Spawner Surveys Happening Now! |
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NOSC volunteer, Vern Bessey, cutting the tail off a dead fish, indicating to future surveyors that it has been sampled.
Image: Cheryl Lowe
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Summer chum spawner survey season is in full swing! Surveys began August 31st and will continue every Tuesday through the end of October. Volunteer surveyors collect important data including the number of both live and dead fish seen, sex, and length. Scale samples, used to age the fish, are also taken and sent to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife for analysis. This data is critical to understanding the health of the population and informing future management decisions. With just 9 fish observed in the first three surveys, the season got off to a slow start. Things have picked up recently, however, as 51 fish were spotted in the fourth survey. Hopefully, numbers will continue to rise in the coming weeks. Thank you, surveyors, for all your hard work!
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Salmon Viewing Self-Guided Tours |
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With spawning season under way, it's a great chance to get outside and check out your local runs! The Salmon Coalition has put together self-guided tours of some our favorite spots to view salmon in Jefferson and Clallam Counties. If you're able to spot some salmon, we'd love to have your feedback and see any exciting images! Please send feedback and images you'd like to share to outreach@nosc.org. Happy viewing! |
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Educating Educators - Thank you for GivingBIG and all your support! |
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(L) Program Manager Sarah Doyle and Project Manager Kevin Long explain the Kilisut Harbor Restoration Site. Image: Sarah Rubenstein (R) David Brownell, Executive Director of the North Olympic History Center speaks to the history of the Kilisut site. Image: Sarah Doyle
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On August 11th, the Salmon Coalition partnered with Port Townsend School District to provide experiential learning training to 15 teachers from local school districts. The teachers attended a variety of talks, with topics ranging from conservation and restoration to indigenous history, at both the Kilisut Harbor Restoration Site and Kodama Farm & Food Forest. Teachers learned how to incorporate place-based learning into their curriculums.
Thank you to all who contributed to our Give Big campaign, which helped fund this incredible and enriching experience for our hardworking educators!
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Orca Recovery Day Planting Party
Saturday, October 16th
10 am - 12:30 pm
Snow Creek Estuary Preserve
Join us as we put native plants into the ground to help improve salmon habitat, which in turn, provides more food for our resident orcas!
Limit of 20 people, RSVP required
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NOSC Annual Meeting
Thursday, October 28
7 pm
via Zoom
Join us to learn about upcoming projects, what we've seen in the first year after completion of the Kilisut Harbor Restoration Project, and other exciting news!
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Kilisut Community Presentation |
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Calling all community members!
To celebrate the one year anniversary of the completion of the Kilisut Harbor Restoration Project, we are creating a collection of your favorite memories at the Kilisut Harbor Restoration Site to share at our Annual Meeting on October 28th!
Please share your photos, short videos, and stories with us by emailing them to outreach@nosc.org. |
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A heron takes flight during Sunset at Kilisut. Image: Kevin Long |
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Monthly Spotlight: Owen French |
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Owen at the Salmon Creek trap. Image: Torin Blaker |
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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 month we are highlighting Owen French, restoration specialist and the supervisor of the NOSC-sponsored Washington Conservation Corps (WCC) crew for 12 years.
Read on to learn more about Owen!
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My name is Owen French. I live in Port Townsend with my wife Molly and two daughters, Fern and Cedar. I grew up in Pennsylvania and decided to venture out to the PNW after college. In 1997 I moved to Oregon to accept a position in AmeriCorps doing environmental service. I developed a passion during this time for environmental service, salmon, and working with community members. After 25 years of environmental service I have found myself here, working as the WCC Crew Coordinator for the Olympic and Kitsap Peninsulas. |
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How did you come to be involved with the Salmon Coalition? |
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My history with NOSC has been both rewarding and productive, and has provided a lot of meaning and direction in my life. In 2001 I moved to the Olympic Peninsula to accept a position leading a WCC crew out of Port Angeles. This crew worked for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, the USFS, and NOSC. Driving down from Port Angeles to meet up with NOSC, Jefferson Conservation District staff, students, and volunteers to install large plantings on Chimacum Creek and Salmon Creek were my first experiences with NOSC. My crew would come and plant and do weed control as part of restoration projects. Some of these plantings are now mature, and function quite well on their own. I enjoy visiting these sites with my children and walking under the canopy of a riparian forest a younger me helped plant.
After a few years of this I moved out of state for a bit, but decided to move back to accept a position working for NOSC helping manage field restoration efforts. This was a great experience, working with volunteers, planning plantings, doing all types cool monitoring projects, and learning project management. Most of all I learned about the value of collaboration. Collaboration between the community, NOSC, land trusts, conservation districts, tribes, and government organizations protects and restores habitat.
When NOSC decided to host a WCC crew of their own dedicated to restoration efforts and salmon recovery across the Olympic and Kitsap Peninsulas, I could not resist trying to be the leader of that crew. I ran that crew for 12 years working very closely with NOSC and many partners, and great people doing a crazy amount of field work, and creating real change on the landscape. Among many other impressive accomplishments, this crew planted well over 265,000 native plants across our region. I feel very proud to have been part of that effort.
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What do you enjoy about working with WCC members? |
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Having served two terms in AmeriCorps myself, I can really appreciate the value a year of service can have for a young adult. During my 15 years leading WCC crews, about 75 different young adults served on my crews. I really enjoyed working with these folks and watching them grow. Watching them gain skills and confidence and develop professionally. A year of service is hard but it can provide meaning and direction.
Being part of the legacy of restorative efforts here in this community is a big deal. Teaching each crew that they are walking in the footsteps of restoration pioneers like Wild Olympic Salmon (who helped keep summer chum from being extirpated in Chimacum Creek) really helps corps members feel a sense of place and heritage and responsibility. They are now part of this story. I love facilitating this relationship between corps members, the community, and the environment. Working out in the muddy, wet, hot, sweaty, cold, windy, dusty conditions really creates a sense of solidarity in the group. Looking back at all the work the crews have done and talking with former corps members who are now environmental professionals, makes me really feel the return on investment. Getting to witness and be part of this positive change is what I enjoy most about working with WCC members.
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Anything else you'd like to tell us? |
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I am very lucky to have wound up on this path and found myself here in this community. The North Olympic Salmon Coalition is just that, a coalition. A coalition is defined as an alliance for combined action. The alliance is everyone that supports NOSC: all the partners, all the organizations, all the people, all of us. Keep up the good work, everyone! |
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Thank you, Owen. We appreciate 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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