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!