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Friday, Mar. 29, 10 am - 12 pm
Marrowstone Vineyards
3rd Annual Dinner, Wine & Giving
423 Meade Rd, Nordland
Thursday, May 30, 5-8 pm
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Volunteer as an Educator with
Real Learning Real Work
Chimacum
Friday, Apr. 19
Blue Heron
Friday, Apr. 26
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THANK YOU to everyone who participated in Trivia Night at Barhop on March 19th!
We'd like to acknowledge Blackbird Coffeehouse and Waters West for donating prizes, and Barhop for making a donation to support our cause!
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NOSC staff receiving the Out Standing in the Field Award at the NOLT Conservation Breakfast. Photo by John Gussman.
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Trivia Night at Barhop. Photo by Hannah Seligmann.
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We sincerely enjoyed celebrating with all of you at the NOLT Conservation Breakfast on March 22nd!
It was an honor to receive the Out Standing in the Field Award. We are beyond grateful for your support!
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March 10-16, was
AmeriCorps Week
, a week that is set aside for the recognition and celebration of AmeriCorps members nationwide.
In honor of AmeriCorps Week we wanted to share what our AmeriCorps members have been up
to!
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Bre telling 7th Grade students about AmeriCorps and her job in the STEM field. Photo by Hannah Seligmann.
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This winter, our Individual Placement AmeriCorps member, Bre Harris, has been working with volunteers in the community to plant native trees and shrubs at restoration sites. She is currently assisting with NOSC's Real Learning Real Work education program. Bre guides middle school students through the process of designing and implementing their own restoration plans. She
also supports Olivia with our field research in the Hoko Watershed assessing culverts, fish barriers, and fish habitat.
Our WCC crew has spent most of January, February and March planting nearly 15,000 trees for NOSC and partners at sites across Clallam and Jefferson Counties.
The remainder of April will be spent installing outmigrating salmon smolt traps for the Jamestown S’Klallam and Lower Elwha S’Klallam tribes.
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WCC crew plantng trees in Discovery Bay. Photo by Owen French.
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"The relationships I have developed let me view ecological restoration as a holistic process. Working for an individual sponsor I could only catch a glimpse of what it takes to bring back salmon. However, working for NOSC lets me see the evolution of watershed recovery through multiple stages and seasons, talking with employees who bring their own specialties and perspectives to the table
." - WCC Crew Member Jose Garrido
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NOSC WCC AmeriCorps Crew. Photo by Owen French.
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If you would like to learn more about the program, visit the
Washington Conservation Corps website
. NOSC hires a WCC crew and IP each year in August, so stay tuned if you are interested!
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Meet Our New Restoration Intern!
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Nate standing at the 3 Crabs Estuary in Sequim. Photo by Bre Harris.
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Nate Roberts has been working out of our Port Angeles office since January and will be here through April to finish his BS in Wetland Ecology and Restoration. He is originally from Gig Harbor but moved away from the PNW in 2006. After living in Durango, Colorado and Oceanside, California, he's very excited to return to the region!
Shortly after receiving his initial degree in elementary education, he came to realize that his true interest was in helping restore native anadromous salmonid habitat. As such, he decided to go back to school to pursue a degree through Oregon State University’s Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences program, where he's been specializing in wetland/riparian ecology.
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Nate monitoring a culvert in the Hoko Watershed. Photo by Olivia Vito.
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"In my free time you can find me plying small streams with a fly rod in search of trout or hunting for agates, jasper, or other colorful stones to cut and polish. I am eager to learn from the best, and therefore consider myself quite fortunate to learn from the experienced and talented professionals at NOSC
." -Nate Roberts
Nate has been working as a Restoration Technician on issues of fish passage, as well as assisting with volunteer tree planting events and Real Learning Real Work education.
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Nate at a volunteer tree planting event along Salmon Creek. Photo by Bre Harris.
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Meet Our Newest NOSC Board Member: Kathryn Neal
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Kathryn Neal planting native trees and shrubs near the Salmon Creek bridge in Discovery Bay. Photo by Bre Harris.
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Kathryn Neal is the newest addition to the NOSC board! She has been volunteering at our tree planting and education events, where her background in engineering has been a very valuable resource.
Kathryn grew up in Port Angeles, and graduated from PA high school in 1971. Many years later, after obtaining a BA in Architecture, and earning her PE (Professional Engineers license), raising a son, and working, she returned to Port Angeles to work as civil engineering manager for the City. She truly enjoyed the chance to come back to her original hometown and contribute to providing water, wastewater, storm water, streets, and other services. She was able to build some really wonderful projects!
Kathryn’s son was born in Germany, where she lived for almost three years, while her husband was active duty with the US Army. She has lived in Discovery Bay for the past 17 years. She loves hiking and kayaking, and is kind of an omnivorous reader.
Kathryn, I’d love to hear more about your background in engineering. What was your favorite job/project as an engineer? How does your background shape your everyday life?
With over 35 years in design and construction, I’ve had the chance to be involved in a lot of great projects, but my work in interdisciplinary teams solving habitat problems was probably my favorite job. For instance, I was senior engineer/project manager on a site where we restored fish passage to a tributary to the Green River (in King County), and reconstructed 1200 feet of stream channel. Besides the civil engineers, surveyors and drafters, the team included a wetland ecologist, a geologist, a fisheries biologist, a landscape architect specializing in native plants, a County roads crew to do the earthmoving and heavy construction, and about 200 volunteers that helped with the native plants.
What inspires you to work with youth in the outdoors through programs like Real Learning Real Work?
Doing restoration work inspired me! I love the chance to apply science and to work outdoors, and to design and build. It’s also motivating to keep up with the new ideas in environmental science, and see them applied on the ground. I enjoyed my more typical engineering work for utility systems too, but there is something special, and very important, about considering how to inhabit the land in such way that it maintains its vitality. By that I mean that the built environment and the natural environment are mutually supportive. We should be able to grow food and have great cities and roads, and sustain healthy rivers and wetlands, and the many kinds of creatures that normally inhabit the natural environment.
And what could be more fun than working with seventh graders? They have energy and enthusiasm, and also are often thinking seriously about what their best contribution to the world might be.
You recently shared this picture of yourself working on a monitoring project in Green River. Tell us more about that job and what it meant to you.
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That picture is just an example of a happy day. The field team I remember included a civil engineer (me), a geologist, a fisheries biologist and a fluvial geomorphologist. We were investigating field conditions in the river upstream and downstream of our project site, which was showing dramatic erosion. We were concerned about an imminent change in channel alignment that would cause flooding problems for downstream homes. We eventually built a side channel that would permit the river to change course in a non-damaging way.
How did you first hear about or get involved with NOSC?
NOSC is actually kind of famous. I first heard good things when the manager of the native plant nursery in King County recommended I connect. Shortly after I started a new job as civil engineering manager for Port Angeles in 2007, I had the chance to work with Rebecca Benjamin, and I was impressed.
So then I just started volunteering on planting projects. I brought my mom out to a project on Salmon Creek, which is in our neighorhood, and she said that she finally understood what I had been doing for a living. So that was worthwhile!
Now that I am retired, I am able to give more time. I think it’s important to focus, so as not to dissipate my all too limited personal energy. After careful consideration (and a nice break to travel and rest), I have chosen NOSC. I am so happy to be able to be involved, and to support the great projects that NOSC does, in whatever way I can. Working with kids and volunteering out on the land is a real pleasure.
Thank you, Kathryn for the work you are doing with NOSC. We are fortunate to have you!
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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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