North Olympic Salmon Coalition

Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree,it will live its whole life believing it is stupid. - Albert Einstein

upcoming events

Winter Plantings Dates coming soon! Bingo at the Hilltop Tavern January 7, 2015, 7pm - 9pm and every Wed. in January Let's break the record again!

SALMON QUILT

RAFFLE

$1 tickets benefit Salmon Festival

Buy a ticket, or 10, or 50! Help sell tickets! Contact Emmy Lou Steinat lapforautumn@olypen.com,or (360) 732-4085 to help out!

NOSC teams up with Pt.Townsend MaritimeDiscovery Schools!

Salmon FestivalA Triumphant Return to Chimacum

High school students lead community members in painting a mural while otherrevelers enjoy onstage entertainment at the 2014 Salmon Festival. photo by RebeccaBenjamin.

The fall rainclouds parted on November 1st, and nearly 500 peoplecame out to celebrate our beloved salmon in Chimacum. With indoorand outdoor kids' games, great food, poetry, music, and fun, a truecommunity celebration was reborn. The festival was led by a group ofvolunteers, with support from the North Olympic SalmonCoalition. High school students from Chimacum Pi program led severalactivities for youth and for the general public, including a film seriescurated by Nicola Pieper, and murals led by Anda Yoshina andMelanie Pieper. See the interview with student festival coordinator RianPlastow below, and visit our website for more photos of this fantasticcommunity event. "This festival truly embodies the spirit of community restoration andcelebration that gave rise to North Olympic Salmon Coalition and ourcounterpart organizations almost 25 years ago." said Reed Aubin,Salmon Coalition Education & Volunteer Program Manager. "Thevolunteers who put this festival together this year were committed andpassionate, and the community has embraced the salmon festivalagain!" Also check out the coverage in the PT Leader!

Seventh graders at BlueHeron Middle School areworking with the Salmon

Coalition, Jefferson CountyConservation District, and

Finnriver Farm to study themanagement of Reed

Canary Grass nearChimacum Creek. Thestudents are designingexperiments for native

species to out-compete thisinvasive plant and continue

to establish a healthyriparian zone on Chimacum

Creek.

Check out thecoverage in the PortTownsend Leader !

Calling High SchoolSeniors!

We are looking for dedicated

seniors who are interested intaking on a winter planting as a

senior project!

Gain leadership experience,coordinate volunteers, design a

planting, and help restore salmonhabitat!

Maynard Work Party a Success! Discovery Bay thrives with help from volunteers

Volunteers work together to plant dunegrass plugs at Maynard Beach NearshoreRestoration Site. photo by Rebecca Benjamin

What a day! A sunny session of restoration planting and joyouscelebration took place at Discovery Bay earlier this month. After manysummer months of work, the North Olympic Salmon Coalition hostedour first volunteer planting event of the year at the Maynard Beachrestoration site. Over 75 volunteers showed up to plant nearly 5000dunegrass plugs! The Salmon Coalition would like to recognize andthank the wide support in the community; without such dedicated andenthusiastic volunteers, our work would not be possible. Many of these volunteers were motivated by recent coverage ofthe Maynard project in the Peninsula Daily News and the Leader. Thework brings us one step closer to the reestablishment of a healthynearshore environment in Discovery Bay. The new shoreline provides asafe migratory path for juvenile salmon, and with dunegrass nowfilling the new sand spit and the first upland trees already in theground, habitat has been created for other animal populations aswell. Thanks again to all our volunteers. To read more, or see more picturescheck out our website, Facebook page, or the Disco Bay Blog.

Coho Are Back! Volunteers survey Chimacum Creek for our silver friends

contact Kendra:

outreach@nosc.org, or 379-8051

NOW AVAILABLE NOW AVAILABLE BRAND NEWBRAND NEW

T-shirts, Hoodies andT-shirts, Hoodies andTotes!Totes!

get 'em at our Port Had lockget 'em at our Port Had lockofficeoffice

Look as s lick as this fishLook as s lick as this fishin one of our new t-shirtsin one of our new t-shirts

Salmon BINGOSalmon BINGOcoming soon!coming soon!

Gather your salmon hats,and prepare for your favorite

game!

Every Wednesday inJanuary at the Hilltop

Tavern

WCC Hard a tWCC Hard a tWorkWork

Volunteers Andy McGregor and surveyor Don Zigg survey the Bishop stretch of

Chimacum Creek searching for Coho redds.

If you find yourself near a creek in the next few months, try stayingstill and watching the stream flow past; you may see a flicker of redand silver go by. Our coho are back for their winter spawning run. For the Salmon Coalition, this means sending a new group of volunteersout to survey the Coho populations. This year, a record number ofvolunteers turned out: 40 people showed up for our coho survey trainingat the end of October. These volunteers go through a two-hour trainingto learn the protocols of surveying Coho, including speciesidentification, scientific monitoring procedure, and how to minimizedisturbance in the streams. Volunteers will be surveying various stretches throughout the next fewmonths. To find out more about what our surveyors do, check out ourwebsite.

CATS Student Projects UnderwayCitizen Action Training School students bring environmental

leadership to their communities

500 trees/shrubs planted atMaynard Beach

Took out invasive butterfly bushon private landowner property

near the Dungeness

Built beaver exclusion fencing tokeep planted willow sticks safe

for Jefferson County

2000 feet of fencing installed atSerendipity Farm for Jefferson

Co. Conservation District

Prepped planting site by cuttingdown Reed Canary Grass on

upper Chimacum Creek

Stay tuned for the WCC blog!

Fo l low NOSC onFo l low NOSC onFacebookFacebook

CATS students gather around a small stump on field trip to Elwha Riverrestoration sites, late October. photo by Lindsey Aspelund

After 11 weeks of classes with guest speakers ranging from fishbiologists to county planners and field trips throughout the NorthPeninsula, Citizen Action Training School students are beginning todesign independent projects to benefit the health of greater PugetSound. The projects will address issues of:

Habitat ProtectionStormwater ManagementShellfish Bed Protection

"CATS class is amazing," said student Mark Ennis, "I can't believe howmuch I'm learning -- I'm so pumped after class every week." The Citizen Action Training School is a program implemented by 7Puget Sound-area RFEGs (Regional Fishery Enhancement Groups) acrossthe Puget Sound region. Projects from these other programs haveincluded designing and creating community rain gardens, classroomeducation projects and film production, just to name a few. Ourstudents have a variety of projects in the works - storm wateroutreach, creosote bulkhead removal, scientific studies, and more. Onestudent is creating a blog that will showcase her classmates' blogs -watch for it coming soon!

Education Highlights Check out what our education team has been working on!

Education & Outreach Assistant Kendra Krantz leads Blue Heron Middle School students in

an analysis of invasive Reed Canary Grass management near our streams

Chimacum High School Pi Program students visit coho survey stretch alongBarnhouse Creek.

CATS students visit site of the Elwha Dam removal. Photo by Lindsey Aspelund

Volunteer SpotlightRian Plastow

Rian Plastow at the 2014 Salmon Festival held at Chimacum School.

Rian first got involved with the Salmon Coalition in 2012 through KitPennell's Pi Program Environmental Science class. As a senior this year,Rian dedicated her senior project to working with the Salmon Coalitionon the Salmon Festival. "The Salmon Festival didn't start out as mysenior project, but as the months went by, I realized that it wassomething big that I was going to be proud of."Rian's leadership and wild success in helping promote and coordinatethis year's Salmon Festival was extremely valuable for the SalmonCoalition and the greater Jefferson County community. What surprised you most about working with the Salmon Coalition?I have been surprised by how many opportunities I, and other PiProgram students, are given to get outside and help. One of my mostmemorable moments was making a map of the Salmon Coalition'snative plant nursery for the following year's intern to look at. I had to

count the plants, take measurements, and design the map on thecomputer. It's cool that they want to get students involved. What was your favorite part about the Salmon Festival?My favorite part about the Salmon Festival was its success! It wasgreat to see so many people there. If you could share one thing you've learned what would it be?I learned that salmon aren't all about gills and science. There is adeep respect for the spirit of salmon in the community and I'm glad Ihave gotten a glimpse of that. It's inspiring. What would you say to someone who is thinking aboutvolunteering?Do it! They are great people to work with!

North Olympic Salmon CoalitionCommunity Partnerships, Collaborative Restoration

www.nosc.org