Sunny Day Stewardship

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On a recent cool sunny day, SFEG staff visited a few Seattle City Light-owned properties upriver.  Hydroelectric dams, of which Seattle City Light (SCL) has three on the Skagit River,  impact salmon and to compensate for (or offset) this SCL buys lands and puts them into a conservation trust.

Bengt Miller, Stewardship Coordinator, along the Skagit River at the Illabot Creek property

SFEG stewards about 2,500 acres for SCL. These lands are managed for multiple use by wildlife and humans, though regular check-ins are required to ensure plants are growing and human use is light and as intended.

Some of the new trees planted at Illabot Creek

At the sites known as Illabot and Carefree Acres, staff assessed the growth of newly planted native species, planted a few additional plants, and documented some new and existing human impacts. 

A dilapidated outhouse at Carefree Acres hints its former homesite days

Along the way we scared up a ruffed grouse, and saw ample evidence of deer and elk using both properties.  Songbird houses have been installed too, since habitat restoration is about WAY MORE than just salmon!

Birdhouses made by volunteer Jack Middleton and decorated by local youth provide nesting habitat for a variety of birds at Carefree Acres

Interested in SFEG? Become a Member!

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The Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group is working hard in our community to provide opportunities to improve the health of the Skagit Valley for salmon, wildlife and people. We know you value the benefits of having healthy watersheds and hope you will also find value in becoming a Member to continue to make a difference for salmon, wildlife, and our community. When you become a member, you contribute to a sustainable, healthy Skagit Valley for all of us.

You can visit our Become a Member page for more details

The salmon days aren’t over

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To help me reflect on my time here at the Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group, I looked back at my timecards for the last 10 months.  Planting parties, nursery maintenance, spawner surveys, grant writing, Earth Day planning, conferences, teaching, planting database management, potting parties, culvert surveys, vegetation monitoring, the list goes on and on and on.  I have had the opportunity to do SO MUCH during my service term and I am so grateful for every minute of it.

As a northern Californian, I knew nothing about the Skagit River watershed when I began my term in September.  I knew nothing about the immensely beautiful places that I would get to work in or the passionate people I would meet who dedicate their careers or their Saturdays to restoring the critically important salmon runs that call this watershed home.  Whether I was walking through Ennis Creek on a spawner survey with coho whipping through riffles around my boots, or watching flocks of snow geese fly above me as I worked at our native plant nursery, or driving out highway 20 to project sites in the fall under the brilliant oranges and reds of the deciduous tree leaves, or even planting willow stakes in the middle of a snow storm, I have fallen in love with this watershed.

This position with SFEG has taught me so much and confirmed my desire to pursue salmon habitat restoration as a career.  Going forward, I would like to get my graduate degree with a masters thesis focusing on restoration efforts in the Skagit.  In the past week or so, I have been reaching out to fisheries scientists who work in the watershed to identify unanswered research questions to help us better understand the effectiveness of restoration strategies and the specific life histories and habitat requirements of our Pacific salmon.  In the meantime before graduate school, who knows what I’ll be doing. What I do know is that I love working in the fisheries field and my term with SFEG has been a transformative experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world! Thank you!