed with their teen angst, too worried about the texts and messages and drama to be able to get the vital lessons, were having cracks made into the facade.

Is there anything else you'd like to share with our readers?

It is imperative that we get students outside and involved in interactive learning. We, as classroom teachers, are under a great deal of pressure to make it through the mandated curriculum in order to prepare for the State testing regime, and budgets are always too stretched to cover transportation expenses, that we do not have the energy to get our students out in the real world. Somehow these obstacles need to be addressed so that we can get the students outside. When I was a child, no one stayed inside once school was out for the day. Today, too many kids prefer to be inside and isolated with their electronics. The program that the North Olympic Salmon Coalition provided for my students definitely made deep, long term connections that will continue to be woven into their lives, which will eventually help us all. Thank you for this incredible opportunity.
 


If you have questions or comments about anything in our newsletter, please don't hesitate to contact us.
outreach@nosc.org
360.379.8051

North Olympic Salmon Coalition

Community Partnerships, Collaborative Restoration

www.nosc.org