Welcome to Lynda Lou, our new corps member!

Hi! My name is Lynda Lou Brazan. I am 25 years old, and I am from Livingston, Louisiana.  I joined the WCC because I love working outdoors, and I am interested in eventually pursuing a career in wildlife conservation.  Working for the WCC affords me the opportunity make an evident impact on the environment, as well as gain hands on experience for the future in a field that I enjoy.

Brown's Dairy and February Fyke-netting

This new week welcomed us with ridiculous amounts of water.  Both Salmon Creek and Snow Creek (and pretty much all of the creeks in the area) jumped their banks, leading to a rescue mission to save the WDFW fish trap.  

Despite the crazy flows, we had a very productive two days out in the Discovery Bay estuary fyke-netting.  We caught over 1000 chum in the main estuary channel, showing that the reformed inlet (it was filled up with mill waste until NOSC completed its excavation in 2008) is most definitely being used.  More pictures and an explanation of what the heck fyke-netting is coming soon!

Last week we finished planting the Brown's Dairy project for the Jefferson Conservation District, planting well over a thousand trees along Chimacum Creek.  The site looks awesome, and will look even better once everything is tubed.  The planting will help to bring shade to the creek, filter run-off from the dairy, and eventually out-compete the invasive reed canary grass that tends to clog the creek during the summer and fall.

We also belted out a quick planting at Chimacum Beach, a beautiful place to work.

Finally, we helped out at the Spring Rain Farm, scalping some hole for a planting to be done by Chimacum students.  If you look to the Northeast as you pass Chimacum School you can see the good work they did out there!

The past 5 monthes in brief...

Here is a quick overview of what we've been up to.  After this catch up, we'll keep everything up to date and throw in some random articles about whatever we feel like.  Or what you feel like - feel free to ask us if you want to hear about some particular aspect of our work!

Most of the links in this post lead to the full picture album.  We recently obtained a crew camera, so hopefully we'll be able to start posting pictures for more of our tasks!  For now we are using pictures from NOSC's WCC Individual Placement Aliina Lahti.  Thanks Aliina!

See NOSC's blogs on Salmon and Snow Creek, Morse Creek, and Chum Restoration for more pictures and info on those specific projects!  Links to these blogs are on the left side bar.

October:
Day 1: The die is cast...this will not be a normal crew.  

After an introduction to native plants, salmon ecology, local restoration projects, and 'how to plant a tree', the crew (and our two brave WCC IP's, Anna Sample at the Jefferson Land Trust and Aliina Lahti at NOSC) are sent out into Jefferson County.
WCC crew tasks include:
- Planting maintenance on Snow and Salmon Creeks
- Butterfly bush removal on the Big Quilcene river
- Chum surveys
- WCC New Member Orientation
- Planting at Morse Creek

November:
- Continuation of the Morse Creek planting, as well as further planting and invasive removal at Finn River Farm
- Site prep at Snow Creek and the assemblage of some pretty sweet beaver cages
- Maintenance at several previous planting sites, including Chimacum beach (lots of fun working in the snow!), Salmon Estuary, and the Little Quil.  At Little Quilcene we were interviewed by a journalist for the PT Leader who did a lovely article on the work done at the site and the WCC crew itself.

December:
- Snow Creek site prep: blackberry and old barbed wire fence removal in preparation for a massive tree planting project that will occur next fall
- WDFW Snow Creek fish trap: helping fish move through the trap during high water flows
- Flood Response training
- Further site maintenance for several projects

WDFW Snow Creek fish trap

Owen and James plant trees in the snow

January:
- Maintenance, site prep and planting at several sites
- River's End planting with the Jamestown S'Klallam tribe
- MLK week!

For MLK week WCC members are expected to complete 30 hours of community service.  Joining forces with the 2 WCC IPs, we spent MLK day hosting a volunteer event at Fort Flagler State Park.  34 volunteers attended and helped us to dismantle 4 dry docks, clean the campgrounds of fallen branches from the winter, and clean up the beach. More pictures here.

AJ helping a student with tools for dock dismantle

Our second day was spent working on the Adventuress, a schooner that does educational sailings throughout the Puget Sound during the summer. It is owned by the nonprofit group Sound Experience. We helped out with winter maintenance such as sanding and painting.  Find out more from the Adventuress blog.

Finally, our last day was spent with Jefferson County Habitat for Humanity.  We helped out doing finishing work on two houses in Port Townsend. Much fun was had by all!

February:

- Brown's Dairy site prep and planting

- Fyke netting at Salmon Estuary

- Volunteer plantings at the Salmon Estuary Mound and Morse Creek

- Jefferson County Conservation District's Native Plant Sale

Fyke-netting in the estuary to record chum usage of the inlets

Katie, volunteer Mike, and Chris get excited about fyke-netting

Volunteers and WCC crew planting on the Salmon Estuary mound

Updates on our March work coming soon!


One last point of interest - the Port Hadlock WCC crew is hiring.
We are looking for another crew member for a 6 month position starting in late March.  We work four 10 hour days a week, often in somewhat miserable conditions (but often in really beautiful conditions as well).  As you can tell from this blog, the majority of what we do is habitat restoration.  Much of the summer will be spent doing invasive species removal (mainly Japanese Knotweed) along the various rivers in East Jefferson County.  Applications are being received through the WCC/Dept. of Ecology website.

2010-2011 WCC Crew Intro! (better late than never)

Our term started at the beginning of October, 2010.  We have spent the past 5 months planting thousands of trees, treating acres of invasives, and helping with several other fun projects such as fyke netting, derelict fence removal, salmon surveys, volunteer tree plantings, the Jefferson Conservation District plant sale, and helping out with the WDFW fish trap.

In case you haven't met them yet, here are the WCC crew members bringing Awesome to the East Jefferson County community.

Hello, my name is Owen French, WCC Crew Supervisor for the Port Hadlock Crew; some of you may know me from my stint as Restoration Coordinator for NOSC. I hold Bachelor’s degrees in both Communication and Natural Resource Management. I have done natural resource management work for many non-profit and government entities over the past 13 years in Oregon, Washington and Vermont. I am very pleased to be supervising a crew doing salmon habitat restoration projects for NOSC and its partners across the North Olympic Peninsula, and am excited for the coming year of service.

 

 My name is James House, and I am assistant supervisor to the crew. I was born in California, moved up to Port Townsend, Washington when I was five years old, and have happily lived here ever since. I joined the Washington Conservation Corps largely out of a desire to serve and give back to the community I've lived in for over twenty years. I've gained great satisfaction out of the work I've done so far, and feel what I’ve accomplished so far in my second year of working for the WCC has been an outstanding supplement to my pursuit of a degree in natural sciences.

 My name is AJ Garcia and I am from Tacoma, WA. I joined the WCC because I was looking for a job that would be fun and meaningful and could put me on a path to a career I would truly enjoy. I have always loved nature and working with the WCC, this term being my second service year, lets me give back and help restore our area to its natural salmon bearing state.

 My name is Christopher Viciana. I'm 22 and I'm originally from NJ. I left NJ when I was 16 and traveled around the country for a few years. I joined the WCC crew for a few reasons, one being that I enjoy working outside and the work, though hard at times, is fulfilling. Some other reasons I joined the crew are to help me accomplish some of the goals I have in life such as going to college and some newfound goals like becoming a wildland firefighter or possibly a wilderness EMT. 

 

My name is Aurora Blevins. I am 19-years-old and was born and raised in Shelton, Wa. I’ve known for some time that I was looking for a career in the conservation of our natural habitat. Washington Conservation Corps offered exactly what I was looking for in a job. It presents me with the opportunity to make a lasting change and continue my education, both during and after my service year.

 

Hey! My name is Katie Moyer and I am from Mount Vernon, Washington. After graduating from Whitman College in 2009 with a B.A. in Biology and Music, I worked an AmeriCorps job with an RFEG in an outreach capacity. I had a great time learning and teaching about salmon and decided it would be a lot of fun to get more involved with the restoration aspect of wild salmon recovery. The NOSC crew sounded like a great way to get experience restoring salmon habitat, meet new people, and explore the Olympic Peninsula.