A new group in Kittitas County is seeking community input to answer that question: The Checkerboard Partnership brings together an array of energized individuals, organizations and elected officials to permanently protect community access, support economic vitality and enhance conservation and forest health on this now-privately owned land. The group is exploring various ways to preserve the land.
Black Lives Matter
Supporting our community in a difficult time
In the Face of Fire: How Communities are Learning From Each Other
A shining star for nature
Fiber Co-op, Sustainable Seafood, and U-Pick Farm are winners of 2017 Washington Coast Works Competition
2017 Washington Coast Works Winners To Be Announced Nov 9
Greening Our Cities Begins with Grass-Roots Efforts
Brews and Beautiful Views
Photographed by Mo McBroom, Government Relations Director
What's better than brews and beautiful views? We recently hosted an event for young environmental professionals to network, relax, and talk about their work in a beautiful setting. Guests enjoyed our rooftop deck, with beautiful views of Puget Sound!
Meeting up allows us to get to know other young professionals across a diverse array of conservation and outdoor industry organizations. This will be a regular gathering, if anyone is interested in getting on the invitation list for the next event, please contact Tom Bugert:
Quinault Indian Nation named Title Sponsor for Washington Coast Works Sustainable Business Plan Competition
June 21, 2016 (Seattle, Washington) — Washington Coast Works is pleased to announce the Quinault Indian Nation as the Title Sponsor for the 2016 Sustainable Small Business Competition. This year’s business training is underway and will conclude July 22-24 during the Entrepreneurship Summit at the Olympic Natural Resource Center in Forks, Washington. At the Summit, participants will develop their presentation pitch and polish their business plans for a chance to vie for up to $20,000 in startup financing. Winners will be announced in October.
This year’s participating entrepreneurs include a cultural tourism business, a wood boat kit manufacturer, a bee keeper, a construction business, a chocolatier, a tiny homes builder, a food truck, a dog boarding business, a permaculture farm, a stump grinder, a nature-inspired fitness company, a sustainable vegetable and hog producer, and a manufacturer of art equipment. All are “triple-bottom-line” businesses from coastal communities in Grays Harbor, Jefferson and Clallam Counties and designed to generate profits with significant social and environmental benefits.
“The Quinault Indian Nation is a critical partner for us,” said Eric Delvin, Emerald Edge Project Manager at The Nature Conservancy. “Their commitment to conservation of their natural resources and to sustainable economic development is clearly demonstrated by their sponsorship of Washington Coast Works.”
Other 2016 competition sponsors include Enterprise for Equity and Washington Department of Commerce.
Washington Coast Works is an initiative of The Nature Conservancy in collaboration with Enterprise for Equity (with support from a USDA Rural Business Development Grant), the Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship, and the Ta’ala Fund, a native community development financial institution that supports business development in western Washington coast tribal communities.
The complete calendar of events leading up to the competition is available at www.wacoastworks.org. Contact at Mike Skinner info@wacoastworks.org to learn more about the competition, to volunteer to mentor or judge, or to request information about more sponsorship opportunities.
Act Locally, Share Globally
Written by Bob Carey, Strategic Partnerships Director
Photographs by Flickr Creative Commons
Just a few short hours north of Seattle and set in the vast beauty of British Columbia, the Conservancy's Floodplains by Design program was the featured topic at a Canadian Water Resource Association workshop in Surrey. More than 30 WATER resource management leaders overwhelmingly responded positively when, at the close, their president asked if they were inspired by this work happening just south of the border. Their response was just as positive when asked if they’d like to see such a program in British Colombia and on the Fraser River.
The gathering of representatives from BC’s major cities, the BC government, the Fraser River Basin Council and environmental and academic groups represent those on the forefront of managing the Fraser River – the largest river in both BC and the Salish Sea, and the watershed with the highest flood risks in Canada. The strong affirmation that the “Floodplains by Design” approach makes sense and is applicable across the border made me proud to be part of a team leading the charge in making the region’s rivers more resilient for people and nature.
Restoring nature to address societies most pressing challenges is a prominent theme in the Conservancy's global conservation agenda. Our Floodplains by Design work in Washington is one of the best success stories of accomplishing this at a meaningful scale. Having secured $80M in new funding and helped catalyze 30 projects across the state, in which the restoration of nature and reduction of community risks are being pursued hand-in-hand, it’s clear that the approach can deliver tangible benefits to people and nature. That is why the invitations to share our story are numerous.
In addition to myriad audiences in Washington, over the last couple years our WATER team members have shared the Floodplains by Design story with a variety of national and international audiences, including: China Coastal Wetland Conservation Network (China), Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference (Vancouver, BC), American Planning Association (Phoenix), Association of State Floodplain Managers (Atlanta, Seattle), National Academy of Sciences (Washington DC), North American Water Learning Exchange (Pensacola, Phoenix) and the NW Floodplain Management Association (Post Falls, ID).
There are many great things about working for The Nature Conservancy, among them – the ability to innovate, the ability to scale up our work, and the ability to export beyond our borders.
It’s a recipe for making real change in the world.
Packing Passion: Community Sits at Heart of Floodplain Planning
Written by Jeanine Stewart, Volunteer writer
In the political world of environmental activism, so often the tendency is to side with one issue at all costs, destroying any and all interests that get in the way.
That’s not the case for The Nature Conservancy’s Puget Sound community relations manager Heather Cole, who joined last October. She works with communities to find environmentally sound solutions to Puget Sound major river systems.
The major question she’s tasked with? How to help communities in Puget Sound develop floodplain management visions – minimizing flood risk in areas prone to flooding while also improving ecosystem benefit, such as improving salmon habitat and water quality – that take into account the often-conflicting interests of a diverse list of stakeholders.
“Local jurisdictions, , tribes, farmers, diking districts, for example – they all have competing values for how they want to manage the same piece of land,” Cole said. “The question is, how do we integrate all those multiple values of the local community?”
Read more about the Conservancy’s work in floodplains here.
Rapid population growth necessitates swift movement on these discussions. The Puget Sound region’s population will likely grow 8 percent between 2014 and 2020, and 28 percent by 2040, according to the Puget Sound Regional Council.
This puts pressure on local jurisdictions to allow more construction. Meanwhile, farmers face a daily struggle to make a living from the same land. And the region’s iconic salmon need habitat and clean water. All these needs must be balanced with those of flood safety, Cole explains.
She’s now hard at work on the first step of balancing these interests, identifying the barriers that get in the way of conservation planning by collaborating with all the parties involved, including local leaders.
Working through conflicting interests to find common ground is Cole’s specialty. She brings nearly a decade of experience working for the state of Washington on natural resource issues, doing research, planning and community development. She also received a master’s in international development and environmental analysis in Australia.
Cole sees each group’s interests as a key piece of the puzzle rather than barriers to a tunnel-vision view of the solution.
“Coming from a natural resources perspective and working in the natural resources field for a number of years, you come to realize that these issues can’t be solved with a technical silver bullet,” Cole said. “We have to understand the people landscape. People are part of the problem, and they are part of the solution.”
This simple and clear-headed approach is a calming reprieve from the complex and lofty goals Cole has her eyes on.
Asked to summarize her work, she says it focuses on “integrated floodplain management where local groups can find agreement on strategies and actions for our rivers that have multiple benefits, such as improving flood safety, agriculture preservation and restoring floodplain connections that support endangered species like salmon; while also bringing in climate change information so that we are making wise investments today that will survive in a changing climate fifty to a hundred years from now.”
October Volunteer Spotlight: Alicia Watras
Alicia Watras has been heavily involved as a volunteer with The Nature Conservancy in Washington ever since she signed up in July 2014 and almost immediately joined us at our first annual Passport to Port Susan Bay event. Since then she has been actively supporting our mission in a variety of ways, including as an active member of the Conservation Ambassadors, a regular Gratitude Team caller, and by contributing to a host of office projects and work parties on our preserves.
Aside from her passion for conservation Alicia holds an MBA from the University of Washington and is an avid rock climber.
We recently asked Alicia to give us her thoughts on volunteering with The Nature Conservancy, and here's what she had to say:
The Nature Conservancy: What inspired you to start volunteering with The Nature Conservancy?
Alicia Watras: The global, science-based, and collaborative approach that TNC takes for protection of biodiversity, healthy environments for people and animal, and maintaining some wild lands inspired me to volunteer some of my energy and time to help further the cause.
Various volunteering opportunities I have enjoyed include restoration projects led by environmental scientists, spreading awareness about TNC and environmental issues through tabling at special events, and office work in the Seattle location. Examples:
- Planting cottonwood in Fisherman Slough where there was an overview of the history of the project and the objectives of our volunteer efforts
- Representing TNC and taking part in the Big Tent Event in Olympia
- Taking notes for an in-person meeting of different, international Reef Resilience TNC scientists and coordinators
I enjoy projects where I can see progress occurring or –as the progress achieved is not tangible in some cases or in early stages of enormously-scoped projects- at least see a practical efforts in action!
TNC: What's your favorite thing to do when you're not volunteering?
AW: Backpacking in National Parks.
TNC: Who is your environmental hero?
AW: One is Jane Goodall. Among others include the many TNC employees and volunteers that I have met!
TNC: Is there anything you would like to see The Nature Conservancy doing that we are not already doing?
AW: In the PNW: a monumental, organized, collaborative effort to remove English Ivy and other invasive plant species. I volunteered at Chuckanut Island removing ivy and hope to volunteer for the same event next year in the aim to eventually free the island of ivy so that indigenous plant species can recover and also support the animal life there. There are many other places in Washington where I would like to help remove ivy and help a greater variety of plant life get a chance at growing. I would love to be part of a cross-organizational, multi-decade-long, concerted effort across the PNW to control the continuing spread of ivy.
Be the change. Sign up to Volunteer Today.
Memories of Port Susan Bay Day
Engaging visitors of all ages in our efforts to restore Puget Sound
Written by Laura Lea Rubino, Marketing Intern
Photographed by Katherine Cairns (1-4), Photography Volunteer and Laura Lea Rubino (5-10), Marketing Intern
More than 100 people attended this year’s Port Susan Bay Day at our local estuarine preserve. This annual family-friendly event offered visitors a rare opportunity to explore the unique landscape and learn how restoration returned the estuary to historical conditions.
With a Port Susan Bay passport in hand, visitors stopped at science stations along the dike to learn about topics from invasive species to climate change. Visitors collected a stamp in their passport at each station to choose a prize at the end of their self-guided tour. Many took advantage of the warm beautiful day to wander along the dike and watch the tide come in. Others retreated to the shade for face painting and an ice cream sandwich. We enjoyed meeting new people and sharing our work with the local community—thank you to everyone who came out for Port Susan Bay Day!
See the slideshow above!
Protecting an Emerald Edge
In the Tongass, and throughout the Emerald Edge, the Nature Conservancy is investing in an innovative timber industry that ensures healthy forests and healthy local communities.
The 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest is in the uppermost part of the Emerald Edge – the world’s largest temperate rainforest, which stretches from southeast Alaska to coastal British Columbia and ends in Washington. Relentless loss of old-growth forests and widespread unemployment in some areas pose real threats to the people in this region, whose economic and cultural livelihood relies on a healthy forest system.
Throughout the Emerald Edge, many of the old-growth forests have been logged, leaving behind clusters of small-diameter trees, creating inadequate habitat for wildlife. Twenty-five years ago, the U.S. Forest Service outlined plans to solve this problem by developing a young-growth timber industry in the Tongass National Forest, but little progress has been made. In an effort to protect the remaining old-growth forests in the Tongass, TNC has facilitated a revolving loan to jumpstart a more sustainable young-growth forest industry.
The revolving loan will provide a model throughout the Emerald Edge for restoring forests and offering growth opportunities otherwise unavailable to small businesses.
2,500 forest acres purchased above Clearwater River
2,500 Acres for a Sustainable Future!
The Conservancy has just bought 2,538 acres of forest above the Clearwater River on the Washington Coast!
This new acquisition adds momentum to our work with coastal communities and tribes to promote sustainable economies, restore the Olympic rainforest and support a healthy ocean.
It adds to the Conservancy Clearwater Forest Reserve and connects to the state’s Natural Resources Conservation Area to create a nearly complete 38-mile conservation corridor along the river.
The Clearwater River runs cool and clear out of the Olympic Mountains, flowing into the Queets River, which is one of the Washington Coast’s most important salmon rivers. Restoration in this forest is an important step to increasing the abundance of salmon in coastal rivers.
Together with the earlier acquisitions on the Queets and Clearwater, the Conservancy is now managing nearly 8,000 acres of forest lands in Jefferson County. Conservancy foresters and ecologists have developed long-term plans that include planting trees, restoring important salmon and wildlife habitat, and sustainable long-rotation timber harvest where it makes sense.
We hire local contractors for much of this work, providing sustainable jobs for the surrounding communities.
Farther south on the Washington Coast, the Conservancy owns and manages nearly 8,000 acres at the Ellsworth Creek Preserve adjoining Willapa National Wildlife Refuge on Willapa Bay.
All our land in the region continues to be open to public and tribal use for hunting, fishing, traditional gathering of plants and medicines, boating, birding, hiking, and other coastal outdoor activities.
Photo Credit © Keith Lazelle
Scouts & Old Growth
“With 13 boys along there was no shortage of energy and humor.”
BY BOB CAREY, NATURE CONSERVANCY SENIOR PARTNERSHIP DIRECTOR, PUGET SOUND PROGRAM
Thirteen boys. 600 acres. 800 year old trees. Those are the impressive numbers from a weekend backpacking trip to Noisy Creek, along the eastern shore of Baker Lake. Boy Scout troop 4100 camped in the shadows of old-growth forest protected by The Nature Conservancy in 1990.
The conservation of this forest turns out to be a gift that keeps on giving. Amidst spectacular views of Mount Baker and Baker Lake, we walked through trees up to 15 feet in diameter in an area known for prolific owl activity. An adrenaline-infused game of “wolves and rabbits” (a teen-appropriate combination of hide-and-seek and tag) among the towering trees and billowing mosses made these youngsters forget all about their day to day lives and fully enjoy this time away from it all.
A weekend in the old-growth is a great respite from the drum of civilization and the pace of everyday lives packed to the brim with work, school, sports, music, homework. It was wonderful to see boys relax in an environment where they could be themselves. And it’s amazing how comfortable and completely un-bored they were in a place so far from their TV/video screens.
All of this was made possible through the conservation of an old growth forest, set aside for future generations before these boys were even born. What a great reminder of how critical it is that we save these very special natural places for generations to come.