Tips, tricks, and a quick peek into the everyday life of the conservation district.
If you want to help those affected by the Okanogan Complex fire, firefighters and/or locals, here is information on what is needed and who to contact, from Craig Nelson of the Okanogan Conservation District. Please share this so that we can help our neighbors to the east as much as possible!
Read MoreWe were blown away by the number of submissions and the sheer enthusiasm for our first Lawns to Lettuce Un-Contest! Thanks so much to Garden Nursery - Arlington Co-op Supply In and to all our participants.
Read MoreA sunny and warm day on Camano Island greeted participants of the inaugural Lawns to Lettuce workshop.
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Description: The Snohomish Conservation District crew is based at the county's native plant nursery in Lake Stevens. The crew works on a wide variety of projects including riparian habitat restoration, volunteer supervision, construction projects (fish passage/large wood), fencing projects, outreach workshops/fairs, one or more rain garden/LID project, one NGPA project, one or more agricultural and forestry BMP construction and NRCS practice specification training. Members will complete one-on-one shadowing days with Farm Planners, Engineers, Water Quality, LID and Habitat Restoration Specialists to gain skills and experience in site assessment and design, engineering surveys, landowner education, construction supervision, GIS.
Projected Start Date: October 5
To kick off the program, we want to hear from you-- and you can earn prizes for sharing!
Read MoreThe Snohomish Conservation District is proud to announce the launch of our new Lawns to Lettuce Program! The goals of this latest effort are to encourage landowners to convert a portion of their lawn to growing edibles, and to highlight landowners who’ve already done so.
Read MoreRecently, Lyn took advantage of the cost-share program offered through the Stillaguamish River Clean Water District to add two sets of compost bins to her farm. She had one small bin, and had been making use of an area of pasture to hold excess manure from seven horses. It was covered, but far from the barns and difficult to drive up to in winter due to wet ground.
Read MoreThe Snohomish Conservation District recently launched their new ‘Lawns to Lettuce’ program and will be kicking it off with a workshop at The Open Gate Farm on Camano Island on July 18.
Read MoreDownload this great new Tips on Land & Water Management for Puget Sound Rural Living guide.
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Thank you to everyone who joined us in Mukilteo on April 1st for our Better Ground Showcase. We enjoyed meeting new people and reconnecting with our friends and partners.
From the talented group of young musicians who helped create the festive atmosphere at the beginning to the dedicated award winners who were honored for their incredible work, it was great to see so many wonderful examples of people celebrating local efforts to plant trees, produce healthy food, protect habitat and keep water clean and healthy for fish.
Everyone seemed to enjoy seeing so many young people being honored, from the environmental youth leaders to an innovative young farmer, we all felt hope for the future. Honoring lifelong environmental leaders like Barbara Brock beside students who are growing food, enhancing habitat and teaching their peers was especially enlightening. We look forward to another great year of working with our partners, residents, schools, and others to create better ground for all. If you would like to view the video about this year’s winners, go to this link: https://youtu.be/ASIOe77E9eY.
We hoped you enjoyed our 30th annual Plant 'Sale-abration' as much as we did.
About 40,660 native trees, shrubs and groundcover plants went home with eager folks, and our classes were a popular new addition.
Do you hear the fish jumping for joy? Kids splashing in the creek? Families laughing as they shovel into the sand after clams? Well, hopefully these sounds and sights will become more common in the future – if you’re near Woods Creek, Church Creek or South Skagit Flats.
The ink is still drying on three grant agreements awarded to the Snohomish Conservation District by the Washington State Department of Ecology. These grants will provide essential funding over the next two and a half years so the District can help landowners in Woods Creek (near Monroe) and Church Creek (near Stanwood) watersheds, and the South Skagit Flats (roughly the area north of Stanwood to the Snohomish County line between Skagit Bay and just east of I-5).
Cost-share funding is now available to eligible streamside property owners who want to better manage and contain livestock manure and reduce mud in their pastures by using compost bins and heavy use (sacrifice) areas. This funding will also help eligible streamside landowners plant native trees and shrubs along streams and build fences to keep livestock away from streams. All of these actions will help make Woods Creek, Church Creek and South Skagit Flats safer to play, swim, fish and clam in.
For qualified projects, a field crew is available to help landowners clear blackberry thickets and other non-native weeds along their streamside property, re-plant streambanks with native trees and shrubs, and install fencing as needed. The District will also host a series of workshops in these areas during the next two years to help landowners learn how they can best deal with common land management issues.
The goal of these grants is to reduce pollution in Woods Creek, Church Creek, and south Skagit Bay. Parts of Woods Creek get ‘summer fever’ every year, where the water temperature is too high for fish and other aquatic life to survive. When we get a fever, we can still breathe. But when a creek or river gets a ‘fever’ (any temperature above 61 degrees F), the amount of oxygen in the water decreases, so fish and other water creatures struggle to breathe and stay alive.
If that weren’t enough bad news, during certain times of the year the amount of fecal coliform bacteria in the stream (bacteria found in the poop of warm-blooded animals including humans, dogs, and farm animals) is so high the creek is considered unsafe for humans to swim in, drink, or pursue other recreational activities.
Church Creek and Skagit Bay have the same problem with high amounts of fecal coliform bacteria; during certain times of the year, bacteria levels that are high enough that the creek and bay are considered unsafe for swimming, drinking, and digging and eating shellfish. During the summer, levels of dissolved oxygen in parts of Church Creek are too low for fish and other aquatic critters to survive. In other words, they suffocate to death.
The good news is that over the past several years, many creeks and rivers in Snohomish County have gotten cleaner and cooler thanks to the hard work of many property owners, on-the-ground get-‘er-done organizations, and funders. The grants awarded to the District will help Snohomish County residents continue to make progress toward cleaning up local streams, rivers, Port Susan and Skagit bays, and Puget Sound — making these waters safer for humans, and cooler and healthier for the fish and other creatures that call them home.
By the end of 2016, landowners in the three project areas will have planted about 30 acres of native trees along streams, built several thousand feet of fences to keep livestock away from streams, and will have installed other best management practices on farms that keep bacteria and other pollutants out of the water.
In addition to the landowners who volunteer to complete these cost-share projects, several local partners will provide funding and labor, including the City of Stanwood, Snohomish County Surface Water Management, Washington Conservation Corps, Sound Salmon Solutions, and the Clean Water District Advisory Board (and its rate-payers).
If you’re interested in learning more about these kinds of projects or the cost-share funding available for streamside landowners in the Woods Creek, Church Creek and Skagit Bay areas, please contact Cindy Dittbrenner or Alex Pittman at 425-335-5634, ext 4 or email habitat(at)snohomishcd.org.
Snohomish Conservation District | 528 91st Ave NE, Lake Stevens, WA 98258 | 425-335-5634
