By Christie Bell & Madaline Federici

Lush forests, mountain terrain, pristine glacial waters - these iconic features of Whatcom County make it easy to love. As a lifelong resident, Christy Rathjen Bell has inevitably grown a deep appreciation for and connection with the natural world. And most of all, like many other Washingtonians, she loves the salmon.

"My whole life has been with salmon. I can remember so many wonderful things about my childhood involving being in the mountains, being on the lakes, and not even thinking about how there might come a day when there's no fish or very few fish in Whatcom County," said Bell. "But here we are. And it just reminds me that we really need to take care of our natural resources, so that our future generations can enjoy what we've had the pleasure to enjoy around here."

She has been dedicated to that mission through NSEA for the past 25 years, serving on the board of directors and as a volunteer. However, the passion she has for the environment and salmon was established long before that. Early in her life, she enjoyed being immersed in natural resource work and recreation, thanks to her father, Carl Rathjen, an avid fisherman who worked in the trucking and timber industries.

"He loved to go fishing whenever he could, going up Mount Baker Highway to Nugent's Corner and catching fish for dinner," Bell said. "I would go with him quite often to do that. He was always very involved with salmon."

In 1963, her father founded the salmon barbecue held at the annual Deming Logging Show, a fundraising event to assist loggers who have been injured in Whatcom County. The Rathjen family barbecued salmon with his special recipe and served thousands of attendees for many years.

"The barbecue building at the logging show is dedicated to my dad. He unfortunately died pretty young, in 1973," Bell said. "It was so wonderful they dedicated that to him - the Carl Rathjen Memorial Barbecue Area.”

Christy Bell (fourth from left), her mother (third from left), and all her children posing with the sign for the barbeque area dedicated to their father in 1977. // Courtesy of Christy Bell

Bell's childhood was full of outdoor adventures. Her friend Kammie lived along McCormick Creek, just down the hill from her. Both of their family's seven youngest siblings were similar ages, so naturally, they all became best friends.

"We'd walk out our back door, down through the woods into their property, and play on the creek, build forts, whatever kids do, you know? I built great memories there."

Fast forward to the 90s, Bell had a family and career of her own. She first crossed paths with NSEA as a full-time volunteer coordinator for Whatcom Volunteer Center. One day, an AmeriCorps team member for the organization came to her for help recruiting volunteers. That person was Rachel Vasak, NSEA's current executive director.

"This was 25 years ago, and I was just so excited about what NSEA was doing. That's when I wanted to get my family involved," Bell said.

They went to work parties in their free time, and eventually, her husband, Rodger Bell, helped with NSEA's former pond acclimation program. He took their youngest daughter Ashley with him up Mt. Baker Highway near Glacier and Maple Falls for several years, just like Christy's father did with her. Although this time, it was to nurture the salmon rather than fish them.

In 2016, Bell retired from the human services profession. However, she found herself revisiting her natural resources roots and contacted Vasak about volunteering for NSEA. Her passion advanced her further, and she was elected to the board of directors.

“At that time, I was wanting to do something with the environment," Bell said. "Having grown up around here, it's very important to me to keep the salmon coming back and to keep our natural resources as pristine as possible."

During her five-year tenure, she introduced reorganizing the board towards governance and launched the board development committee. Since then, NSEA has proliferated - which Bell attributes to the founders of the organization, the board of directors, and their excellent staff and volunteers. With all the work NSEA does to include the community, people feel a part of a family, she said.

"It was a great time to be on the board. NSEA is dear to my heart and always will be, and I'll always continue to support them in any way I can," Bell said. "NSEA is so stable, and I do see many good things happening in the next 30 years. Maybe I'll be around to see that, I'll only be 100!"

Last fall, Bell saw her life-long connection and dedication to the salmon materialize most extraordinarily. Vasak invited her to see a restoration project NSEA had completed on the creek she played in growing up, right down the hill from where she lived on the corner of Van Wyck and Noon Road. Darrell Gray, project manager for NSEA, got permission from the owners of her friend's old property and joined her to visit the old stomping grounds.

"Here I am, going back many years later to the same property I played on as a child and created wonderful childhood memories," Bell said. "Driving into the driveway, seeing the house, and remembering all the things that I did with my friend - it was just heartwarming. It is kind of full circle for me having grown up in this area and the connection to the salmon that my family has had."

The restoration project improved the stream bed and removed a cement dam. Bell recalls never seeing salmon in the creek but catching many crawdads.

McCormick Creek tributary before restoration project. // Courtesy of NSEA

"Seeing what they did to the property and stream bed and habitat on the creek restored gave me goosebumps," Bell said. "There was a dam there when I was growing up, which built up sediment and was a muddy bog. Seeing it all restored now is just wow - it's so beautiful. They did such a good job. The creek is flowing through there, the water is clear. Man, they do miracles."

Bell's lifelong residency in the area enriches her perspective on the county and its environmental changes over time. She worries about natural resource pollution, declining returns on salmon runs for our bioregion, habitat degradation, ecosystem health, and cultural impacts of it all. But NSEA's work gives her hope for a better future.

"In the next 30 years, I do see lots of challenges. But there's opportunities also," Bell said. "I love the work that NSEA does. I'm optimistic that eventually the salmon runs will increase, especially if we can get the waters outside of Whatcom County cleaned up too. I think there are people realizing that we need to do something quickly, I just hope that everyone acts quick enough."

Although this was her final year on the board of directors, she plans to continue supporting NSEA's work to keep a healthy watershed and environment by serving on the advisory council.

"Mainly, what I want to do is continue to be an advocate for the organization," Bell said. "I talk about NSEA wherever I go and to whomever I talk to. I tell everybody how much this organization means to me, to the community, and to the future of our environment. I'll always continue to do that and always continue to support them.”