Tips, tricks, and a quick peek into the everyday life of the conservation district.
Planting natives along your stream or wetland, or anywhere on your property, provides many benefits to our natural landscape. This list helps identify native plants that can help stabilize your soil.
Read MoreMore and more frequently now people are recognizing that people, wildlife and the environment all benefit from a landscape of native plants. To promote the use of native plants, Conservation Districts in Washington State hold native plant sales every winter. This is a great opportunity to purchase native plants and the price can’t be beat—plants are sold at wholesale cost. Read on to learn more about native plants and how they can be used to enhance your horse property.
Read MoreHow much time and energy do you spend watering in the summer? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a drought-resilient landscape? Several choices exist for creating a beautiful yard that can withstand weather extremes, and one option is planting native plants.
Read MoreFifty Skagit and Snohomish County farmers gathered Tuesday morning to learn about funding programs, new regulations and management tools for handling manure to protect water quality.
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 MoreOverview: Snohomish Conservation District announces a position opening for Office Assistant I in their Lake Stevens office. This position will be responsible for organizing documentation for grant billings and data entry into the District’s financial management software (BIAS). As needed, the Office Assistant I will participate in District public engagement activities such as fairs, workshops, and other District sponsored programs and events. The person hired for this position is directly responsible to the Program Integration Manager, and will be working primarily with the District financial management team.
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 MoreStudents at Arlington and Weston High School recently completed rain catchment projects at their schools. Combined, both projects have the capacity to collect and store 1,430 gallons of water!
Read MoreSnohomish Conservation District was recently awarded the ‘State Auditor’s Stewardship Award’ for ‘outstanding accomplishment in the stewardship of public resources as we pursue the shared goal of government that works better, costs less, and earns greater public trust’.
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 MoreHow will agriculture and salmon coexist? What will happen as our landscape and climate change over the next few decades? These questions and many more were the topic of a discussion held at the November ‘Focus on Farming’ conference in Monroe. Some of the pressing issues included: the projected impacts of climate change on crops, how farmers can plan for flooding risks and changing weather patterns and how they can take advantage of longer growing seasons and higher levels of carbon dioxide. Presenters included: Tristan Klesick, Klesick Family Farm and Co-Chair of the Sustainable Lands Strategy group; Will Stelle, NOAA Fisheries; Chad Kruger, WSU Extension; and Cindy Dittbrenner, Snohomish Conservation District. The ultimate goal is to form an Agriculture Resilience Plan for agriculture and to help farmers plan for risk.
To learn more, visit http://snohomishcd.org/ag-resilience.
Our Board of Supervisors and Staff are pleased to announce the 2016 Conservation Leaders of the year. We're honoring a diverse set of local leaders this year- from commercial farmers to urban residents and children to elders. One thing is for sure, this year’s recipients are an incredible group whose collective accomplishments are sure to inspire others to take action to make this world a better place.
Read MoreIn the pouring rain, on Thursday, October 13th a group of students from Jackson High School's Green Team finished a year-long project to transform a large, compacted, bare area of soil into a beautiful sustainable landscape.
Read MoreMake A Difference Day was on Saturday, October 22. Volunteers from various community groups showed up to help with projects that will protect Puget Sound. These volunteers planted plants in a large rain garden and helped to build 150 rain barrels out of upcycled food-grade barrels.
Read More
Our one-day rain barrel sale is back, for the last time in 2016. Purchase your barrel on Saturday, October 22 at the Mill Creek Lowe's Parking Lot. Snohomish Conservation District is teaming up with Lowe's, King 5, and the Glenn Phillips Law Firm to build 150 rain barrels in the morning before the sale as part of Make a Difference Day. Once installed, the rain barrels will divert approximately 135,000 gallons of polluted storm water from entering our waterways each year.
You will get a pre-assembled 55-gallon barrel with sturdy components (spigot, overflow spout, mesh over inlet).
Residents 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 MoreSnohomish Conservation District co-hosted a solar workshop and farm tour on October 5th that allowed people to see a working system on a local farm and learn about incentives for solar projects on farms.
Read More2016 marks the 75th anniversary of Snohomish Conservation District. There have been so many great leaders who have championed conservation here in Snohomish County, on Camano Island, and in the Puget Sound area. Some have been recognized, others not so much. Here are a few who have worked with us, or in the area, that we'd like to recognize, along with three books which highlight the life and work of these pioneer leaders.
Read MoreHave you had a new farm project on the back burner that always seems to be waiting for the right moment or enough extra cash to begin? Maybe a manure bin, soil improvements or gutters and downspouts for the barn (the muddy season is fast approaching, after all). Fortunately for residents of portions of the Snohomish and Stillaguamish River watersheds, the time to begin may be now.
Read MoreCover cropping builds soils health by increasing organic matter which in turn can help drainage, retain soil moisture, increase nutrient availability and reduce erosion. Ideal planting dates will vary regionally but here in the PNW many growers will seed in the coming weeks. This means that some tough decisions will need to be made concerning which cover is right for you!
Read More
Snohomish Conservation District | 528 91st Ave NE, Lake Stevens, WA 98258 | 425-335-5634
