Be a Friend to Fish
Resist the Urge to Build Rock Dams!
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Examples of rock dams - if you see them, get 'em out! |
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The heat streak and drought across our region affects salmon by raising water temperatures and lowering water levels – which can make fish more vulnerable to injury disease, and predation and prevent their migration.
While rock dams may seem innocent and harmless, they can block fish from moving in a stream to seek cooler water, spawn, and feed. Additionally, rock dams can increase water temperatures to the point where they stress salmon.
Don’t build rock dams – or if you make a one, take it down before you leave! Help maintain good habitat for fish by removing rock dams you find! Rock dams and stranded fish can also be reported to WDFW. Thanks for being a good steward of our waterways and helping salmon!
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Membership Drive - Time to Join or Renew! |
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Spawner survey volunteers gather chum on the streambank to collect data and scale samples Image: Jason Jaacks |
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Summer is membership season at the Salmon Coalition! Please join the North Olympic Salmon Coalition as a member today and help support our salmon spawner surveys on Chimacum Creek – a decades-long community science effort to monitor Hood Canal Summer Chum. Your membership also helps us to sustain future project development to enhance salmon habitat and support populations. These projects benefit both the human and salmon community – including the 137+ species that depend on salmon! Learn more about the history of spawner surveys and Summer Chum in Chimacum Creek here.
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Got a bush full of juicy, ripe berries? A tree close to dropping its fruit? A garden patch bursting with veggies?
The Salmon Coalition's Community Pie Cookbook is the cure! Featuring 21 sweet and savory recipes that pair perfectly with summer's bounty.
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You can still catch the Salmon Coalition at a couple of Farmers Markets this summer!
Stop by for free stickers and to get to know the friendly faces behind these salmon habitat restoration projects!
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We're Hiring - Education & Outreach Associate |
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Sarah, who served as the IP in 2010, holding a giant coho! |
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We are accepting applications for a WA Conservation Corps Individual Placement (IP) position! If you are between the ages of 18-25 and want to gain valuable experience working to improve wild salmon stocks on the North Olympic Peninsula, this is a great opportunity to join us for 11 months! Visit our website for more details about the position and learn how to apply.
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Partner Spotlight: Kodama Farm & Food Forest |
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Ben, Grace, and Matt inside of the geodesic dome greenhouse at Kodama Farm, where they grow various species of subtropical plants like lemons, limes, and bananas!
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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 the farmers at Kodama Farm & Food Forest - Ben, Grace, and Matt. Kodama is a 45-acre regenerative farm located in Chimacum's Beaver Valley that uses organic, permaculture techniques to provide for food the community while transforming the land into a healthy ecosystem! The Salmon Coalition is working closely with the Kodama farmers, as well as many wonderful partners, to help restore the 1,200 feet of Chimacum Creek that runs through the farm.
Read on to learn more about the Kodama farmers!
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Tell us a little bit about yourselves and what brought you together. |
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Ben and Grace are siblings and Matt is a lifelong friend. We were all born in Boulder, CO but Ben and Grace grew up in Washington. After graduating college, the three of us were on various career paths, but none of us were excited about our futures heading down these paths. We were all passionate about good food and had dreamed about a similar vision of starting a farm and possibly a restaurant. We also knew that we were drawn to help the health of the planet in any way we could. So, instead of waiting for "one day" or after our careers were over, we started reading books and learning as much as we could about regenerative agriculture, permaculture, and sustainable living. Without any previous agriculture experience, we jumped into farming head-first in Chimacum in 2016. We lived in a tent for the first year while we began learning how to grow food, build, and tend to animals. After 5 years, we are still learning every day! |
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You all have an incredible vision for your farm, can you tell us more about it? |
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Thank you! We are inspired to create a farm that works in synchronicity with nature. Conventional agriculture is one of the leading contributors to climate change and the deterioration of our ecosystem, so we are passionate about growing food in a way that provides nourishment to our community and nourishment to the land. On top of our no-till, regenerative garden practices, we raise dairy goats for our small soap business and have chickens and ducks that graze in an orchard that we are converting into a food forest. The restoration project with NOSC fits perfectly with our vision for Kodama, as it will bring back native biodiversity to this valley and contribute to the lasting health of the land. In the future, we hope to provide space for the public to walk through the restoration project and learn about how restoring the native ecology and salmon habitat can greatly benefit working farms! |
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How did you first hear about the Salmon Coalition and what inspired you to partner with us? |
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We heard about NOSC when starting to work with the Jefferson County Land Trust. We had been impressed by all the amazing restoration work they have done in the area and were confident that they would know the best course of action for our restoration project here. |
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What is your favorite aspect of partnering with the Salmon Coalition? |
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NOSC is full of passionate people that are genuinely excited about their important restoration work. We have loved working with them because of their passion for the health of the land and because they are incredibly responsive to our needs as a farm and business. They understand our vision and have incorporated aspects of the project that work to benefit us as a working farm alongside the restoration goals. Since the beginning, they have been wonderful to work with in every aspect of the project and we are so excited to see their vision come to life through the restoration of the ecosystem here. |
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Anything else you'd like to add? |
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We have a farm stand open here at the farm on Fridays and Saturdays from 10-4 and would love to see you! |
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Thank you Kodama Farmers, 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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