Another Fantastic Year of FCRW Celebrated at the Aquarium

Last night we celebrated our Cedar River Salmon Journey naturalists and Volunteer Habitat Restoration volunteers in all their fantastic glory with a gorgeous and inspirational venue at the Seattle Aquarium.  Our 75 guests were treated to an in-depth analysis on the migratory habits of sockeye, coho, Chinook and other species from University of Washington fisheries biologist Tom Quinn.  Our group rounded out the evening with a tour of the aquarium’s touch tanks and gathering in a fascinated huddle around the other-worldly octopus.

 

Happy New Water Year!

Water.  We take it for granted…especially in the Northwest.

Drop.

Drop-drop-drop.

Drop-drop.

Drop-drop-drop-drop.

By October, we really take it for granted.

Up at the Cedar River Watershed  Education Center, the first thing I noticed—aside from the swath of lush green, rain-rich landscape past North Bend I’d been driving through—was the sound of the water drums. Half-hidden under overhanging young vine maples and other northwest plants, stately drums of various sizes receive a rhythmic cascade of raindrops that fall (cued by a sound design program) to the tones and beats of five different world culture rhythms that play in a subtle sequence.

Listen to the beat of the drums

The rain drums are the perfect accompaniment to the Cedar River Environmental Center, a set of buildings designed by Seattle’s well-respected Jones and Jones architects. Outside, covered walkways (easier to get around in the rain) shelter you from building to building, and the green roofs –not British Racing Green color—but a soft “green” (double-meaning) layer of mosses, ferns, and grasses speak of how well this building fits into and respects its environment.

Sue Rooney, our much-appreciated-just-departed-for-her-next-challenge Executive Director, had been urging me to come up here since I joined the Board of the Friends just a year ago.  Finally, last day of September, a couple FCRW staff members,  a few representatives of Brown Bear Car Wash (one of the Friends cherished supporters) and I came up for a tour.  (A rainy day has a different tone for the car wash company; it means less people get their cars washed.) We were met by Ralph Naess, Manager of Public and Cultural programs for Seattle Public Utilities, who was going to give us a tour of our municipal watershed.  But first, we went inside the building.

Getting things into perspective

A huge 3D topographical display of the entire watershed—from the snows to the sound—dominates the interior of the exhibit hall. You can walk around it and see the dark greens of old growth forest areas, blue lakes, and the dotted yellow line that prescribes the official boundaries of the protection zone. It’s huge!

Our municipal watershed is a natural area of about 9,500 acres (143 square miles) owned by and protected by the City of Seattle (and how that came about is a fascinating story in itself that begins back in 1899). Our area is almost unique in having forest-filtered, pristine water flowing in our pipes for drinking, bathing, making coffee, floating bridges, returning salmon, running locks, or washing cars (in an environmentally-responsible way).

Outside again, we drove up to Masonry Dam, a dull name for a spectacular place, and then to the expansive Chester Morse Lake. Standing there, at the edge of that serene lak , the real meaning of the phrase “from the forests to the faucet” really takes hold. As does the importance of the work of the Friends to promote stewardship—and the partners, and the thousands of volunteers who take the time and make choices that make a difference.

Walking across the dam

I think about our “watershed address.” It includes the 14 major watersheds, 27 cities and 13 school districts that comprise the Cedar River/Lake Washington watershed. I came back with a renewed appreciation of my personal watershed address:  McAleer Creek, which flows into the North end of Lake Washington.

And I think about our Executive Director Sue Rooney’s moving on. During her tenure, our organization has grown from 350 volunteers in 2006 to 1600 in 2010; and from 9 restoration events in 2006 to 42 events in 2010; and from 150 landowners reached in 2008 the first year of the Stewardship in Action program to reach a projected 600 landowners in 2011.  (So, if you know of a dynamic, inspired leader with strong management skills—lead them to consider applying for the role of Executive Director.)

Cedar Falls--it is pure water!

Our last stop on the municipal watershed tour was Cedar Falls, an awesome cascade of white water plunging down and around great grey rocks to a pool below.  An amazing thing, according to Ralph, is that the water at Cedar Falls is a remarkable blue color because it is pure water. Yep, when water from the falls was analyzed by the City of Seattle’s water testing lab all were shocked to learn that this water was just that-water, and nothing more.  As we were leaving, we felt the first drops. Ralph’s face lit up like 4^th of July. “It’s raining!” More than a keen grasp of the obvious, Ralph was excited because the very next day, October 1^st, was for the utility, the start of a new year—a new water year as the rains begin.

So, raise a glass and toast: Happy birthday, watershed! From the forest to the faucet—drop, by drop, by drop…

drop-drop

drop-drop-drop-drop…

Microsoft Day of Caring -1 Blackberries -0

“It makes a difference for a team, a real morale booster, to get out and volunteer.”

Really, there is something about getting out in nature that gets us back to the elemental.  Back to the rhythm of it all.  That is why I am always so pleased to see teams of professional colleagues getting out and giving back.  I especially like it when all this creative energy and go-team spirit is applied to grubbing out blackberries at the glorious King County Natural Area, Cavanaugh Pond in Renton.

Cavanaugh Pond has been a site of focused volunteer habitat restoration work since 2006.  Thanks to the many hands of groups, individuals, and business teams we are creating habitat and protecting the river, while improving the experience for the users of the Cedar River Trail. We really appreciate all our community partners!
On Friday, September 16th, a team of over 50 Microsoft employees gathered at Cavanaugh early in the morning to participate in the United Way’s annual Day of Caring.  After carpools were shuttled and parked and the team made their way (a little sleepily) down the trail, they got briefed on the history of the site and the guidelines of the day’s project.

Just as soon as shovels and gloves were handed out this team was ready for action.  Maybe it was the crisp early autumn wind or the fact that a handful of spawning sockeye were already in the river, but what ever the reason, this team was pumped!  Many spoke of appreciating the chance to build their team while giving back to the larger community.  A couple noted that this activity made them think about community a bit more broadly.

A Renton resident named Tony appreciated that he could make a difference in his own backyard.  “It is really nice to have the chance to make a difference for people and the environment really close to home.” The Microsoft team coordinator, Amanda Black, was feeling great about the determination and satisfaction her staff was exhibiting as they built many towering piles of blackberry vines. “It makes a difference for a team, a real morale booster, to get out and volunteer.”

At lunch time the crew found a seat next to the river so they could learn about the journey of the Cedar’s sockeye each fall.  Longtime Cedar River Salmon Journey naturalist, Larry Reymann, eloquently wove together the past and present of this river and the salmon runs of the Pacific Northwest. He asked thoughtful, and occasionally provocative, questions to engage the group in pondering the future of these fish stocks and how that relates to the overall health of the community.

We actually had a short tour planned for the team after lunch, but, NO! they were ready to get back to the task of reclaiming Cavanaugh Pond from blackberries so that it can be fully used by its many residents and appreciated by its many supporters and admirers.

Our next opportunity to get out to Cavanaugh takes place on October 8th from 10am-2pm.  Contact nisa@cedarriver.org to sign up.  This planting extravaganza is not to be missed!

Getting to Know the Cedar River from the Inside Out

I grew up on the Willamette River outside of Portland. Looking back, I think that experience has framed most of the things I consider home. I have always appreciated cold water swims and never miss the opportunity to encourage the children in my life to explore along the edge of waterways, be it a tide pool or a squishy, muddy riverside like the ones I spent hours investigating in my youth. I used to comb the banks of the Willamette next to our neighbor’s dock looking for crawdads with my friend Amy. We would sit on the smooth stones that populated the river mud and while away many summer hours surrounded by the activities that make up a dynamic urban river system—wildlife, commerce, fishing, hiking, and just riverside living. Although I was small, these experiences impressed upon me how seemingly disparate elements of modern life come together through our waterways. Rivers, whether they run through our urban core, pristine wilderness, or anywhere in between, are the veins of our communities. Although I find time spent on the banks of rivers to be grounding, there is no substitute for being in the water, to understand the dynamic ebb and flow that makes up a living riparian environment.

That is why I have felt my connection to the Cedar to be missing a critical component until just a couple weeks ago. I had never floated or swam in this river that provides my drinking water and that I have worked to restore nearly every day of the week for over the last two years. This is a gap that needed to be filled! Hence, I jumped at the kind offer by Dorre Don resident, and long-time river rider, Nancy Douty to join her and her partner Randy on a kayak trip down the Cedar this summer.
A valuable aside is that I met Nancy because she took the initiative to contact me after learning about the free services available to landowners along the river to remove a particularly aggressive invasive plant called knotweed and replace the weed with native plants that are better for the river and shoreline through Stewardship in Action. Knotweed increases erosion due to its explosive growth and large root structure. It is also not really edible for our native wildlife and insects. These factors reduce food and shelter available to the Cedar’s Chinook, sockeye, and coho populations. To add insult to injury, knotweed emits a toxin from its roots that discourages the growth of other plants. Where knotweed grows, nothing else can thrive. Nancy has seen this drama unfold on her and her neighbor’s property first hand, and knew that something needed to be done. We are glad she has taken the initiative to collaborate with her neighbors and seek our help. We are more than happy to oblige and are already planning to treat the weed and create wildlife habitat for the elk and other animals that frequent the property. It’s a win-win.

Our kayaying plan was to meet Friday before last–Nancy, Randy, their good friend Char, and myself– in Dorre Don to suit up and then drive to a designated put-in site just below Landsburg Dam. I woke early that morning ready to get to know “my,” river. Unfortunately, I felt a bit under the weather, but that did not deter me. As I pulled in the driveway, my enthusiasm was amplified by Sarah, a bounding retriever, who was equally excited to have people joining in on the day’s activities. Soon people, gear, boats, and dogs were piled into a van to drive just over five miles to our starting point.

Finally! I was going to get to know the river from the inside out. It was not until I was sitting my kayak that I had to be honest with myself.  I was a little scared. River kayaking was always something I found a little daunting. I am a skier and have at times in my life been an avid outdoors woman, but I was nervous. Thankfully my fear was overshadowed, for the most part, with feeling lucky, curious, and excited. Sure, fear has its place, but, there was much to learn from my new vantage point. One of the things I found most compelling about traveling by kayak is how I could FEEL the river. As we moved downstream—I moved kind of fast—apparently I responded to my nerves by paddling a bit much– I gained a deeper appreciation of the things I was already aware of but experiencing in a new way. Randy pointed out the deep holes where Chinook prefer to spawn as we floated over top. I became better able to identify the pea to golf ball-sized gravel in which sockeye choose to lay their eggs. I saw places where gravel was no longer present due to past flooding events and river channelization.  I saw other places where gravel had been added to the river to attempt to restore a scenario similar to natural river conditions. We floated past engineered wood placements, designed to slow the flow of water and create spaces for fish to rest and spawn. It was clear that this wood does indeed create pools and eddys that fish might prefer. However, it was also apparent that some installations are better than others in achieving the elusive goal of mimicking Mother Nature. Some of these placements appeared to be a success while others diverted one problem while possibly creating another.  Oh, the tradeoffs that come when trying to strike the balance between man and nature.  Humans have channelized this river, brought in plants that damage habitat, and make daily choices that impact water quality for good or ill.  Man will also always be drawn to water.  It is our nature and ultimately,  it is up to us to continue to seek that elusive balance. I believe the answers are not easy, but they exist.  We have to keep talking, learning, and adapting.

Over the course of our float, I was fascinated by what appeared to be a historical catalog of home construction choices. The shoreline is a showcase of the different preferred building techniques employed along the river over the last 50 years or so. I saw concrete patios that meet the water’s edge, homes designed with deep set-backs from the edge, and varying techniques to promote privacy, view maximization, and shoreline stabilization. The Cedar is a dynamic and shifting body and people have chosen to interact with her in a variety of ways. Our course also took us under naturally soft and eroding cliffs populated with lush ferns. This river, in varying degrees, provides habitat,nourishment, recreation, and a sense of place for all of us.
My comfort with kayaking ebbed and flowed like the river. I paddled hard when Randy, a 28 year river guide veteran told me, and I attempted to choose the proper course as the river turned and spread as best I could. Kayaking is fun, but like any new skill, the experience improves with practice. Aside from the physical present and history I was observing, I relished learning small tidbits about times past. My favorite: Dorre Don was a coal mining camp named after a miner’s children Doreen and Don. The rich coal mining history of the area was evident in the coal-laden ledges that still line the river.
As we wound closer to our exit point, I thought I was likely to complete my adventure more or less complication-free. All in all, it had been pretty easy, except for the fact that I really did have to paddle hard to avoid the pull of wood in the river. It felt like a magnet tugging at my boat. Ha! I relaxed too soon. Just a half mile or so from our end point, a log got me. I just didn’t quite paddle enough, and as I had been warned, getting too close to wood can flip your boat. One minute I was paddling, the next my kayak was suspended atop a small log, and before I knew it, plop, I was in the water with an inflatable boat over my head.
In the future I will know what it means to paddle like I mean it. No slacking or freezing up. I was scared at first in the water. I had on a dry suit, helmet, and PFD, of course, but I was totally out of my element. Cycling round my head were the words, “I don’t like this,”  but, like skiing, the trick is to deal, stay calm, and override irrational fear. The Cedar is shallow and I stand nearly 6 feet tall. I just needed to do two things: stand up and hang on to my paddle. The river was no deeper than my knees. I stood, made myself breathe, and shook off my tumble with my heart racing while my patient teammates corralled my boat.  I made it through my river “baptism,” as they called it, just fine. In fact, I now feel like I have some street cred regarding the Cedar. I’ve been on the river, down the river, and I’ve been flipped in the river. This is easier than you might think.  Like all bodies of water, this river requires proper respect. My flip felt like a proper rite of passage, honestly. Now, I’m for real. The Cedar and I, we’ve gotten to know each other a little better.

Rebecca Sayre is the Outreach Manager for Friends of the Cedar River Watershed.

rebecca@cedarriver.org
206.297.8141

*All river photos by Randy Rogers. (They are slightly blurry because we were moving down the river!)

Thanks to Nancy, Randy, Char, and Sarah for sharing their afternoon, knowledge and equipment with me!

Stewardship in Action: Protecting property and restoring the river one neighbor at a time

Knotweed

We are very excited to be launching a new program, Stewardship in Action, designed to do two very important things–eradicate invasive knotweed along the Cedar River and bring together those in the Renton and Maple Valley area interested in making sure the people, fish and wildlife located along the river are thriving and healthy for the long term. The focus area of this project is from Cavanaugh Pond to Landsburg Dam.  We are approaching our goals through two avenues.

1) To provide  free assistance for landowners to remove invasive knotweed and replant the area with landscaping that meets the needs of the property owner, while discouraging knotweed from re-establishing.  Those of you who have this weed on your property likely know that it is persistent!

2) To offer resources and tools that support the health of the river.  Through our webpage, workshops, and River Resource Bucket, we aim to collaborate with businesses and individuals taking strides, large and small, to enhance and restore the Cedar River Watershed.

Below, you will find a sampling of our work to date.  We look forward to your input, ideas, and feedback as we develop this program over the years.

Holding Back Knotweed While Protecting  Privacy

Tall Oregon Grape

Planting the hedgerow

In February, our team of restoration and landscape design experts were able to achieve several goals in one project with a little out-of the-box ingenuity.

Question:How can you fend of both knotweed and trespassers while restoring habitat for fish and wildlife?

Answer: By designing a planting project that weaves together thorny native plants into a beautiful, English-style, hedgerow fence.

This solution was reached the only way we know how; by working with the landowner and thinking through how best to tie together personal needs with restoration goals.  We will have to do maintenance and upkeep as we observe how the fence fares during it’s first year.  But, we are excited with the result so far.  If you are interested in reading a first hand account of this project, visit our last blog by guest contributor, Meredith Moses.

We will also be hosting a series of annual workshops and tours on knotweed removal and planting options.  Our first 2011 workshop/tour will take place at the Cedar Grange on April 17th, between 10am and 1pm, during the monthly Pancake Breakfast.  We will be replanting the riverside picnic area, which was covered with knotweed a year ago, with predominantly native shrubs and plants. We are designing landscaping that will enhance the seating and views while maintaining access to the picnic site.  Replanting the area not only beautifies the landscape, it  holds off the knotweed from re-establishing itself.  Come on out and see for yourself!  This tour will provide an excellent opportunity to meet our team and learn about the free resources available to remove a destructive weed and replant with options that meet your needs.

Lastly, we are creating River Resource Buckets for participating landowners: tools, products, and services from individuals and businesses who support our work and are doing your part, large and small, to make the Cedar River a healthy and thriving place for people, fish, and wildlife.

Currently the bucket includes:

• 2 gallon compost bucket from Cedar Grove Compost
• Coupon for two free bags of Cedar Grove Compost
• Soap from Ballard Organic Soaps
• Plant starts from area nurseries
• Renton Curve Card
• Seasonal shopping guide from the Maple Valley Farmers Market
• Friends of the Cedar River Watershed Native Plant Identification Cards
• The annual Watershed Report video, featuring students from Tahoma High

River Resource Bucket

The list above is just the beginning, and is not yet representative of the full scope of offerings from Renton and Maple Valley!  Our goal is for this bucket to hold items from businesses that conserve water each day, or work to simply reduce their environmental impact along with the more directly environmentally-focused items it currently holds.  We are looking for products and services from businesses that support the river.

To learn more about the free resources offered from this program and how you can get involved, contact rebecca@cedarriver.org

This program is possible thanks to funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,  King Conservation District and others.  Our work is a collaboration between Friends of the Cedar River Watershed, the Cascade Land Conservancy, and the King County Noxious Weed Control Program.

This publication was made possible by USEPA grant PO – 00J09401 – 0. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the grantee and do not necessarily represent the official views of the USEPA. Further, USEPA does not endorse the purchase of any commercial products or services mentioned in the publication.

It’s a Prickly Situation: Constructing a Living Fence by student Meredith Moses

Volunteers learning about the river past and present

It was a beautiful late winter day.  The sun was shining, it was cool, but not cold, a perfect day for planting.  We were planting native vegetation at the Lower Lions Reach Natural Area on the Cedar River. 

 Today we built a living fence between King County land and the neighboring privately held parcel.  This was a case of a good fence making good neighbors.  Here’s why.

Knotweed is an invasive plant originally from Asia.  Long ago, it was imported to Europe as an ornamental, and then it traveled to North America in the 1880s.  Knotweed will crowd out native plants and damage habitat, especially along riverbanks. It is also terribly destructive to property because it grows in a way that destabilizes those riverbanks, causing serious erosion problems.  However, it grows tall and looks rather like bamboo, making it effective as a screen.  This is why the neighbor wanted to keep the knotweed to act as a barrier between private and public property.  The public uses this stretch of the river frequently during the summer months.  With all the attendant noise and trash that can accompany summer river visitors this landowner wants a a divider of sorts to separate his home from the public lands. Our team had to get creative to meet this challenge! 

Knotweed: Public Enemy Number One

 Working together, people from King County, Friends of the Cedar River Watershed, the Cascade Land Conservancy and the landowner came up with a plan to satisfy everyone.  First, the county land was cleared of knotweed.  Next, they planted a living fence made of thorny native plants along the property line. The plan is that when the fence, also known as a hedgerow, is big enough, the knotweed can be removed from the private land.  Both knotweed and trespassers will be discouraged by a prickly barrier. 

So on this beautiful day we planted a modern native plant hedgerow in the traditional English style, two parallel rows of native plants.  We planted Nootka rose, Black Hawthorne, Vine Maple, Red Osier Dogwood, Salmonberry, and Tall Oregon Grape.  Most of these plants are “armed” with thorns or stickers, making the hedgerow a very real fence. 

Preparing the ground for the native plant fence

After we got our orientation, planting instructions, and safety briefing, we split up and started planting.  I picked the area nearest the river and enjoyed a river concert while I was planting.  All 300 plants were in the ground by lunchtime. 

 On our lunch break, a Cedar River Salmon Journey Naturalist came and spoke to us about the history of the Cedar River and its salmon.  Originally, the Cedar came down from the Cascades and joined the Black River, which joined the Green River, which became the Duwamish, which is actually an estuary that runs out to Elliot Bay.  At that time, the Cedar was spawning ground for the chum and pink salmon.  Both the pink and chum salmon need the Duwamish estuary to make the transition between fresh and salt-water habitats.

The Cedar River flowing through Lower Lions Reach

In the early 1900′s the Cedar was re-routed in Renton so that it ran directly into Lake Washington.  This accomplished two important goals, flood control for the City of Renton and stabilization of the water level in Lake Washington.  With the water level in Lake Washington stable, the Ballard Locks were built, which effectively killed what was once the Black River and cut off the salmon access from the Duwamish to the Cedar River.  We lost both the pink and the chum runs and for a while, there was no salmon in the Cedar. 

 In the 1930s, the City of Seattle decided to re-introduce salmon to the Cedar River.  Sockeye naturally live in rivers with lakes.  The little salmon live in the lake for a couple of years until they are big enough to move on to fresh water.  So they seeded the river with sockeye and there been salmon in the Cedar since then. 

After lunch, we placed mulch around all the plants, cleaned up and stopped for the day.  All this was accomplished by about 20 — 25 people in around 4 hours. Quite a productive day!

The Bellevue Hyatt’s Little Piece of the Cedar

This time last year I was new to the Seattle area.  I transferred to the Hyatt Regency Bellevue from San Francisco and was excited about the prospect of a new challenge in my professional career as a Food and Beverage Department head.

The Hyatt crew surrounding their "adoption certificate."

After a few weeks on the job, I was asked–well, more so forced into it by my friend and co-worker Jennifer Bird–to be a member of our “Green Team” at the hotel.  We had a Green Team in San Francisco, which I was not a member of, and all I remember was the group going around the hotel pointing out our trash and recycling errors.  Honestly, I was not excited about having to join, and was a little frustrated at the idea.  I’m not an anti-environmentalist; I did what I considered “my part” –recycling proper items (assuming it didn’t take too much effort).

Salmon really do capture the imagination.

At our first Green Team meeting I was nominated by our Chair, Jennifer Bird
(yep, you guessed it), to lead the Environmental and Community Quarterly Project part of the Green Team.  I was in charge of finding an outside partnering opportunity where Hyatt could team up to make an impact on the community.  I had no idea what or where to turn, so like every other American, I turned to Google.  That’s where I came across Friends of the Cedar River Watershed (FCRW).  I did a little more background check and we decided to pursue a partnership opportunity.

If I had to be completely honest – the main thing that drew me to FCRW was the opportunity of seeing salmon in the wild.  I’m a Southerner, and other than seeing filetted salmon in the grocery store, I had never seen a live salmon.  At the time I had no knowledge of a watershed, the Cedar River, native species, blackberries, rain gardens, or any of the other information I have learned in this past year.  I just wanted to see salmon!

We, our Green Team Chairperson Jennifer Bird and myself, reached out to FCRW, and the welcoming we got was way beyond anything I imagined.  Sue and Nisa are two of the most wonderful people you have ever met.  They have a true sense of genuineness and truly care about the environment, community, and the world around them.  You can see and feel it every time they speak.

Nisa explains it all.

The Hyatt Bellevue and “The Friends” agreed to participate in four quarterly projects for 2010 at the Belmondo Reach Natural Area right off of the Cedar River trail and Cedar River (and I am happy to say we have agreed to another partnership in 2011, with the hopes of expanding on the success of 2010).  Things started out as I expected , an opportunity to get out of work for half a day, play around in the dirt, get some sun (or clouds), and just have fun.

To my surprise though, I noticed I had begun to change.  That extra step to the recycling bin, separating my trash into compost, recycle, and trash, even picking up trash when walking, did not seem like that big of an effort any more.  Seeing people drink out of store-bought water bottles instead of the King County tap was a little annoying to me (come on, don’t you know we are a recognized watershed that supplies quality drinking water to over 1 million residents, you don’t need the plastic bottle…).  I noticed that for the first time I actually cared about the environment, and I was learning a decent amount.

The Bellevue Hyatt's Adopt-A-Site site.

I give all credit to Nisa and Sue.  It’s really hard not to get excited when you see Nisa’s face light up over a native species she finds in what appears to be a bunch of weeds or hear Sue’s excitement in her voice when she sees a particular native bird flying overhead as you are digging out knotweed and blackberry bushes on your Adopted Site.

There is still much more that can and will be done, both individually and as a partnership between Hyatt Bellevue and FCRW.  2010 was a nice start, but I am excited about the prospect of the growth and advancement that our partnership will have in 2011.  However, I look even more forward to the future 5,10, and 20 years down the road.   As I once heard stated in my college Arts Appreciation class – “Every great sculpture didn’t begin with the actual work, but began with an idea, a passion, and a desire to do and leave something great.”

Thanks to Nisa and Sue for that passion and desire!

Tyson’s Story–Tales of a New Board Member

Everybody has their own story about how they first became aware of the “Friends” – the Friends of the Cedar River Watershed, that is.  Maybe you were visiting the Ballard Locks on a Saturday in July or the Renton Library on a weekend in October and your curiosity was peaked about the folks wearing tan ball caps with one or more little salmon pins on them—and you chatted with the Salmon Journey volunteer naturalists.

Naturalist holding fish development tubes...and a baby.

Or, maybe you have property on a stream, river, or lake and heard from one of your neighbors about how the Friends had given them practical advice on stream-friendly planting design and how to attack that water-side scourge known as Knotweed. That is Stewardship in Action.

Executive Director, Sue Rooney nearly swallowed by knotweed.

Or, maybe your company or group participated in a Day of Caring or related restoration event–we did 47 individual events in 2010– and you spent the day battling blackberries, pulling out invasive ivy, or planting native plants or trees.  I’d heard about the Friends’ Volunteer Habitat Restoration program in my community—our Lake Forest Park Stewardship Foundation has monthly “Ivy Out” events in our little city that a few stalwarts keep showing up for, but then they coordinated with the Friends, who recruited 70 enthusiastic volunteers to show up! (Wow! There was some “power pulling” going on that day!)

Volunteers literally removed over 2 tons of ivy that day

Cassandra is not only on the swim team, she knows all the waterways of the Cedar River/Lake Washington Watershed from memory. Kids today.

But I really got a big picture sense of the Friends, when I attended a screening at REI last fall of the first Watershed Report.  The Watershed Report (you’ve seen the videos on the home page, and on YouTube ) is an ambitious partnership between the Friends of the Cedar River, high schools, business associations, governments, media, and grassroots organizations.  And, the astonishingly accomplished young people—youth leaders– who participate in and produce the videos.  I could go on and on about these high school students, who are learning life-long skills in sustainability policy analysis, measuring and modeling research, public speaking, and media communications—(video and social media, duh).

The big picture indeed – I learned that the scope of the Friends extends from the “snow caps to the white caps.”  Literally, from the snowy reaches of the Cascades where our drinking water and salmon-thriving waters begin, into Lake Washington (fills ½ of it, keeps the “floating” bridge floating), down into Puget Sound—where the four famous species of returning salmon “turn left” into the Ballard Locks for their journey home.

I was hooked.

I was so hooked that I figured I’m too old to join the Watershed Report team, so I asked to join the board.

In the last four years, this feisty little organization has grown; yes even through the recession. We haven’t yet done our total counts for 2010, but the total value of volunteer hours coordinated by the Friends and returned to the community in 2009 was $130,340. Our 70 trained naturalists engaged more than 7,000 visitors last year. Our revenues have grown from $90K in 2006 to $325K in 2010.

The crew from the Bellevue Hyatt, who recently adopted Belmondo Reach as part of our Adopt-A-Site program. We love working with them!

Frankly, I’m spending more time than I had first imagined on learning about and venturing into fundraising – money doesn’t grow on trees, but needs to flow like a well-stocked stream for the Friends to provide the kind of partnerships and stewardship services they are doing so well. So – hey, to practice this:  I hope you’ll consider dropping some support our way in 2011. Our impressive list of individual donors, partners and sponsors is growing and we need you to join the team!  There are many different giving levels. See what suits you best: Donate and Support the Friends Today!

2011 is going to be an even better year for the Friends, and friends of the Friends… lots of cool ideas, bright people, solid planning and community-based program growth lie ahead.

Yeah! Victory over blackberry at Cavanaugh Pond.

Btw: Those little fish pins on baseball caps the Salmon Journey folks wear?  I found out that one fish means that individual has participated for one year; two fish – two years; three fish—three years; four fish- four years… It’s pretty wonderful that the volunteers come back year after year… just like the salmon.

Hmmm. We’re back to the salmon, where this journey began.

Sockeye Return @ Ballard Locks, 2010

I can still see them, as I drift off to sleep, silver schools of sockeye slicing through the salt side of the Locks, materializing out of the boiling blue green water pouring from Lake Washington and her rivers into Puget Sound.

Hydrology History, Lake Washington

They move with unchecked exuberance, like a single organism, each individual united in motion with their comrades, streaking right, then left in unison, until one salmon, unable to contain itself in mere water, leaps through the boundary of the surface into the medium we breathe, only to fall back and abruptly disappear again into the deep green depths. What, in creation, could be more compelling, or beautiful?

I’m here again at Hiram Chittendon’s Locks for my summer homage to salmon, Seattle, & the Salish Sea. Every year the Friends of the Cedar River Watershed, Cedar River Naturalists, Seattle Aquarium staff, and Beach Naturalists gather on Saturdays in July to educate the public about this fragile resource, and experience the raw power of this unique phenomenon.

Supersalmon posing with innocent bystanders

In 2010, 150,000 wild animals will migrate through a major urban center, from the Pacific Ocean to the River where Seattle draws its drinking water, to spawn and die. It’s a marine and fresh water Serengeti, unique on the face of the Earth, with far too many of Seattle’s residents oblivious to the event. We will convene again on the Cedar River October 16 & 17, 23 & 24, 30 & 31, as this migration climaxes in reproduction, death, and new life.

The sockeye run this year is larger than the last two years combined, but ’08 and ’09 were the two worst returns on record. It’s an improvement, but this year produces little more than a third of the 350,000 fish needed to sustain their population in the watershed and open Lake Washington for sockeye fishing.

Face to Face with Sockeye

Alarmingly, these fish are the offspring of the last banner year, 2006, which saw 450,000 fish come back from the Pacific to spawn in the Cedar, allowing a harvest of 100,000 fish that pumped millions of dollars into our local economy that year. They could have bred a truly monumental generation, but area rivers, transformed by human impact, experienced severe flooding that annihilated most of the juvenile salmon in the riverbeds. The survivors are still exquisite, and descending into the viewing chamber provides a face to face meeting with them. Many are scarred from encounters with predators or nets, but undeterred by their wounds. They dart about the chamber, adjusting their bodies to fresh water and preparing to shed the sea lice that are inconsequential to adults, but lethal for the juveniles passing net pens filled with non-native salmon. The transformation is so profound that when you see these fish in the fall, spawning in the Cedar and elsewhere, you would not believe they were the same species.

Naturalist to Naturalist

We live in a place of unparalleled beauty, but with beauty comes responsibility. The Naturalists,  Friends of the Cedar River Watershed and our allies dedicate their time and energy to building a world where we live with these incredible creatures rather than, like Europe, the East Coast, and far too many stretches of the West Coast, humans live instead of them. Come see for yourself.

Sockeye with Fans

Calling All Salmon Watchers!

HEY SALMON WATCHERS:

During the last three Saturdays in July, volunteer naturalists from the Cedar River Salmon Journey and the Seattle Aquarium’s Beach Naturalist Program will be talking to Locks visitors about salmon and their fascinating life history. We’ll have props and posters on hand to help explain cool fish facts, as well as stylish polarizing glasses that help you spot salmon as they school outside of the ladder.

The Cedar River Salmon Journey is a wonderful (and free!) way for family, friends and neighbors to learn about salmon.  We can all take simple steps to help restore their habitat and care for our own.  Turns out what is good for fish is good for us too! Come learn how this July and this fall!

To learn more about volunteering as a naturalist, call Charlotte Spang at 206-245-0143. For more information on the Cedar River Salmon Journey, please visit www.cedarriver.org

See Cool Fish with our Volunteer Naturalists!

July 17, 24, 31 from 11-3 at the Chittenden Locks in Ballard, Seattle