Thanks for Supporting Our Annual Meeting! |
|
Our 2020 Annual Meeting was a smashing success, all thanks to everyone who attended and contributed. We heard about our immense growth from Rebecca, Kilisut construction tales from Kevin, the unveiling of our StoryMap from Nate, remarks from Board Members Jim and Kathryn, and about the importance of our WCC AmeriCorps from Sarah. From all corners of the country, over 140 participants logged into Zoom to join us. We thank all of you for your support, it continually inspires us to push forward in this powerful work for the salmon, the environment, and our community. We also owe tremendous thanks to our sponsors: Finnriver Farm & Cidery, Port Ludlow Resort, and the Port Townsend Leader.
Cheers to 30 years of the North Olympic Salmon Coalition, and cheers to many more!
|
|
Giving Tuesday - December 1st |
|
Donate this #GivingTuesday to support our WCC AmeriCorps program! Giving Tuesday is a global generosity movement created as a simple idea, a day that encourages people to do good. This year, your donations will support our WCC AmeriCorps program that supports one young person building a career in restoration work and community engagement. We rely heavily on our AmeriCorps to facilitate volunteer activities, engage our community, and support our Real Learning Real Work education program. Through the mentorship of our WCC AmeriCorps, and all they tremendous work they do, your contribution will have a far reaching effect on the ongoing environmental stewardship on the north Olympic Peninsula. Thank you!
|
|
Community Pie Cookbook Available Now! |
|
Right in time for holiday gift giving, NOSC’s first ever Community Pie Cookbook is on sale now! Featuring 21 sweet and savory pie recipes contributed by our supporters, just flipping through the alluring full-color images, printed by our friends at Corvus Crafts, will make your mouth water. We also give great thanks to the wonderful, talented Kate McDermott for her contributions to our Community Pie Cookbook!
|
|
Welcome to our New Board Members! |
|
The Salmon Coalition extends a warm welcome to Esiquio “Zee” Uballe and Don Dybeck, our new board members. Learn more about them below! |
|
 |
Dr. Esiquio “Zee” Uballe has a degree in a Political Science from University of Michigan, A Masters in Personnel Management and a doctorate in education from Arizona State University in higher education policy and educational leadership. Born and raised in central Texas, Esiquio was involved in community organizing and empowering community residents to help themselves and their community since high school. An activist and community organizer, Esiquio has served on many boards and commissions, city and community recreation and policy boards and non-profits. After his years as a community organizer Esiquio pursued higher education and as a result held positions in different universities as faculty and administrator. Has experience including serving on boards and as a board chair which included training board members and board development. Experience in program evaluation and assessment and strategic planning. Broad expertise in diversity training and multi-cultural issues experience in risk management and background in conference planning and facilities management. Trained, certified mediator. Zee is and avid golfer and aspiring artist. He lives with his wife Susan and their two dogs Mimi and Keeko in Port Townsend.
|
|
|
|
Don Dybeck grew up in Southern California and graduated from UCLA in 1966. He then participated in the Vietnam conflict with a Navy helicopter combat rescue unit. He moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1970 and worked in the investment industry for 33 years. He and Celeste have lived in Port Townsend for 18 years where Don served on the Jefferson Land Trust Board for several years. He has been a Red Cross disaster volunteer at a number of major hurricanes. Don has been a serious sport fisherman for 50 years.
|
|
|
|
Lupine Seedings on the Dungeness River |
|
The riverbank lupine bloom in May 2020, which was seeded by NOSC in fall 2017. Photo: John Gussman |
|
Last week our WCC crew sowed several pounds of native riverbank lupine (Lupinus rivularis) seed in areas where invasive species like butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii) and knotweed (Polygonum spp.) were removed this past summer. Seeding the lupine will allow it to colonize areas favored by invasives, shading out these weedy competitors. While native butterflies will visit butterfly bush for its nectar, their larvae cannot survive on its vegetation. Riverbank lupine, by contrast, is a host plant for several native butterflies as well as a source of pollen and nectar for bumblebees and other beneficial insects. As is characteristic of many members of the pea family, the plant is also capable of adding nitrogen to the soil through its relationship with nitrogen-fixing bacteria, facilitating the establishment of other native riparian plant species.
|
|
Monthly Spotlight - Kevin Long |
|
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 are highlighting different community members, staff, and partners that have helped make the Salmon Coalition what it is today.
This month we interviewed Kevin Long, the Salmon Coalition's Senior Project Manager.
Stay tuned for Kevin's video, coming out in the next month!
|
|
Tell us little bit about yourself and what led you to NOSC. |
|
I’ve always been fascinated by nature, especially animals, since a young age. So much so, that I had an entire food chain living with me in tanks in my bedroom in 3rd grade. This eventually led to as many biology courses as I could take throughout my education and a goal to work with animals as my career. After many years as a biological field technician studying everything from endangered lizards to bald eagles, I settled in Port Townsend. I discovered the Salmon Coalition and began volunteering sometime around 1999 I think. I enjoyed it immensely, and the rest, is history.
|
|
Can you tell us a little bit about your role as the Project Manager at NOSC and what this work entails? |
|
As a Project Manager at NOSC, my role is to take good habitat restoration ideas and figure out how to put them on the ground. I work with our grant team on grant applications to secure funding for the projects. Once funds are in hand, I work to hire professionals to assist with project designs. I secure the environmental and other permits required for the projects. I hire the contractors who build the projects, manage those contracts and inspect the construction sites to be sure we are getting the results we expect, watch for problems, and to be sure the environmental permits are adhered to during construction. |
|
How do you identify the most needed projects to focus on? |
|
NOSC works with state and regional salmon recovery organizations to discover, propose, and vet habitat restoration projects. NOSC and our partners divide and conquer this list. Projects are heavily scrutinized for how much benefit they will bring, at what cost, and through what process or practice. Habitat project have grown in scale in my 15 years here. There is a push for projects that restore ecosystem processes (process based restoration), and to do that, you often need to work on a large scale. |
|
What does a typical day (or night!) look like for you working on one of these projects? |
|
As you can imagine, that depends! Yes, there is certainly some night work on projects depending on low tides, which I actually quite enjoy. There is definitely nothing like being in a salt marsh in the middle of the night running around doing habitat restoration work with giant machines. And you get peaceful moments out there too, feeling somehow out of place in the darkness in the marsh. So there really isn’t a “typical day” for me. Keep in mind I usually have 3-5 active projects in different phases of development at all times so my days/weeks/months are highly varied. Winters are typically full of desk work, working on grant applications, project permits or designs. Although, we have had two projects recently that were at construction during winter months. Summers I am typically on the ground at a restoration construction site. On many of the construction days I’m working right alongside the excavators, making sure we get what we are looking for. Of course there are construction reports to write, permit reports, and the grant writing and budget work never really stops so if I’m not next to the machines, I’m plugged into my computer in my car working on those items. It’s quite diverse and varied, and I don’t really know what to expect. |
|
What do you enjoy most about the projects? |
|
I really like being on the ground during project implementation. Taking years of thought, design and planning and turning dirt to make the vision more than just two dimensional drawings is very rewarding. It is also a very challenging aspect of the work, because the transfer from project plansets to a real life project never goes as planned. Never. But, they say the most successful people are those that are good at Plan B, I always try to keep that in the back of my mind. |
|
What project are you most proud of and why? |
|
That’s a really tough question. It’s a little like asking a parent “which kid is your favorite?”! The channel restoration work and planting that took place on Lige and Kaye Christian’s blueberry farm in 1999 (now Finnriver Farm South) always tugs at my heartstrings. I never pay a visit there and don’t walk away without a big “WOW”! Partially because it is one of the first restoration projects I helped undertake, so it has had a long while to respond. Watching the forest grow up on those banks and the coho return to spawn there is amazing. And to stand on those banks with my friends' kids, and watch them grow and change faster than the forest and marvel at it all is very powerful for me.
But pick one? Chimacum Beach, Maynard Nearshore, 3 Crabs, Kilisut, the Johnson Creek Culvert removal…they are all amazing to me…and amazing to watch change through the years.
|
|
Do you have a special memory about any of the projects you’ve worked on over the years? |
|
I have a ton. In reflecting, I’m finding that many center around kindness from neighbors and folks I’ve never met or heard from before. This is really tough work. None of it is easy. You might be surprised the opposition some of these projects encounter. It can seem the only people you hear from are those who aren’t pleased about something. That’s an important part of the process to be sure, and taxing. Anyhow, there was this gentlemen who approached me while onsite near the completion of the 7-month-long restoration construction project at 3 Crabs. He handed me a CD, explained it was a Christmas gift, and he’d made one for me and each member of the construction crew. This guy had been collecting pictures of the project all through construction, and he rolled them up into a slideshow Christmas card (complete with digital snowflakes!) thanking us for our efforts. It just really meant a lot to me…to know there are silent supporters like this out there marveling and reveling in our work. He might have taken more pictures of the project than me! |
|
Where would you like to see more work done and why that area in particular? |
|
I really think the North Olympic Peninsula’s western rivers, creeks, estuaries and marine shorelines need more attention. These systems don’t have many ESA listed fish species, yet the fish stocks are severely depleted and much of the habitat highly impaired. Without the fish being listed, these watersheds in need of restoration and conservation work do not compete well for grants that usually offer a big scoring bonus for positive impacts to listed fish. We have cooperated with partners to make some inroads, and get some projects on the ground and started out, but there is still much to be done. |
|
Anything else you’d like to add? |
|
I started out talking about animals as my passion, about how I wanted to be able to work directly with them as a career . And, as you can see, I really don’t work directly with animals anymore. But just being out there on the land, and being in the animals presence, or even just working for them to do something good for them and their habitat, and to have that work remain on the landscape in some way, shape, or form, forever, is an amazing thing to be a part of. |
|
Thank you Kevin, we appreciate you! |
|
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.
|
|
Give Us Your Feedback
Questions or Comments? Let us know what you think!
outreach@nosc.org
360.379.8051
www.nosc.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
