About NSEA
A community nonprofit for wild salmon.
The Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association has worked in Whatcom County since 1991. We partner with landowners, tribes, local businesses, volunteers, and agencies to restore salmon habitat, teach students of all ages, and give everyone in our community a way to help wild salmon recover.
Mission, Vision & Values
What guides us.
Our mission
To engage our community to recover wild salmon for future generations.
Our vision
Healthy watersheds that sustain abundant salmon.
Our belief
We believe that salmon are essential to our environment, culture, and economy.
Integrity
We show our work.Gratitude
For everyone who shows up.Differences
The whole community.Hopefulness
Salmon can recover.Longevity
Measured in generations.Our story
From dining room tables to a countywide effort.
NSEA’s seeds sprouted around the dining room tables of dedicated volunteers in 1988, and the organization has been at work in Whatcom County since 1991. In 1990, the Washington State Legislature created the Regional Fisheries Enhancement Group program, a statewide network of fourteen community nonprofits that restore salmon and steelhead in their home watersheds. NSEA is one of those fourteen groups, serving Whatcom County.
Today NSEA operates from a campus at 3057 E Bakerview Rd in Bellingham, home to our offices, our native plant nursery, and our Nature Preschool. The same community that started NSEA still powers it: volunteers, neighbors, landowners, and students show up year after year to plant trees, pull invasives, and steward our local creeks.
Team & Board
Our team and board.
NSEA’s staff of program managers, coordinators, educators, and field crew work from the Bakerview campus and at restoration sites across Whatcom County. A volunteer board of directors guides the organization. Board meetings are held the last Tuesday of every month and are open to the public.
Annitra Peck
Executive Director
Leads NSEA’s staff and strategy, and connects the Whatcom County community with its salmon streams.
Cindy Scott
Operations Director
Keeps NSEA running day to day, from the Bakerview campus to the board room.
Sarah Brown
Stewardship Program Manager
Runs volunteer work parties, Salmon Sighting events, and the Salmon Spotters community science project.
Eli DeWitt
Instream Project Manager
Leads the crew that removes fish passage barriers and rebuilds channel habitat with large woody debris.
James van der Voort
Riparian Project Manager
Plans and manages streamside planting projects with landowners and volunteers across the county.
Nathan Zabel
Education Program Manager
Brings Students for Salmon, Camp Keystone, and the Nature Preschool to thousands of students each year.
Kerry McManus
Grant Manager
Manages NSEA’s grants and funder relationships, from first application to final report.
Megan Adams
Outreach Coordinator
Connects volunteers, members, and neighbors with NSEA’s work across Whatcom County.
Commitment to Equity
An environment that is safe and open to everyone.
NSEA begins every program, meeting, and gathering with an acknowledgement of the land we are on and the Coast Salish People for whom that land is sacred and home. Our Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Focus Group of staff and board members meets regularly, and our board approved a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy in 2021.
That commitment shows up in our programs: Students for Salmon is offered at no cost to all Whatcom County schools, work parties and salmon sighting events take place throughout the county, and Camp Keystone serves families who need summer child care.
For Funders & Grantmakers
A track record you can verify.
NSEA is a 501(c)(3) community-based nonprofit (EIN 94-3140165) and one of Washington’s fourteen Regional Fisheries Enhancement Groups. Our annual reports, 990s, and Strategic Plan 2025–2030 are available on our For Funders page, and 35 years of project outcomes live on our impact page.
400,000+
volunteer hours
1,400+
volunteer work parties hosted
500,000+
native trees and shrubs planted
Get involved
Join us at a work party.
The easiest way to get to know NSEA is to spend a morning planting trees alongside your neighbors. Work parties run year-round at creeks across Whatcom County, and everyone is welcome.