Five Years of Orca Recovery Day Celebrated in Marysville

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Five Years of Orca Recovery Day Celebrated in Marysville

Adults and children from over six countries gathered at the Strawberry Fields Athletic Complex in Marysville for the fifth annual Orca Recovery Day on October 15. Attendees had the opportunity to participate in a guided nature walk, learn about water quality, and plant trees along the Middle Fork Quilceda Creek, which runs through the park. The creek is an important habitat restoration site due to the presence of coho salmon near a high-traffic area. Salmon are a main food source for the Southern Resident orcas.

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Tales of Two Rivers: Stillaguamish River Film Festival

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Tales of Two Rivers: Stillaguamish River Film Festival

Farmers, fishermen, and families gathered at Hazel Blue Acres on September 8 for the second and final part of our “Tales of Two Rivers” film festival.

“It dawned on me as I was listening to the panel responses last night that we got really lucky in this effort to have such amazing participants,” said Lindsey Desmul, Sustainable Lands Strategy Communications Group co-chair.

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Crabapples and Camas: Alley Cropping at Northwest Meadowscapes

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Crabapples and Camas: Alley Cropping at Northwest Meadowscapes

Twenty years ago, Eric Lee-Mäder found a strange-looking bottle in a wine shop that would end up changing the course of his life. The French cider inside was unlike anything he’d ever tasted.

“It was much more complex than sweet,” Eric said. “I got a sense of the whole orchard, from the bloom of the apple tree to the fungus growing in the understory.”

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Seeing the Forest Through New Eyes: Connections Between Restoration Planning and Forestry

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Seeing the Forest Through New Eyes: Connections Between Restoration Planning and Forestry

After two seasons of riparian restoration implementation, I transitioned into a role at Snohomish Conservation District that allowed me to plan and manage similar projects to improve habitat for salmon. Salmon are the bridge between our ecosystems. Traveling from oceans to estuaries, wetlands to streams, they cycle nutrients from the ocean back to the forest. They also hold immense cultural importance to Salish Sea tribes—to lose the salmon would be a loss of a way of life.

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New Sound Education Program

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New Sound Education Program

As the school year gets underway, Snohomish Conservation District’s Youth Education Team is excited to announce the start of a new, four-part Sound Education Program for elementary school classrooms in Snohomish County and Camano Island!

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Agroforestry Challenges (And 3 Reasons Why They’re Worth It)

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Agroforestry Challenges (And 3 Reasons Why They’re Worth It)

Agroforestry can provide major benefits for farms—it also presents unique challenges. Unlike traditional monocultures, agroforestry requires farmers to understand the needs of multiple plants and how they interact with each other. It takes planning, adaptation, and patience to create a successful system. It also isn’t static. Many agroforestry practices incorporate trees that affect shade conditions as they grow. That means crops may need to shift over the years.

So why bother with all the trouble?

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Modest Family Solutions Receives Cost Share Award

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Modest Family Solutions Receives Cost Share Award

Modest Family Solutions is a non-profit on the front lines of addressing food insecurity. They grow food using sustainable, innovative gardening techniques like hydroponics (growing crops without soil) and aquaponics (using fish waste as nutrients while also filtering the water). They also manage the Agroecology Center in Everett, which leads community youth programs that teach the basics of gardening, composting, and hydroponics farming.

As a recipient of our Lawns to Lettuce cost share award, Modest Family Solutions is using the funding to increase vegetable production from the aquaponics and hydroponics gardening systems.

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Conservation in Action at “Farm, Fish, and Forest Field Day”

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Conservation in Action at “Farm, Fish, and Forest Field Day”

Last week, we welcomed Snohomish County Council members Nate Nehring and Sam Low, Town of Darrington Mayor Dan Rankin, and Linda Neunzig, Snohomish County Agriculture Coordinator, on behalf of Executive Dave Somers, for a tour of three of our conservation projects throughout Snohomish County.

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