July 2003
Cover Story
Salmon Enhancement Association Inspires Passionate Involvement
by Margi Polland Fox
Margi Polland Fox has written numerous articles and essays for regional and national publications. In her current business, Fox Profiles, she writes bios, booklets, brochures and annual reports for nonprofits.
Editor’s note: Margi Polland Fox is profiling the region’s environmental organizations for Whatcom Watch, and this month’s article on the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA) is the fourth in the series. Fox wrote a booklet and brochure for NSEA. Some of parts of the article come from these materials, most notably the sidebar on the Whatcom Creek Wayside Park.
The Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA) acts with the tenacity and resourcefulness of salmon swimming upstream to spawn. Focused on waterways in Whatcom County, NSEA (pronounced EN-sea) aims to restore fish habitat, revitalize riparian areas and encourage community stewardship. Volunteers and professional crews improve salmon habitat and water quality from the upper watershed to Bellingham Bay.
What distinguishes NSEA? The passionate involvement of people from diverse backgrounds and viewpoints. “We are a non-political, non-advocacy organization,” says Wendy Scherrer, Executive Director. “That enables us to have partnerships with many different interest groups.”
NSEA collaborates with government agencies, other nonprofits, tribes and businesses. Staff members also lead extensive education programs in the community and schools. And in concert with other groups, NSEA operates an acclimation site program, adding to populations of the endangered North Fork spring chinook salmon.
In all these activities, Scherrer says, “NSEA is trying to increase natural populations of salmon within the context of a managed landscape.”
Decimated Fish Populations
Over the past half-century, salmon in the Nooksack Basin have declined by 80 percent. As a result, chinook salmon have been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and coho salmon are not far behind.
The decrease has resulted from numerous factors: forest practices in the upper watershed, farming along lowland waterways, hatchery practices, urban development, overfishing and water pollution. This decline has major repercussions since we are linked to salmon environmentally, economically and culturally.
Salmon act as an indicator species, the glue sustaining a vast web of creatures from aquatic insects to killer whales. As Governor Gary Locke has said, “The salmon is the living icon of the quality of life in the Pacific Northwest.”
The History of NSEA
The Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association originated with an enthusiastic group of local fishers, teachers, business people, students and others. In the mid-eighties, they united to reverse the trend of declining salmon runs in Whatcom County. During the early years, the organization primarily worked with fish production projects and began the first stream habitat restoration projects.
Then in 1991, the Washington State Legislature, wishing to bring more citizen volunteers into salmon and steelhead enhancement efforts, established the statewide Regional Fisheries Enhancement Group Program.
As a result, NSEA incorporated as a nonprofit and became one of the 14 Regional Fisheries Enhancement Groups (RFEGs) working with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. One dollar from every commercial fishing license and a hundred dollars from each commercial salmon license support this statewide program.
With a modest budget, NSEA’s unpaid board of directors and a cadre of volunteers did all the salmon enhancement work until 1993. Then a $400,000 Jobs for the Environment Grant enabled them to hire and train the first crew of displaced timber workers and fishers.
NSEA also added a small staff and Washington Conservation Corps youth crews. They moved to their current location at the Western Washington University Environmental Center in 1999.
The first budget of $4,400 in 1991 grew to the current level of $1 million—with 30 grants and contracts annually, a staff of twelve, four full-time field crews, two native plant nurseries and a shop. Even with this expansion, the reliance on volunteers has never wavered. NSEA depends on 2,000 volunteers a year for all major programs.
NSEA’S Activities:
•Restoration Projects. These include revegetation along streams, invasive plant control, livestock fencing, fish barrier modification and removal, and large woody debris installations in waterways. Volunteer work parties meet almost daily.
In addition, NSEA has four distinct crews: the Dislocated Natural Resource workers, a Whatcom County Alternative Corrections crew and two Washington Service Corps/AmeriCorps crews. (NSEA just learned that the AmeriCorps program has been cut by 58 percent in Washington State, likely causing a drastic reduction for future crews.)
In 2002 alone, NSEA ran projects on three-dozen creeks and rivers in the Nooksack River Watershed and Bellingham. Crews and volunteers also maintained previously completed sites. NSEA joined with other agencies and organizations on monitoring, assessment and research projects.
•Spring Chinook Acclimation and Recovery Program. NSEA volunteers annually care for 400,000 native spring chinook salmon in an acclimation site program. This stock, down to less than 10 spawners in 1990, climbed to over 3,600 in 2002, with an estimated 200 originating from wild spawning fish.
The cooperative program includes funding from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), and acclimation sites in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. NSEA does project planning and partner coordination. Staff recruit, train and schedule volunteers.
This program aims to return adult salmon to spawn in upper watershed tributaries instead of coming back to the hatchery. So far the efforts have paid off with a dramatic increase in returning salmon.
•Education Program. Since 2000, NSEA has annually provided the Students for Salmon Program to 50 grade school, middle school and high school classes. The curriculum integrates teacher-training workshops, classroom presentations and field trips. Classes study streams close to their schools. Over 1,500 students from Whatcom County annually learn about stream ecology, salmon habitat and stream restoration.
These students also take on restoration projects as part of their educational experience. NSEA provides guidance along with necessary tools and plant materials. They develop knowledge and positive attitudes about the natural environment. Wendy Scherrer explains that the program “gives kids a primary experience with nature in their own back yard.”
•Stream Stewards and Storm Drain Marking. Recently, NSEA started a pilot program, supporting five watershed steward groups in Bellingham, Ferndale and Blaine. Volunteers from a given area adopt their streams. The project includes workshops, regular meetings and stream restoration activities.
During February and March, groups organized for Schell Creek in Ferndale, Terrell Creek in Birch Bay/Blaine, and Padden, Squalicum and Whatcom Creeks in Bellingham. Those interested in participating can call Rachael Deryckx or Brad Lystra at 715-0283.
The organization has also begun a push with the city of Bellingham to mark storm drains with the message, “No Dumping, Drains to Waterways.” NSEA is offering training and coordination for the stream steward groups, scouts, neighborhood groups, schools and others to install the drain markers.
Volunteers
“It takes a whole community to restore a watershed,” Scherrer maintains, and NSEA has excelled at attracting and keeping enthusiastic volunteers. In 2002 alone, the organization sponsored 49 volunteer work parties and clocked a total of more than 11,000 hours. Volunteers have come from schools, youth and church groups, service clubs, businesses and other community organizations.
One board member explains his involvement. Jeremy Brown says, “As a commercial fisher, salmon have been good to me over the years. Supporting NSEA and volunteering through the work-parties are ways I can pay back the debt.”
Funding
NSEA’s strength comes from the organization’s ability to leverage public funding with labor, private sources and donations of materials. As Steve Fox, my husband and the watershed ecologist for Whatcom County Public Works, claims, “NSEA squeezes money until it screams. The bang for the buck is outrageous.”
The board has also taken on the task of developing a fund for long-term investments to insure future stability. NSEA is here for the duration, thanks to the dedication of volunteers and staff. Wendy Scherrer knows the key to their success. “Most people want to do the right thing for the environment,” she says, “and we empower them to do it.” §
Special Project: a Stream in a City
The Maritime Heritage Park was a garbage dump when NSEA first began work on the area in 1993. The lower Whatcom Creek locality provided an excellent opportunity to educate the public about the methods, values and benefits of stream restoration work. Situated in downtown Belling-ham, it was easily accessible for Bellingham school students.
One teenager who donated his time in the area was Liam Wood. He volunteered because, as he said, he valued “our wilderness areas and creatures walking the earth.”
Liam died in the 1999 Whatcom Falls Park explosion. Fumes overwhelmed him while he pursued one of his lifelong passions, fly-fishing. Soon after his death, NSEA established the Liam Wood Memorial Fund in his honor. Contributions went toward the development of Wayside Park on Whatcom Creek, adjacent to Maritime Heritage Park.
Over 300 people volunteered at the site, located several miles downstream from Whatcom Falls Park. Liam’s mother, Marlene Robinson, came every Thursday. She worked alongside many of her son’s friends and teachers, as well as school children, community groups, businesses and others.
The $30,000 in contributions to the fund and more than $150,00 of donated time, materials and labor meant that the project far exceeded NSEA’s expectations. A significant portion of the downtown site became an arboretum, and volunteers revitalized the riparian area.
When the Wayside Park on lower Whatcom Creek was finished in 2000, NSEA wanted to name it after Liam, but Marlene Robinson preferred otherwise. She had a greater vision.
She said, “What’s important for me as a memorial to Liam is the work we’re doing at the creek and what we’re saying with that work. When people come to this place, I want them to see and feel a healthy, complex environment in an urban setting. I want them to know that we can find ways to live in harmony with the natural world—and to perhaps find a way to help achieve that harmony.”
So instead it was called the Whatcom Creek Wayside Park and dedicated to Liam Wood. The setting offers a permanent reminder of the hope of working toward restoration, for the salmon, for the natural world and for the community. We can’t replace what we’ve lost, but we can transform once devastated landscapes into places of beauty and meaning.
Marlene Robinson said, “Everything we do for salmon, we do for ourselves and our children.”
