Celebrate Salmon Season with NSEA, PSE, the Community Co-op, Brandywine Kitchen and Bellewood Farms in November

By Sarah Brown, NSEA’ s Stewardship Program Coordinator

Spawning chum salmon develop a tiger stripe pattern and sharp canine teeth.

Salmon Season, November through January, is a time to recognize the importance of salmon to this region, to understand the threats they continue to face, and to celebrate those that have returned to spawn the next generation throughout Whatcom County. During this season, NSEA strives to connect the community to salmon through salmon sighting events and resources, partnerships with local businesses and organizations, and sharing what we see during habitat restoration and salmon spawning surveys.

Sammy the Salmon helps a family spot chum salmon along Chuckanut Creek.

Over the last few years, we have taken great pride in our Salmon Sighting Events where NSEA Naturalists have engaged with hundreds of people observing and learning about spawning salmon in Whatcom County. This year, due to the pandemic, we cannot safely host the same style of events, so we are piloting new virtual and on-your-own activities with our Salmon Season 2020 partners, Puget Sound Energy, the Community Food Co-op, Brandywine Kitchen, and Bellewood Farms!

A family observes spawning chum salmon at a Salmon Sighting event along Oyster Creek.

Salmon Season starts with an action-packed Salmon Month.  Follow us on Facebook and Instagram throughout November to learn about what we’re seeing in the field, how you can join in the fun, and which businesses are helping us celebrate!

We will highlight the five species of Pacific salmon that live in the Nooksack River watershed, the spawning salmon that we spot throughout Whatcom County, stewardship tips from Puget Sound Energy, and how you can get out and see salmon, too! You can also participate in our month-long social media contest, Eggcellent Guess, where you take a guess at how many salmon eggs have been laid in our fishbowl redd! Only your first guess will be recorded and at the end of the month, the closest wins a grand prize.

NSEA Salmon Season Activity Kit.

Our new Salmon Sighting Experience Guide is an interactive display that allows viewers to find local spawning grounds while learning about key components of the salmon life cycle and their habitat needs. Also, we have developed Salmon Season Activity Kits that include everything you need to explore local spawning habitat and play salmon sighting Bingo with your friends and family! While supplies last, these free kits are available at Bellewood Farms in Lynden and Brandywine Kitchen in Bellingham who is featuring a November special, Salmon Cakes.

We are honored to be the Community Food Co-op’s SEED program recipient this month. November 21, 2020, is Community Shopping Day where NSEA will receive 2% of the total sales. Support local and shop at the Community Food Co-op during Salmon Month!

If you have questions about Salmon Season, or are interested in picking up a Salmon Season Activity Kit, you can contact our Stewardship Program Coordinator, Sarah, at 360-312-3235 or email sbrown@n-sea.org.

Work Parties are Back in a Small Way

By Sarah Brown, NSEA Stewardship Program Coordinator

Back in March, when the COVID-19 pandemic was just beginning to surface, NSEA made the decision, based on local health recommendations, to cancel all Community Work Parties for the foreseeable future. As a community-based nonprofit, we have missed the usual connections that are made at these events where we rely on the support of generous and passionate volunteers to restore streamside salmon habitat throughout Whatcom County. Over the last six months, the Stewardship Team has developed a plan to safely host volunteers at select sites this fall while strictly following protocols necessary to keep our community safe. These new Micro Work Parties will be held at four restoration sites that are spread out across the county: Terrell Creek in Blaine, Tenmile Creek in Everson, and two sites along Squalicum Creek in Bellingham.

The biggest change is limiting the total number of volunteers that can participate. This is a big shift from our usual “come one, come all” setup, which has resulted in some truly spectacular events with incredible turnout. For example, just last January nearly 500 Whatcom County residents joined us in our three-hour celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day with the City of Bellingham at Whatcom Falls Park.  Unfortunately, high turnout at our events during the current COVID-19 pandemic would be detrimental to the health and safety of our community.

To keep these events true to their name, Micro Work Parties, we will be requiring volunteers to register for an event and reserve their spot online through nsea.volunteerhub.com. Limiting the number of total participants ensures that we can easily follow local health requirements by keeping group sizes small and prioritizing physical distancing. If we look at our previous volunteer turnout as an indicator, we are anticipating these event spots to be in high demand, and we please ask our community to be patient with this new system. If registration fills up, we will have a waitlist option set up just in case some spots become available. If this system is successful this fall, it will allow us the potential to scale up in the upcoming seasons knowing that we have support of our community as we implement these new, necessary measures.

Other minor changes include requiring staff and volunteers to have masks available to wear if proper spacing cannot be met, NSEA not providing snacks or restrooms to reduce shared spaces, and asking volunteers to stay home if they are experiencing any COVID-19 related symptoms or have potentially been exposed to the virus. If you are a regular at our usual events, know that these Micro Work Parties will be different. However, the overall goal is the same; together we will restore salmon habitat and continue learning how we can all be better stewards to our shared lands and waterways.­

Even with new protocols in place, NSEA continues to welcome you to join us in fulfilling our mission to keep wild salmon here for future generations. We will be planting native trees and shrubs along the streams, removing any invasive vegetation present, and picking up trash. These efforts improve salmon habitat, and ensure that salmon in our watershed can thrive. I am happy to answer any questions you may have about the upcoming season or the work we are doing to keep our community safely engaged with salmon recovery. Please contact Sarah Brown at sbrown@n-sea.org or call 360-312-3235.

We look forward to seeing you at the creek!

Register for individual work parties starts October 14th on our website.