Monthly Splotlight - Ray Lowrie
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The Salmon Coalition is grateful to work with and learn from so many inspiring and dedicated people. To celebrate the contributions of this community, NOSC selects someone each month to highlight and give thanks. This year marks our
30th Anniversary
and we will be highlighting different community members, staff, and partners that have helped make the Salmon Coalition what it is today.
Ray Lowrie
was an innovative teacher at Chimacum School for 32 years, utilizing Chimacum Creek as an extensio
n of his classroom. In 1970 he and his students built a fish hatchery on the school grounds to raise salmon as well as building a school boat that commercially fished to support the vocational program. Through Ray's programs exploring and studying Chimacum Creek, he and his students were the first to realize that there were no longer summer chum returning to spawn and they completed the first salmon habitat restoration project in Jefferson County.
Ray was a catalyst for local salmon enhancement efforts and educated generations of environmental stewards. He inspired projects for Wild Olympic Salmon and North Olympic Salmon Coalition, and was a model for the future leaders in salmon recovery in Jefferson County. When NOSC was founded, Ray and his students worked on one of NOSC's first projects at Putaansuu Creek, before he became a board member several years later.
Learn more from Ray below
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How did you get into fishing?
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Caught my first fish when I was 2 or 3 years old! A “shiner” off the West Seattle Yacht Club dock. My grandad, uncles, and friends took me fishing often—when I was old enough (7 or 8) I usually fished by myself!
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Can you tell us about your history with Chimacum Creek and salmon?
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I met Chimacum Creek in 1960 when I started teaching in the district—but didn’t do much on it until 1970 when I got a grant and built the hatchery. Ray Johnson, a WDFW biologist, was instrumental in legal and technical support. Also, the Quilcene Hatchery manager Percy Dobson gave us a lot of support and tasks to do.
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What were your goals in creating the hatchery at Chimacum High School?
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To give “ownership” to all the interested students to the creek, riparian zone and the salmon they raised, planted and worried about! To introduce the students and their friends and families to the watershed!
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What’s your earliest memory of Wild Olympic Salmon, what did they do, and how were you involved?
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I met Tom Jay soon after he moved here. While I was never a member of Wild Olympic Salmon, I was a close ally and helped hi
m collaborate with the school any way I could.
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How did you become involved in NOSC and what was it like in the beginning?
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NOSC funded one of the first creek projects my class did! Tom Jay was instrumental in introducing me to NOSC and getting me involved with them!
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What were some of the projects NOSC was working on when you were on the Board? In what ways were you involved in these projects?
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At the time NOSC came on the scene, my class was already doing projects for the U.S. Navy through Indian Island; many projects for the U.S. Hatchery in Quilcene and the Chimacum Creek wathershed for WDFW. So when I became a NOSC member I did my best to marry these entities up and work together! NOSC had some projects west of Port Angeles, a big one was the Pysht River. We were an adjunct of WDFW and we had WDFW advisors so we followed their lead.
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What do you think about the bridge to Marrowstone Island? Were you surprised that NOSC initiated this project?
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Love it! I wasn’t at all surprised that NOSC initiated the project—Kevin and others were for it or something similar that would open up the blockage years ago. I’m grateful to Kevin for staying with it and finally getting it done! Go Kev!
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How do you see the legacy of the work you started with your students play out in the habitat restoration and education programs at NOSC now?
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Well I wish someone could have continued the hatchery and stream studies at the high school but it wasn’t to be. However, I love seeing the trees flourishing in the riparian zone. I do hope the hatchery at the school can open up again though!
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Anything else you’d like to add?
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NOSC and its cohorts [fellow Regional Fish Enhancement Groups] was/is a very good and wise use of tax monies. I’m glad it’s still going great guns!
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Watch Ray's Video Interview!
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A Walk Down Memory Lane...
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As we have been reflecting on the past 30th years of NOSC, we have been remembering projects big and small! Every Thursday we post pictures and memories from our past on our social media. Follow us on our
Facebook
and
Instagram
to see additional photos!
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Here is one of Kevin's first stream restoration projects that was completed in 2003 on the east fork of Chimacum Creek. You have probably seen this site right before entering Chimacum from Beaver Valley. A pocket of habitat for salmon was constructed with a root wad and large woody debris. Next came riparian plantings and an education planting day with Chimacum School (so close they could walk to the site!). Oh how the trees have since grown! This property is now protected under a conservation easement with
Jefferson Land Trust
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Chimacum Creek Estuary, 2006
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In 2006,
N
OSC partnered with WDFW
on
the Chimacum Beach and Estuary Restoration Project which removed approximately 21,000 cubic yards of wood waste and fill material left behind from years of industry in an old Irondale town. The project also opened 5.7 acres of shallow intertidal habitat for birds, fish, and other wildlife. This project increased access to forage fish, such as sand lance and surf smelt, which are important sources of food for mature salmon. Many subsequent tree plantings and invasive species removals occurred over the years to revegetate the land and create healthy habitat for salmon and forage fish!
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Macroinvertebrate lessons, 2009
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For the past 11 years, NOSC has worked with Chimacum School teacher, Al Gonzalez, to help bring hands-on environmental science lessons to middle school students each year. We found some pics of our Stewardship Coordinator, Sarah Doyle, back when she used to do some classroom teaching a decade ago! This lesson was on benthic macroinvertebrates. She remembers that some students were hesitant about the “bugs” at first but as soon as they got to see their samples under a microscope and could see the living creatures, they were excited about them!
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Invisible Stream Processes:
Hyporheic Zone
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When you think of the stream habitat restoration work that NOSC and our partners perform, you might think of the visible stream channel and the riparian aspects of the stream system. However, there is an unseen, but very important, component of restoration work that is taking place in what is called the
hyporheic zone.
The hyporheic zone is an area beneath stream channels where surface water and groundwater can exchange and mix.
The hyporheic zone contributes to stream ecosystems in many ways, providing nutrient and energy cycling, temperature regulation, and habitat and refuge benefits. Stream water that moves into the hyporheic zone brings dissolved oxygen, minerals, and nutrients to the communities of microbes and macroinvertebrates found there. Groundwater connects to the surface water through the hyporheic zone. This helps regulate water temperature due to groundwater’s relatively consistent temperature. For example, in the summer think of a cooler of cold water underneath the streambed, leaking up into the sun-warmed water, ahhh refreshing! And remember that many of our streams are warmer than they were historically due to the loss of shade bearing trees along them, thereby increasing the importance of this connection.
The hyporheic zone is critical to the life histories of salmon! The upwelling and downwelling of water is good for salmon eggs as it keeps them bathed in cool oxygenated waters. When some salmon are young, they are able to hide in the hyporheic zone as a refuge during high flows. There are even stories of juvenile fish migrating through hyporheic zones. After the salmon return to spawn and die in their natal streams, the important marine derived nutrients from their bodies are available for animals and plants along the banks and are also available to wash into the hyporheic zone, providing nitrogen and phosphorus to the multitude of life found down there. This life is effective at collecting and processing pollutants, acting as an important filter in our streams.
An unfortunate common feature in our current landscape, are streams and rivers that have cut down into their bed due to channel straightening or large woody debris removal or lack of wood availability (we call this downcutting a
degrading stream
or
degradation
). As these streams degrade (downcut), they can decrease the “thickness” of the hyporheic zone. In extreme instances the stream may be left with a bedrock channel, with no real hyporheic zone. Add to this the fact that a lower streambed can lower adjacent groundwater levels by allowing those aquifers to drain into the stream. So now these streams are draining the “water cooler” that fish depend on and has impacts on the amount of water available for human use as well. By performing stream restoration actions that stop or reverse channel degradation in order to provide a more stable streambed that is good for spawning salmon and good for feeding and refuge for juvenile salmon, we are also preserving these less thought about hyporheic zone and groundwater levels. Now that’s some food for thought!
Watch the video below by Shelly Solomon at Leaping Frog Films to get a great visual on this hidden part of the ecosystem!
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A big perk of working from home is that
we have a lot more time to visit with furry friends!
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Kevin
: Here are Bruce (left) and Max (right). These guys are pygmy goats and are famous on our mini-farm as great weed and brush eaters! Now I know it is not polite to eat your pets, but these guys are sooo mischievous they had best watch their step. On a day here at my home office recently I was prepping for an important culvert replacement meeting and ran upstairs for a quick bite to eat. I left my office door open for some fresh air. When I got back, I realized the goats had entered my open office and taken a paper clipped 60 page hydraulics report for my meeting and pulled it off the desk, across the floor and out into the backyard! They had only partially eaten a couple pages, they thought the hydraulic modeling was tasty. This is not unusual around here, the goats know they are smarter than me, and so follow me around waiting for me to leave a garden gate or even an office door ajar!
Catherine:
I spend time with my neighbor’s dog, Odie, who I often dog-sit when her owners are away. She’s my favorite PT dog and she and I have a thang goin’ on. 😊 In this pic, she’s Queen of the Beach (she loves to jump up on big logs and look at the views. Photo taken at Kala Point beach).
Olivia:
Me and my chicks!
Sarah:
CJ the unicorn. Not my own but I get to take care of him.
Rian:
This is my sister’s cat Rue. As you can see, she’s not very athletic so I don’t have to worry about her jumping up and interrupting my work!
Rebecca:
While I do not have any pets of my own, I am auntie to some pretty adorable kittens. This is Bengal. She lives two blocks away at the home of our project manager Kevin Long. She is friendly and likes to sleep in the hat basket, behind a closed door. The ultimate lazy cat behavior. She and her sister sometimes chime-in to our staff meeting Zoom conferences, meowing in appreciation of our good work. Or, because they want to be patted.
Nate:
This is a picture of my cat Blue. He’s been a great companion during the stay-at-home order. Believe it or not, he’s actually lost a couple pounds.
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Base funding for the RFEG program comes from a grant from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, a portion of state commercial and recreational fishing license fees, and excess egg and carcass sales administered by the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife
.
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Give Us Your Feedback
Questions or Comments? Let us know what you think!
outreach@nosc.org
360.379.8051
www.nosc.org
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