By Taylor Pittman, Information and Education Specialist, US Fish & Wildlife Service
Five years ago Rod Rice found an ad for a farmhouse outside of Chehalis. Today he lives in it. At the time, he and his friend, Fletcher Anderson, both natives of Washington, were living in Seattle and ready for a change. Fletcher sold his condo, Rod retired from Boeing, and they bought the farmhouse and property on Pleasant Valley Road. They were ready for farm life. They didn't know that their farm life would include salmon.
In June 2003, Kelly Verd, resource technician for the Lewis County Conservation District, came knocking at their door. She was surveying area streams for potential salmon habitat, and Stearns Creek, which flows through the Anderson-Rice property, was one of the most promising around. A tributary of the Chehalis River, it contained enough water, had historically supported coho salmon and still had gravel that salmon might use for spawning. She approached Fletcher and Rod to ask if they would be willing to consider replacing a couple of culverts that acted as a bridge over the creek. The culverts were too small to contain all the water flowing through them, and their outfall had eroded the streambed into a long drop and plunge pool, impossible for salmon to negotiate on their way upstream.
"They were hesitant at first," Kelly remembers. "But once they started asking us questions we were on the road to making plans."
Fletcher recalls what "a good deal" it eventually sounded like. "And the people were great. We've really enjoyed working with all of them -- Kelly, Bob [Amrine, Lewis County District Manager] and Sam Giese [Lewis County engineer]. They're like old friends now."
Rod and Fletcher are not new to the idea of restoration or to caring for their immediate environment. Their carpentry and design skills are evident in their hospitable 1928 farmhouse that they restored to its original 20s' style. The surrounding yard, once a muddy pasture, boasts dahlias and fruit trees along a white picket fence. What appears to be a huge wood barn houses their numerous 1928-31 Model A Fords -- each one in mint condition, shining like new. Why wouldn't they want to restore a healthy salmon run to the creek?
Their Model A club and farming activities bring them into contact with many people in area. "Our neighbors in Pleasant Valley are very good people" says Rod. "We are willing to help each other out, lend an extra hand. You can get things done that way."
|
This same cooperative spirit pervaded the culvert replacement project, funded by the Chehalis Fisheries Restoration Program (US Fish and Wildlife Service) and the Salmon Recovery Funding Board (in conjunction with an Interagency Committee for Outdoor Recreation grant), engineered and executed by the Lewis County Conservation District, and graciously accommodated by Fletcher and Rod. The floodplain along Stearns Creek required that a larger bridge be put in place of the culverts, giving the creek room to expand in times of high water and allowing the salmon full run of the river.
The placement of this bridge allows for 12 miles upstream becoming accessible to future salmon spawning. "I can't wait to see the salmon!" says Rod. "I go out and stand on the bridge and watch for them." Fletcher wonders aloud what Stearns Creek will be like a hundred years from now. With a few more good neighbors and the restoration of salmon to the Chehalis Basin, Rod and Fletcher have involved themselves in an enduring future and become a part of its history.
Landowners interested in replacing culverts and converting agricultural property back into riparian buffer (100% paid) should contact Brian Peck at US Fish and Wildlife Service, 360-753-9560 or Bob Amrine at the Lewis County Conservation District, 360-748-0083 for more information on the Family Forest Fish Passage Program or the Chehalis Fisheries Restoration Program. Let the shared future for fish and farms continue!
From www.riversmart.org Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New Did you know?36% of the watersheds in the continental United States have moderate water quality problems. 21% have serious water quality problems; and 27% lack sufficient information to make an overall assessment. Source: http://www.cleanwater.gov/action/c1a.html. An overwhelming majority of Americans - 218 million - live within 10 miles of a polluted lake, river, stream or coastal area. Source: http://www.epa.gov/ow/liquidassets/. |
Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New
By Kathleen Whalen, Administrator, Thurston Conservation District
There are many environmental issues facing the Northwest today, but one of great import continues to be the health of our state's riparian ecosystems. Without healthy riparian zones and buffers along our waterways; water quality, salmon habitats and many other wildlife populations will continue to decline. Not only do riparian zones help to protect and filter our regions waters, they also act to control erosion, reduce flooding, moderate water temperatures and they continuously supply the water with much needed bio-matter and nutrients in the form of leaves, woody debris, and even insects that often fall into the water.
As a home or landowner in Washington State, it is easy to do your part to help maintain, create or restore the health of riparian ecosystems. In some cases it as easy as simply not removing or disturbing the riparian cover already in place. In other cases one may need to add more native plants and remove invasive vegetation, erect fences to keep livestock out of the riparian zones, reduce run-off, and, in some cases, the entire riparian vegetative cover may need to be replanted and the stream or river banks may need to be repaired with the help of a professional.
There are several local and state agencies that offer assistance, and some even have programs that may help to defer some of the costs if you qualify. Some of these local resources are available from county Conservation Districts, local native plant societies, local environmental action teams, as well as appropriate state agencies such as the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
If you have determined that your riparian zone needs only minimal care in the form of additional plants, choosing the right species is crucial. Most riparian plants have adapted to their ecological niche along the water by becoming more tolerant of moisture and flooding and, with only a little investigation, one can determine the right plants for your site. Some of our native riparian trees are: Alder, Black cottonwood, Western hemlock and Western Red cedar, Willows, Oregon ash, Sitka spruce and Douglas-fir. Some of our common riparian shrubs are: Red-osier dogwood, Salmonberry, Pacific ninebark, Oceanspray, Wild rose, and Snowberry. By choosing native plants that are adapted to our region you have chosen plants that, once established (1-2 years), will require far less care, water and fertilizers, and, they will also serve to provide additional values for wildlife.
As mentioned above, assistance for riparian restoration is available if you qualify. There are also native plant sales held throughout the state every year where one can purchase native plants at a considerable cost savings. Thurston, Lewis and Gray's Harbor County (numbers & web sites listed below) offer plant sales each year where local residents can purchase conservation-grade or bare-root plants for all of their planting projects.
Numbers and Web Sites:
Thurston Conservation District
Grays Harbor Conservation District
330 Pioneer Ave W.
Montesano 98563-4499
(360) 249-5980 FAX: (360) 249-6961
E-mail: graysharborcd@wa.nacdnet.org
Lewis County Conservation District
1554 Bishop Road Chehalis 98532
(360) 748-0083 ext. 4 FAX: (360) 740-9745
E-mail: bob-amrine@wa.nacdnet.org
Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New
 |
By Danielle D'Auria, Refuge Operations Specialist, Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge Complex
Grays Harbor estuary is renowned for high concentrations of shorebirds in late April. By hosting over 500,000 shorebirds every year, it is one of 16 shorebird staging areas of hemispheric significance that make up the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network, an international conservation program that identifies key shorebird sites for protection throughout the Americas. To help protect this key site, Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1990 in the northeast corner of the estuary. During their annual migration, shorebirds travel up to 8,000 miles from their wintering sites in South America to their breeding grounds on the Alaskan tundra.
 |
Over two dozen species of shorebirds use the Grays Harbor estuary during spring and fall migration; some dunlin populations will also stop to spend their winters there. In addition to shorebirds, the Refuge is used by a wide variety of waterfowl, seabirds, and water birds, including American wigeon, black brant, common loons, Caspian terns, gulls, cormorants, and great blue herons. A wide array of wetland types serves as shorebird staging sites by providing migrating birds with a chance to rest and refuel before continuing on their journey. At Grays Harbor estuary, shorebirds particularly prefer the intertidal mudflats for feeding and the salt marsh for resting. Both of these habitats at Grays Harbor NCR are severely threatened by a non-native, invasive plant species known as Phragmites (Phragmites australis).
Phragmites is a non-native grass that can grow to 16 feet tall, and has a tendency to aggressively invade and take over tidal wetlands and marshes. Phragmites spreads predominantly through vigorous vegetative reproduction and can quickly form large monotypic stands that displace native vegetation and often alter the structure and function of the wetlands it invades. At Grays Harbor NCR, Phragmites occurs on approximately 7 acres of salt marsh. Over the past few years, this aggressive grass has spread rapidly, is taking over areas that once were high quality salt marsh, and is fast approaching the intertidal mudflats further out in the basin. The salt marsh habitat at Grays Harbor NCR is a very important component of the Refuge because it provides food, resting and roosting sites, and cover from predators for migratory shorebirds, waterfowl, seabirds, and water birds.
Areas that have been invaded by Phragmites have an excellent potential for recovery. A combination of mechanical and chemical control methods has proven effective, along with long-term monitoring to prevent or immediately halt re-invasion. From 2005-2007, Grays Harbor NCR is partnering with the Washington Conservation Corps (WCC), Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA), and Grays Harbor County Noxious Weed Control in a 3-year effort to reduce the amount of Phragmites on Refuge lands. In late summer of each year, many of the areas are first cut with brush cutters to reduce the amount of standing vegetation. A month later, the regrowth is treated with an herbicide approved for use in aquatic environments. These patches are monitored using GPS technology to track the location and size of the areas over time, and to monitor the effectiveness of our control efforts.
 |
Three years of aggressive treatment is expected to greatly reduce and control the Phragmites at Grays Harbor NCR, an important first step to increasing the quality of estuarine and salt marsh habitat at the Refuge for shorebirds and other migratory bird species. However, Phragmites is not restricted to the Refuge, and neither are the birds. The birds and their habitats are likewise threatened wherever Phragmites occurs in the estuary. Therefore in the future, we hope to eliminate additional infestations of Phragmites in Grays Harbor estuary by working closely with adjacent landowners as well as state and county agencies involved in invasive plant control in the area.
This project is made possible in part by funds for the restoration of natural resource damages caused by the Nestucca oil spill. If you have questions regarding this restoration effort at Grays Harbor NCR, please contact the Refuge Headquarters in Olympia, (360) 753-9467.
Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New
At the SW Area Meeting for Conservation Districts on September 28, 2005, the Thurston Conservation District was awarded with the SW District of the Year Award, presented by the Washington State Conservation Commission.
Here is, in part, what was said by the commission about the TCD: "The District has excellent staff, folks who are quietly competent and simply go about the business of helping people be better stewards of their land. They love their work, are good problem solvers, and genuinely enjoy helping people. They have survived several changes in district leadership, demonstrating great fortitude during tough times. Despite many challenges, District staff never lost sight of their missions to help people be better stewards. The staff and board work together well and have mutual respect; people genuinely like one another.
"The Thurston Conservation District has an effective district administrator who knows the district extremely well. Kathy [Whalen] started as an intern and came up through the ranks, learning and leading as she came along, and is now doing an excellent job as administrator. Effective district management is a key component in the District's success.
"Thurston Conservation District board members are dedicated individuals. They rarely miss a meeting and all have headed up one or more of the District operating committees, as well as being on various local committees. Board members are active and contribute locally, regionally, statewide and nationally."
Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New
From River Network, Portland, OR
River Network, a national non-profit organization, offers consulting, publications, trainings and small grants to help people raise money, build organizations, and monitor and protect rivers and watersheds.
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the conservation community along with just about everything else along the North Gulf Coast. Regional, state and local groups working on water issues there will have unprecedented challenges and unprecedented opportunities in the months ahead. To respond to them, our friends must regroup as quickly as possible. River Network will be working with many others to assess and help meet their needs. River Network has agreed to establish and administer a special fund (the Gulf Coast Watershed Recovery Fund) to help the Gulf Coast conservation community rebound from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The post-hurricane needs of the region's conservation groups vary widely. We know that they include re-establishing their work spaces and communications systems, rebuilding their membership bases and funding streams, addressing severe environmental problems in their particular areas, involving new constituencies, and working together to develop regional strategies for better watershed protection and response to floods and droughts. However, no one yet has a comprehensive picture of needs in the region. Without it, support groups like River Network cannot make informed, strategic decisions about their own priorities, including grant making. River Network is working with the Environmental Support Center, the Institute for Conservation Leadership and many others to assess the condition and needs of hundreds of regional, state, watershed and grassroots groups in the region.
There are many other organizations and agencies focused on meeting the immediate needs of people in the region. We will focus the use of this fund on helping the conservation community regroup and rebuild in the months ahead. We will begin making grants and providing targeted assistance quickly after the needs assessment is complete. We expect that to be by late October. The work is likely to continue for 1-2 years. The number and type of grants we can make will depend on the amount of money raised for the Fund.
Donate to the Gulf Coast Watershed Recovery Fund
Go to http://www.rivernetwork.org/katrina/ Make a contribution to help provide the financial, organizational and technical support that conservation organizations in the region will need in the coming months. Or mail to River Network, 520 SW 6th Ave., Portland, OR 97204. (503/241-3506.) Indicate your contribution is for the Gulf Coast Watershed Recovery Fund.
Visit River Network's National Directory of River Conservation Organizations to find the names and addresses of groups in the region. (Do contact the group or visit its website to make sure that it is currently able to receive mail before sending a check.) http://www.rivernetwork.org.
Help provide the support needed to respond effectively, especially at times like this.
Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New
 |
By Janet Strong, Chehalis River Basin Land Trust
[This article is reprinted from the April 2003 issue of Drops of Water. We are reprinting it because many newcomers to rural areas may not know about this disease.]
"I never get to sleep in," I have complained since last October when I adopted my pretty dog Baila. Each morning before dawn she wakes me up with a cold, wet nose in the face and a shrill whine in the ear. However, one morning this January she remained sprawled on the carpet and I finally caught enough z-z-z-z-zs. At first I was pleased but that soon turned to alarm as she moped into the kitchen and refused to eat the breakfast that usually disappears in a flash. And, despite her cool nose, the rest of her felt warmish, especially her belly where her coat is thinner. I hesitated for only a little while, subconsciously aware of the possibility of salmon poisoning, since we live near a healthy, fishy stream.
When I called, my veterinarian didn't hesitate for a second. "Get her in here right away," he said. Sure enough, she had a high temperature. A high temp, lethargy and loss of appetite are the first symptoms (coming about six days after exposure) of this awful disease, fatal 90% of the time in dogs that go untreated. Later symptoms include vomiting, bloody diarrhea, dehydration, anemia, severe weight loss and complete loss of appetite. The dog succumbs within 14 days of exposure.
Treatment depends on the severity of the symptoms. Diagnosis is assured through fecal exams revealing the eggs of the fluke, a trematode or flatworm. Treatment will include antibiotics, a wormer and possibly intravenous fluids to combat dehydration, perhaps a blood transfusion in later stages.
Luckily, we had caught Baila's case in the very early stages. She responded quickly to the antibiotic, bouncing back to her normal happy-go-lucky, energetic self in two days. But, since the causative organism is a tough one, she needed 10 days of antibiotic care to be sure of a cure. Now she is most likely immune for life to that nasty beast Neorickettsia helminthoeca, a rickettsia, a micro-organism with characteristics of both a bacterium and a virus.
What's that got to do with salmon, you may ask? The story is one of nature's cycles. Salmon, steelhead, trout, Pacific giant salamanders and freshwater fish along the Pacific coastal streams and rivers from northern California up to Seattle (some say up to Alaska) may be host to a fluke (Nanophyetus salmincola) whose alternate host is a snail (Oxytrema plicifer). The eggs of the fluke get passed from snail to fish to dog and back to snail through the dog's feces. If the fluke is in turn infected by the rickettsia, it gets passed along too. Animals in the dog family (coyote, wolf, fox, domestic dog) seem to be the only mammals harmed by the organism. Bears, raccoons and members of the cat family do not seem to be affected.
The geographic range of the disease corresponds with the range of the host snail. It is believed that the absence of the snail breaks the cycle in unaffected areas.
The symptoms mentioned above should never be ignored by dog owners, especially if the pet has had any exposure at all to raw or cold-smoked fish. Even one drop of blood can carry enough microbes to cause the disease. Death occurs because of the extreme wear and tear on the dog's body, dehydration and blood loss.
Practically, pet lovers can reduce exposure greatly:
1. Don't take your dog fishing. Can you keep you eye on him/her every second? It only takes one lick.
2. Avoid feeding your dog raw, undercooked or kippered fish, no matter how she whines for a taste.
3. Securely wrap and dispose of raw fish scraps from meals.
4. Leash your dog if you take him for walks near streams or lakes.
5. If, like me, you live in the country near a fish-bearing stream and you want your dog to have a little time to explore right around the house, be extra alert during salmon-spawning seasons, when the carcasses of spawned-out salmon are laying around by the streams, and a couple of months afterwards.
As for me, tomorrow morning when Baila rousts me out of bed too early – well, that's OK, I guess.
Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New
The CureBy Janet Strong Feeling lonely and ignored?
Can fair-feathered friends
Will the dee-dee-dees
Do the diners cautiously approach
Feeling lonely now?? |
Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New
 |
Pre-orders are now being accepted for the Thurston Conservation District's annual 2006 native plant sale. The parking lot event is scheduled for Saturday February 18th, 2006 from noon to 4:00 pm at the Thurston Conservation District (TCD), 2400 Bristol Ct. SW, Olympia.
The TCD offers conservation grade plants at affordable prices to the public. If you live outside Thurston County, please check with your local Conservation District to see if they offer this service.
At the 2005 sale, 42,000 native plants were sold. The 2006 event will feature information booths and plants for sale on a cash and carry basis, and the TCD staff will be on hand to answer your questions.
Pre-orders are accepted through January 18 for pick up on February 17 and 18. The order form is available on the TCD website, www.thurstoncd.com or call 360.754.3588.
For further details or more information, contact Kathleen Whalen, at kwhalen@thurstoncd.com or 754-3588, ext 114.