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SNOHOMISH WATERSHED
If you live or work in the Snohomish watershed, District staff can help you manage your farm, protect water quality, promote fish & wildlife habitat, and address other issues on your property. Need help funding your project? Depending what your project is, the Conservation District may be able to share some of the costs.
If your neighborhood isn't covered in one of our special project areas, don't worry we can still help. The Snohomish Conservation District provides a full range of services to those who live outside of a special project area or when a project ends.
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Watershed News & Highlights
You can count on Pacific Northwest winters being cold, wet, dark, and windy. During many winters you can add snowy and icy to that description. For horse owners this usually means struggles such as slogging through mud to do chores with less time to ride or exercise horses. As it is with most everything, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
In April, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries awarded $24 million in grants to Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and local partners to fund transformational restoration in Whidbey Basin.
Sarah and Jeremy Vecchi worked with Snohomish Conservation District to implement a manure management system that protects water quality and transforms their horse manure into a valuable asset: compost!
If you explored nature as a child, you might remember those enormous metal pipes filled with ankle-deep, frigid water that cross beneath roadways. These pipes, called culverts, are still common along streams and creeks throughout Washington.
If you were a salmon traveling upstream, your chance of making it to your spawning bed hinges on many factors including the temperature and abundance of water. As a result, continuous streamside tree canopy and resident beavers are critical players in a salmon’s success. Trees shade and cool the water temperature, while beavers’ infrastructure supports consistent streamflow and helps create cool, deep pools.
In addition to its three riparian buffers, Polestar Farm is home to upwards of 20 beaver dams, creating a wetland nested within the forest. The slowed water caused by a beaver dam helps keep horse waste and other pollutants from entering the stream quickly, and also recharges groundwater.
Through an NACD grant, we were able to help underserved areas with their food security through garden installations and other support.
Returning to Raising Cane Ranch for the second year yielded a new crop of 28 attendees curious to see alley cropping and other agroforestry practices in action.
View both webinars recorded in September on the “Journey of a raindrop” and “Wet feet gardening,” and view photos from the October Rain Garden Tour.
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.”