Kids Return to Outdoor Classroom

Spring brought the return of elementary school classes to learn more about the local ecology. This session was about aquatic insects and native plants. We had classes from South Whidbey, Oak Harbor, Mukilteo and Lake Stevens. Often it was a full house!

The students retrieved insects from Maxwelton creek…

Then learned more about them at the classroom…

Learned about potential sources of pollution in the watershed and creek…

And finally, learned about native plants and their uses…

Thanks to Classroom coordinator Lori O’Brien and all the wonderful volunteers that make this program possible!

Scholarships awarded!

Our 2011 Scholarship recipients are Emily Martin and Ben Saari, seniors at South Whidbey High School. Both plan to go on with environmental studies – Emily in the field of horticulture, and Ben in resource management or restoration ecology. They received their awards from WWS President John Worthington and WWS contributor Tom Cahill. We wish them the best!

Restoration Work Parties

This fall we have been holding work parties on the first and third Fridays of each month. We are revisiting restoration sites that have been established in the past, caring for our plants and installing new ones. This week we were fortunate enough to have sunshine, and were able to work with lots of healthy trees that have been established for about 8 years. Thanks to everyone that came out to help!

Photos from Fin Fest

Here are some of the early scenes from our very successful first Fin Fest with the Orca Network!

See you next year!

Come to Fin Fest October 9!

Read article in South Whidbey Record:

http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/whidbey/swr/entertainment/104379658.html

Announcing Fin Fest!

Whidbey Watershed Stewards joins forces with the Orca Network to present our first Orca/Salmon homecoming celebration. On Saturday, October 9 from Noon to 9 pm we’ll offer a host of activities, games, displays, story-telling, music and food at Fin Fest, in and around Freeland Hall overlooking Holmes Harbor. This is an event for all ages!

We will need many volunteers to make it happen – are you one of them? Just contact us to find out how to help. Email to info@whidbeywatersheds.org or call 360-579-1272.

Fin Fest will also feature a silent auction to raise money for the work of WWS and Orca Network. Do you have a special item or talent that you can donate? The value is tax-deductible. We can use dinners, movie or theater tickets, time share holidays, wine, landscape services, etc.

Contact us as above to submit an item. And come on Oct 9 prepared to bid!

Speakers and special happenings that day include:

4 pm – David Montgomery, author/ UW professor/MacArthur Fellow, speaks on the history and lore of the Chinook salmon – the “King of Fish”.

5 pm – Salmon Bar-B-Q (Coho, not Chinook) prepared by Dave Anderson – $15 for a full plate and all the trimmings!

Also, live music from Russell Clepper and Sarah Dial Primrose.

7 pm – Brad Hanson, NOAA fisheries biologist who studies the diets of Orca whales, speaks on the importance of Chinook salmon to our Southern Resident orca population.

1 pm – Killer Whale Tales with Jeff Hogan

2 pm – Jeff Guidry and his mature bald eagle “Freedom” from the Sarvey Wildlife Care Center tell their inspiring story.

3 pm – Storyteller Jill Johnson entertains with stories of sea creatures and First Nation peoples.

This festival will highlight the links between the salmon and whales with whom we share Puget Sound, and welcome the return of the salmon and the Southern Resident orcas to Puget Sound waters for the fall season.  Come and celebrate!

Maxwelton Creek flows freely again

Yesterday, Whidbey Watershed Stewards completed a project that has been a long time in the making. Working with landowner Agnes Morgan, we removed an old culvert that was creating a barrier to fish and adding sediment that  could bury spawning gravels in Maxwelton Creek. With help from the Stilly-Snohomish Fisheries Enhancement Task Force we created a design and applied for permits, and hired J&D Wallace, a local contractor, to do the excavation and culvert removal.

Thanks to all our supporters who make work with local landowners possible. Each small step brings us closer to a healthier place to live. Please look for messages from us when we start planting this site in the fall!

Enjoy the photos -

We salvaged plants from the roadbed, and then Garth Batchelor, the machine operator, began excavating the fill from on top of the culvert.

We first excavated one side of the roadbed to the culvert in the center, and Garth did a great job of re-shaping the slopes to match the surrounding land.

The excavation is complete on one side, and the fill has been removed to the level of the creek bed.

Here you can see the culvert has been exposed and the other side of the creek is being reshaped. We removed two dump truck loads of fill from the site, sediment that would have made its way downstream to smother spawning gravels if we hadn't removed it.

The big moment! Here you see the culvert being lifted out of the reshaped channel, and allowing the creek to reconnect with the natural streambed again.

It's almost out of the creek!

Once the rains return, and the water begins to flow strongly it will begin to resort the gravels in the streambed, and to reform the pools and riffles created by the natural hydrology of the creek.

Finally, the banks are protected from erosion with straw, and await planting.

Summer Nature Camp

Our Outdoor Classroom teacher Lori O’Brien and one of her terrific volunteers, Kat Fritz, are offering a summer nature & science camp at the Outdoor Classroom and other locations including the beach for ages 6 – 10. It will be held August 2-6, 9 am-1 pm daily.

Lori O'Brien and a budding scientist

It’s called “Birds, Bugs and Botany…” and is perfect for kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews to learn about the world around them through projects, experiments, music, art, games, and more! Special guests will appear throughout the week.

Cost: $100 plus a $10.00 materials fee paid directly to the instructors.

Sponsored by SW Parks & Rec Dept. and Whidbey Watershed Stewards.
To register, contact SW Parks & Rec at 360-221-5484 or <programs@whidbey.com>.

Smolt Count for 2010 Completed

Thanks to everyone that helped on this year’s smolt count. We had some high water,  a few snakes, bull frogs and lots of sticklebacks and fry. In the end though there were very few coho smolt. The scientist in me says this is important information, but it would have been inspiring to see the cycle of life moving around the next turn.

We had 18 coho smolt (118 in ’09), 81 cutthroat smolt (same number in ’09), and 200 fry. Let’s go fry! and maybe they will all make it to next year – stay tuned.

Here is the flume with the top and bottom open, and lots of water coming through.

Here are some of our larger cutthroat trout, a fish the used to be frequently caught in Maxwelton, and big enough to eat.

Here are those amazing little sticklebacks for comparison -

So that is is for this year’s count, the trap is back at Gregg and Linda’s place. Keep up the faith and if you’ve got time, come out and help preserve salmon habitat.

News from the Outdoor Classroom

We’ve had great luck with the weather so far…up until Friday of Memorial Day weekend. That was a rainy one! But the plucky kids (and teachers) came anyway and did some fun art projects indoors as well as learned about birds in the covered area.

On sunnier days, here are some of the scenes from our three bird-related Spring lessons.

Volunteer Tillie teaches a class how to use the binoculars.

Students learn what foods the various types of bird beaks can handle.

With straw and mud, bird nests are fun to make (and messy)!

Just a few more classes to go for this season. We had visits this month from Oak Harbor and Mukilteo students in addition to South Whidbey. Thanks to all the volunteers, coordinator Lori O’Brien, the elementary school teachers and students, and of course the South Whidbey School District for providing and caring for the facility.