Whale, it’s o-fish-ally over!

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The last 10 months have been filled with demanding and inspirational experiences including but not limited to teaching over 1,100 students, handling dead (and living) salmon and other creatures with said students, designing new outreach materials and activities, and identifying my next pursuit in life. And it’s that last experience that will stick with me long after I’ve left Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group. 

While engaging children and adults alike this year, I have reaffirmed my love for learning and educating. There’s something addictive about all the new things we discover about our universe and the feeling only gets more addicting as you can share these discoveries with others so the knowledge multiplies again and again.  Nothing is as satisfying as the “a-ha!” moments on people’s faces when they make connections or experience something amazing. I love that feeling and want to be familiar with it always.

As a second-term AmeriCorps volunteer, I am so appreciative that Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group provides others like me the opportunity to get dirty, get involved, and get educated. I am planning on going back to school to finish my bachelor’s degree and work towards a Middle School Science teaching accreditation. I’ve been “the Salmon Lady” for the last two years and maybe in the future, I’ll use the other nickname I was given this year, Ms. V. 

Thank you to my students. Thank you to all the teachers I’ve worked with. Thank you to this amazing salmon community. 

Thank you thank you thank you, 

Ms. V the Salmon Lady

Scholarship available!

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Are you in or about to begin college?
Apply for the Regional Fisheries Coalition scholarship! Applications are due April 1st, 2019.

The Regional Fisheries Enhancement Groups established the Paul G. Ancich Memorial Scholarship in 2011 for students within the Skagit and other Washington watersheds that intend to major in environmental/natural science, fisheries, biology, ecology, hydrology or a related field. 

Hamilton Crowdsources Flood History

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by Lindsay Warne

Seventeen community members gathered in Hamilton on Thursday night, the 17th, to start planning a new restoration project for Carey Slough. SFEG is working with adjacent landowners and consulting partners to gather information to create a technical plan that benefits both people and fish. Restoration projects cannot increase the flood level of an area; therefore  accurate, on-the-ground data from the community is invaluable to correct and supplement existing information.

Hamilton Community Meeting

This project is the first phase of a multi-phase project. SFEG is currently collecting data, building relationships with local landowners, and working with those landowners and the Town to identify constraints and opportunities for habitat restoration.  We will ultimately identify and develop preliminary designs for one or more early-action projects that can be implemented (Phase 2).  Once we have achieved community support and have developed a solid conceptual restoration program and process we will move forward with developing designs for additional restoration and/or acquisition actions in Phase 2, and ultimately implement those projects to restore habitat in Carey’s Slough and the surrounding floodplain as part of Phase 3.

Working with Hamilton shows that every person can make a difference in their community. This meeting was the first of many in designing a working conceptual model that is supported by the community. Check the calendar for updates on our next meeting sometime in January.

For more information on SFEG projects check out our Current Project page: Current Projects

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