Reserve your place for a dinner/fundraiser benefitting the Whidbey Watershed Stewards—WWS—July 25th from 5:30 to 8 PM. Held at Cascadia Meadows, at 7027 Maxwelton Road in Clinton, the evening will feature not salmon for meals, as you might expect from the headline, but a picnic dinner with Orlando’s Southern Barbecue, artisan pies, wine from Ott & Hunter, and craft beers from Double Bluff Brewing Co. Dave Parent, a well known now-retired veterinarian is a featured speaker. And guests may bid on auction items. RSVP by July 16th. Dinner is $80/per person.
The non-profit’s seeds were planted in 1991 with creation of an outdoor classroom designed to educate students on the wonders of our island’s salmon life cycle. “Our Salmon in the Classroom program launches each year in January when 5th grade Salmon Ambassadors take a field trip to the Wallace River Hatchery to pick up salmon eggs to bring back and raise in classroom aquariums,” notes the website. Over the years the program expanded to include caring for the creeks salmon visited.”
Nowadays WWS restores salmon runs to Maxwelton Creek. “We help rear and release Coho salmon annually in the creek and work to enhance habitat and remove barriers to salmonid survival,” notes its webpage.
In addition, WWS offers hands-on K-8 environmental lessons at its Outdoor Classroom and through its Marine Science Program. “Since the opening of the Outdoor Classroom in 1997, Whidbey Watershed Stewards has presented a steady program of K-5th grade environmental lessons in spring and fall sessions, making this the core of our education programs,” the website notes. “Each lesson is aligned with grade level learning objectives and is developed and guided by our staff. We have grown and adapted our lessons over the years, and continue to improve and meet the needs of teachers and students. Our curriculum is updated and revised frequently to keep pace with changes in science, education theory, and the focus of the school system.”
The Watershed Stewards also offer marine science classes at its Environmental Learning Center at the South Whidbey Community Center. It serves as a hub for regional marine science programming, interactive exhibits, and community environmental education.
Citizen science projects—funded by available grants—include an annual smolt count, kelp harvest monitoring and salmon studies as part of the WRIA 6 Salmon Recovery Plan. The website notes: “Water Resources Inventory Area (WRIA) 6 encompasses all the islands and water within Island County’s geographic boundary. Centrally located within the Salish Sea, at the junction of Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Georgia Strait, WRIA 6 shorelines are used as a migration corridor by juvenile and adult salmon originating from rivers throughout Puget Sound. WRIA 6 nearshore and coastal estuaries provide critical shelter, refuge, food, and physiological refuge for juvenile salmon as they transition from river to ocean stages of their life.”
The Whidbey Watershed Stewards own and manage the 6-acre Maxwelton Outdoor Classroom, along with the 40-plus acre Freeland Wetlands Reserve. WWS also participates in shoreline restoration at Robinson’s Beach, and streamline restoration at the outdoor classroom and Old Clinton Creek.
Wood carving artist Pat McVay won a competition in 1999 for his salmon life cycle sculpture out of one cedar tree. He recently updated the work with paint. His art is seen all over Whidbey Island, as well as on the mainland. “I’ll have a sculpture in the beer garden at the fair (July 23-26),” said Pat. It is called “…name the artwork.”
Visiting the Outdoor Classroom recently was a young man who has been fascinated by insects his whole life. While his work is in IT, and he serves on the board of directors for the Whidbey Environmental Action Network, which collaborates and shares similar values with the WWS, he visits Whidbey’s wild places to study insects.
Neil Hauta studied flies at the Outdoor Classroom on a recent afternoon. Salmon fry feed on various fly larvae found in creeks.
“I really developed an interest in flies,” said Neil. “They’re super diverse—can live in aquatic, soil, wood—one species that lives in shed antler marrow. They’re fun to photograph and to learn about them.”
Stepping along Maxwelton Creek, Neil rescued a midge from a spider web. He pointed to a rotting tree slag. Tiny flies walked among the layers of exposed wood. Neil said they have personalities and do not fly away when a human observes them. “They’re very bold and flap their wings in a bit almost like a little dance. They’re one of my favorite species to watch.”
He added his appreciation of the midge’s front legs which wave around. They’re non-biting to humans and often form swarms around waterways. If you can bear seeing them around you while walking without swatting them, you’ll find they do not land on you as you pass through their swarm. Neil said midges may spend a year or two in the larval stage, providing food for young salmon, and evolving into adult insects who only live from three to five days.
Walking with Neil raised my awareness about looking at flies with new appreciation.
Meanwhile, Whidbey Watershed Stewards are one of three “core supported organizations” supported by the generous Goosefoot Community Fund. South Whidbey at Home and Whidbey Island Nourishes are the other two core organizations. Salmon Enchanted Evening’s proceeds benefit The “Salmon Enchanted Evening” is the primary annual fundraiser for the Whidbey Watershed Stewards. Proceeds from the event go directly toward sustaining their environmental education programs, habitat restoration efforts and maintenance of the Rene Neff Maxwelton Outdoor Classroom.
To attend the benefit, RSVP by July 16. Visit Whidbey Watershed Stewards’ website.