Tips, tricks, and a quick peek into the everyday life of the conservation district.
For the past eight years, the District has received funding through an assessment, which has been leveraged with grants and other funding sources. The District Board of Supervisors plans to file a new rate proposal with the Snohomish County Council to ensure that the District can continue to provide these services into the future.
Read MoreWe’re filling our office to the brim with rain barrels and keeping our doors open late for this special one-day only pick-up event, just in time for summer watering. You will get a pre-assembled 55-gallon barrel with sturdy components (spigot, overflow spout, mesh over inlet).
Read MoreLike all new endeavors, creating habitat for local pollinators can seem a little daunting at first glance. If you take it step by step however, it can be simple, interesting, and rewarding for you and your plants.
Read MoreSnohomish Conservation District hosted members of the Washington State Conservation Commission and other partners and elected officials on a tour of the area on Wednesday, January 18th. The tour is part of a two-day work session that the Commission holds quarterly for its ten-member board and commission staff around the state.
Read MoreSnohomish Conservation District has an opening for a Resource Planner I position. The Resource Planner I is focused on providing technical assistance and education to equine and small farm landowners in Snohomish County and Camano Island.
Read MoreTwo local residents were recently awarded the Vim Wright ‘Building Bridges’ award at the 2016 annual meeting of the Washington Association of Conservation Districts in Bellingham. This year’s award went to Tristan Klesick, Klesick Farms and Terry Williams, Tulalip Tribes.
Read MoreResidents who live or own land in portions of the Skykomish, Snohomish and Stillaguamish River watersheds may be eligible for funding through a new grant program called the Regional Conservation Partnership Program or RCPP. Landowners can choose from livestock heavy-use areas, manure storage and composting systems, roof runoff systems, cover crops, stream plantings, fish passage barrier removal and much more.
Read MoreGuest Feature by Sarah Arney
More than 25 years ago, after deciding to build a house in a pasture on my father’s dairy farm, I started planting trees around the site of my future home. When neighbors saw me planting trees, some commented that those farmers who cleared the land 100 years ago were rolling over in their graves, after all their hard work here. Clearing land for hay and critters was the thing to do in those days, here in the Stillaguamish River Valley.
Things have changed
Now, with changes in agriculture and the dairy industry, the thing to do is to plant trees along streams and the river to enhance fish habitat and water quality.
It was March 2014 when I first learned about the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (or CREP), a government program coordinated in Snohomish County by Snohomish Conservation District. At a public meeting in Oso, I learned the District was offering assistance for planting Northwest native trees and shrubs along 300 feet of my river frontage and on both sides of a creek that crosses my land.
Soon after that public meeting, my brother Bob and I met with a resource planner from the Conservation District and did a walkabout on the property left from Dad’s original Arney Dairy Farm. She said it was perfect for the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program.
A Blue Tube and Native Plant Forest is Born
In November 2015 we signed a contract and received a map showing the areas to be planted and an extensive list of plants to be planted. The list ranged from classic Douglas fir and Western red cedar to willows, birch, cascara, Pacific crabapple and big leaf maple, to name just a few. Shrubbery to in-fill between the bigger trees included red osier dogwood, snowberry, Nootka rose, beaked filbert and too many more to remember.
The planting was done in March this year by a contractor, Calypso Restoration, and the field was full of blue protectors. It looked a bit like a war memorial cemetery. Now, thanks to the rapidly growing field grass, there’s no sign of blue — until the hay is cut this summer.
It was a long and complicated process, but it finally came together, and we are excited to watch this new riparian forest outgrow the canary grass and blackberries. I don’t believe my father would begrudge our decision to reforest the farm. I’m quite sure he would honor our contribution to the future of this earth. By the way, those trees I planted in 1990 in preparation for building my home? They are now 30 to 40 feet tall!
The next task for the Arney Farm, also funded through CREP, is maintaining the new plantings for five years to make sure plants have a fair chance to survive. Crews and private contractors generally provide this service by mowing and weeding annually.
-From 2016 Summer Nexus
Update: Apologies, our rain barrel supply for our May 20 one-day sale has sold out.
Thanks so much for your interest, we're so surprised by the number of pre-orders coming in! So we're a happy-sad mix of emotions to announce that the rain barrel supply for our May 20 one-day sale has sold out. Thanks again for your support and enthusiasm for our rain barrel program!
Read MoreWould you like to provide feedback on our 2017 work plan? Now's the chance, our 2017 work plan is open for comments and review from now until Monday, May 16 at noon.
Read MoreOur 2016 plant sale was loads of fun and okay, loads of work, too. We couldn’t have done it without our hardworking staff, volunteers, conservation crew and booth folks.
Read MoreImproving watershed health takes everyone. It takes landowners of all types – urban, rural, farmers – coming together and figuring out how they can do their part to keep the watershed healthy for the near- and long-term. Since 2013, the Snohomish Conservation District has been working to accomplish exactly that in the Church Creek sub-basin, thanks to a grant.
Read MoreWe partnered with Alayne Blickle, from Horses for Clean Water, to create this informative series of short videos on a range of essential horsekeeping topics. The best news? Each of the 9 videos is under 2 minutes long!
Read MoreSoil temperature mirrors air temperature. So instead of putting a thermometer in the ground, you can use a formula called “T-Sum 200” to track soil temperatures indirectly and determine when grass will begin to grow.
Read More2015 was another exciting and productive year here at the Snohomish Conservation District. We have enjoyed our opportunity to engage with such a diverse and committed set of landowners and partners. The accomplishments for 2015 are based upon and driven by the willingness of private landowners and managers to actively manage the natural resources they control. Additionally, the accomplishments for 2015 are significantly impacted via project collaborations with partners. We sincerely thank everyone that has made a positive contribution and impact on natural resource management this past year.
Read MoreOne thing you hear a lot when you take a walk in the woods with local forester Duane Weston is his to-do list. He frequently mentions where he needs to fill in with new trees, clear a fallen log, clean up one of many trails, add more wildlife habitat, or thin an older stand of trees. There seems to be a never-ending list of work on a 40-plus acre tree farm, but you can tell Duane relishes the opportunity to work on it and make on-going improvements.
Read MoreA historic dairy farm just off Highway 530 in Arlington was recently rescued from development with a unique project to untangle a host of legal issues.
Read MoreVolunteer to help bundle and sort plants in preparation of our 31st annual Native Plant Sale! For every 4 hour shift worked, volunteers will receive speciality native plants, not for sale, and exclusively available to volunteers!
Read MoreThe 31st Annual Native Plant Sale is now open.
Read MoreFrom pasture to potatoes, and pumpkins to hay, lime is more often than not a key component in creating the ideal soil for our current agricultural activities. Without the addition of lime, native soils are usually too acidic for many of the crops we want to grow.
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Snohomish Conservation District | 528 91st Ave NE, Lake Stevens, WA 98258 | 425-335-5634
