By Staci MacCorkle
Foreign Service Officer
30 for Thirty #15
Twentysome years ago, I was looking for an internship opportunity to satisfy the requirements for my WWU/Huxley degree program. Someone mentioned an organization that I heard as “N.C.” They went on to explain that it was “NSEA,” the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association. I don’t recall now if I cold called the office or if I was given Rachel Vasak’s name. I believe Rachel was the Volunteer and Monitoring Coordinator at the time. It didn’t take long for Rachel’s infectious love of NSEA to reach my own heart; I was hooked! I spent that spring as her assistant and did everything from updating a guidance manual and collecting monitoring samples to babysitting the smolt acclimation ponds in the middle and upper watershed.
When my internship was nearing its completion, I approached Rachel about volunteering through the summer while I awaited news of my Peace Corps application. I just wasn’t ready to leave NSEA in the rearview mirror. That season, I coordinated the Tenmile Creek Watershed Habitat Survey. Years later, as a Natural Resources Scientist with a Sumner-based consulting firm, I would find myself applying the same survey techniques and knowledge I gained during that summer.
When my Peace Corps application was delayed, I found yet another opportunity to keep me working with NSEA – this time on the payroll! For another few months, I filled a vacancy left by the departure of the Program Assistant. The community interfacing and engagement I experienced all those years ago still serves me today in my most recent role as an International Relations Officer in the Department of State’s Office of Marine Conservation. I am just wrapping up a three-year assignment as the Department’s representative to the various North Pacific Ocean fisheries agreements and treaties to which the United States is a member.
Among other things, my North Pacific portfolio work has reminded me of the time I spent in the Salish Sea community in Bellingham. During a pre-pandemic work meeting that brought me back to Bellingham, Rachel, now the NSEA Executive Director (!), and I reconnected. I was delighted to be treated to a personal tour of some of the Tenmile Creek project work that has been done over the years since that habitat study was completed, as well as a project that was actively being installed. Wow! NSEA continues to do amazing work!
My NSEA roots provided me a sturdy foundation from which to broaden my knowledge and engagement in the bigger North Pacific Ocean fisheries community. As I transition to my onward Foreign Service assignment, I can assure you that my old, and yet still sturdy, NSEA canvas bags (and a more recently acquired new version) will continue accompanying me around the globe and reminding me of my Salish Sea beginnings. Like those salmon that return to their natal streams, I will always feel the draw back to this incredibly special organization.
(Staci is in front. Carrying NSEA bags through the Dominican Republic; Portland, OR; Guatemala City; Panama City; Washington, D.C.; and onward to Islamabad)