This is a great, short video from the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Enjoy!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
February 2009
New and Improved Web Site
I’ve finally updated our web pages (with a lot of help from Vincent, our tech support guy) and I have to say they look beautiful. All of the articles the class of 2008 wrote are linked, so you can explore those if you wish. Take a look:
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/environ/water/beachwatchers.html
I’m also gearing up for this year’s training and, as always, want to recruit as many new Beach Watchers as I can and you can help! Please forward the website to anyone you know who might be interested in participating in the program. Everything they need to know is on the site including dates, times, contact info, and the application.
Is this day and age of information overload, personal recommendations are increasingly important. They really do make a difference.
Stories from the Sea
I've been working with Bob Hendricks, Friends of Blaine Library, and Sonia Hurt to put together what I think will be a great evening for the Blaine community and something that should be of interest to Beach Watchers as well. On February 25, we'll be hosting Val Veirs, Professor with the Beam Reach Marine Science School and President of the Whale Museum, and Todd Schuster, Captain of the Gato Verde. Val and Todd will share their research experience and what has been discovered about orca communication, otherwise known as bioaccoustics.
Sonia Hurt, fellow Beach Watcher, will also share the film The Synthetic Sea - a documentary that explores plastic debris’ harmful effects on our marine life.
I hope you'll join us: February 25, Wednesday 6-8 pm at the Blaine Public Library
Point Whitehorn Marine Reserve
In 2007 the Whatcom Land Trust aquired 54 acres of forest, bluff and beach, and tranferred the land to Whatcom County Parks & Recreation. The newly created park features a 3/4 mile accessible trail to spectacular viewpoints of the Strait of Georgia and San Juan Islands. A switchback path descends from the bluff to access a windswept cobble beach.
That Whatcom Land Trust is celebrating the opening of the Point Whitehorn Marine Reserve this spring and the want to make a splash. They're planning to have tours of both the beach and the upland and they’ve asked if any of our volunteers would be willing to help provide tours of the area (I guess word is getting out that you are a great group to work with!). I already have a tentative yes from Heather Mackay for the wetlands portion. They would love to have Beach Naturalist type tours and perhaps a native plant tour guide as well.
The date is May 25, Memorial Day, and the tours would take place between 11:30 – 1:30.
I’ve finally updated our web pages (with a lot of help from Vincent, our tech support guy) and I have to say they look beautiful. All of the articles the class of 2008 wrote are linked, so you can explore those if you wish. Take a look:
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/environ/water/beachwatchers.html
I’m also gearing up for this year’s training and, as always, want to recruit as many new Beach Watchers as I can and you can help! Please forward the website to anyone you know who might be interested in participating in the program. Everything they need to know is on the site including dates, times, contact info, and the application.
Is this day and age of information overload, personal recommendations are increasingly important. They really do make a difference.
Stories from the Sea
I've been working with Bob Hendricks, Friends of Blaine Library, and Sonia Hurt to put together what I think will be a great evening for the Blaine community and something that should be of interest to Beach Watchers as well. On February 25, we'll be hosting Val Veirs, Professor with the Beam Reach Marine Science School and President of the Whale Museum, and Todd Schuster, Captain of the Gato Verde. Val and Todd will share their research experience and what has been discovered about orca communication, otherwise known as bioaccoustics.
Sonia Hurt, fellow Beach Watcher, will also share the film The Synthetic Sea - a documentary that explores plastic debris’ harmful effects on our marine life.
I hope you'll join us: February 25, Wednesday 6-8 pm at the Blaine Public Library
Point Whitehorn Marine Reserve
In 2007 the Whatcom Land Trust aquired 54 acres of forest, bluff and beach, and tranferred the land to Whatcom County Parks & Recreation. The newly created park features a 3/4 mile accessible trail to spectacular viewpoints of the Strait of Georgia and San Juan Islands. A switchback path descends from the bluff to access a windswept cobble beach.
That Whatcom Land Trust is celebrating the opening of the Point Whitehorn Marine Reserve this spring and the want to make a splash. They're planning to have tours of both the beach and the upland and they’ve asked if any of our volunteers would be willing to help provide tours of the area (I guess word is getting out that you are a great group to work with!). I already have a tentative yes from Heather Mackay for the wetlands portion. They would love to have Beach Naturalist type tours and perhaps a native plant tour guide as well.
The date is May 25, Memorial Day, and the tours would take place between 11:30 – 1:30.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
January 2009
The Envelope Please
As promised, I have some beautiful copies of The Highest Tide generously donated by Goody Hadley, Watershed Master Beach Watcher from the class of 2006, and owner of Lucky Leaf Garden Designs in Fairhaven.
In the category of:
“Holy-Moly-that’s-a-lot-of-hours Watershed Master / Beach Watchers Class of 2008”, the winner is . . . .
Wendy Harris who has contributed over 150 hours is just 7 months!!!!!!!
In the category of
“Marathon contributions from veteran Watershed Master / Beach Watchers,”
the winner is . . . .
Wait, we have a tie – in fact we have a THREE-WAY tie!
Graeme Guthrie from the class of 2007 - 100 hours
Marie Hitchman from the fall class of 2005 – 97.5 hours
and Heather Mackay from the class of 2007 – 97 hours
(Now don’t try to tell me that’s not a tie. There are two kinds of people in this world, “lumpers” and “splitters.” I’m a “lumper” and to me that’s clearly a tie!)
Goody donated three books and I will happily add my personal copy to the pot.
Thank you everyone for dedicating your heart, and your mind, and your time to making our community better!
Beach Watchers in Print
Two more articles written by Beach Watchers from the class of 2008 have been published.
Estuaries, by Jeanne Bogert has been published in the Chuckanut Community & Firefighters Association Newsletter, January 2009 (attached to your email) and
To Grind or Not to Grind, by Sue Brown was published in the Community Food Coop Newsletter, January 2009.
That makes a total of 6 articles that I’m aware of plus several letters to the editor. Wow!
Flow: For the love of Water
I continue to be intrigued by the movie Flow and the responses I got from you all about continuing education opportunities suggests that there’s a lot of interest from the Beach Watchers team, too.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the film you can check out the link here:
http://thewip.net/contributors/2009/01/flow_who_owns_the_worlds_water.html
At the bottom of the article about the movie there is a trailer.
I have called the Pickford Theater several times to find out if we can bring the movie to Bellingham somehow. So far I haven’t been able to connect with anyone. Do any of you have connections at the Pickford? Any experience with bringing movies to the community another way? Any desire to become point person on this project?
Upcoming Events & Opportunities
I am continually trying to improve my contributions to this program, and to do more with less (time generally). To that end I have tried something new here and I hope you will all forgive me for it!
I've published the upcoming Events and Opportunities on a separate blog which is linked above - "Upcoming Events & Opportunities" is a link - and also in the upper right corner of this page.
I have let my webpages get horribly out of date and my hope is that linking my webpages to the Events blog page will allow me to post upcoming events to all of you as well as the public at the same time.
To navigate back to this blog page, click on the WSU Beach Watchers Blog link on the Events page.
As always, if you hate this, or (hopefully) love it feel free to let me know. And if you don't care about this one way or another, that's okay, too.
As promised, I have some beautiful copies of The Highest Tide generously donated by Goody Hadley, Watershed Master Beach Watcher from the class of 2006, and owner of Lucky Leaf Garden Designs in Fairhaven.
In the category of:
“Holy-Moly-that’s-a-lot-of-hours Watershed Master / Beach Watchers Class of 2008”, the winner is . . . .
Wendy Harris who has contributed over 150 hours is just 7 months!!!!!!!
In the category of
“Marathon contributions from veteran Watershed Master / Beach Watchers,”
the winner is . . . .
Wait, we have a tie – in fact we have a THREE-WAY tie!
Graeme Guthrie from the class of 2007 - 100 hours
Marie Hitchman from the fall class of 2005 – 97.5 hours
and Heather Mackay from the class of 2007 – 97 hours
(Now don’t try to tell me that’s not a tie. There are two kinds of people in this world, “lumpers” and “splitters.” I’m a “lumper” and to me that’s clearly a tie!)
Goody donated three books and I will happily add my personal copy to the pot.
Thank you everyone for dedicating your heart, and your mind, and your time to making our community better!
Beach Watchers in Print
Two more articles written by Beach Watchers from the class of 2008 have been published.
Estuaries, by Jeanne Bogert has been published in the Chuckanut Community & Firefighters Association Newsletter, January 2009 (attached to your email) and
To Grind or Not to Grind, by Sue Brown was published in the Community Food Coop Newsletter, January 2009.
That makes a total of 6 articles that I’m aware of plus several letters to the editor. Wow!
Flow: For the love of Water
I continue to be intrigued by the movie Flow and the responses I got from you all about continuing education opportunities suggests that there’s a lot of interest from the Beach Watchers team, too.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the film you can check out the link here:
http://thewip.net/contributors/2009/01/flow_who_owns_the_worlds_water.html
At the bottom of the article about the movie there is a trailer.
I have called the Pickford Theater several times to find out if we can bring the movie to Bellingham somehow. So far I haven’t been able to connect with anyone. Do any of you have connections at the Pickford? Any experience with bringing movies to the community another way? Any desire to become point person on this project?
Upcoming Events & Opportunities
I am continually trying to improve my contributions to this program, and to do more with less (time generally). To that end I have tried something new here and I hope you will all forgive me for it!
I've published the upcoming Events and Opportunities on a separate blog which is linked above - "Upcoming Events & Opportunities" is a link - and also in the upper right corner of this page.
I have let my webpages get horribly out of date and my hope is that linking my webpages to the Events blog page will allow me to post upcoming events to all of you as well as the public at the same time.
To navigate back to this blog page, click on the WSU Beach Watchers Blog link on the Events page.
As always, if you hate this, or (hopefully) love it feel free to let me know. And if you don't care about this one way or another, that's okay, too.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
December 2008
Creosote Inventory Maps are Online
Continuing Education Interests
Intertidal Night Walks
Touring Point Whitehorn
Talks on
Eelgrass ecosystems: The Web of Life
Coastal Cleanups and Plastics
Seabirds
And Viewing Flow. For the Love of Water. An award winning film about the privatization of water
There were also a lot of great additional ideas such as exploring connections between fresh water tributaries and salt water; tide-pooling at Deception Point, and the San Juan Islands; touring fresh water ponds and wetlands; political action, water rights, and photographing marine life.
If you didn’t get a chance to participate in this you still can and it still will influence the events I plan in the coming months for you. Just follow this link:
The Built Green Conference
Thanks also to Jean Waight and Jeanne Bogert for helping with the rain garden booth and providing moral support. The conference was very well attended and you all stirred up a lot of enthusiasm for rain gardens!
The 7th Annual Environmental Heroes Banquet is coming up.
RE Sources honors everyday heroes including students, volunteers, community activists, businesses, and youth. To nominate a hero simply fill out and return the nomination form.
Beach Monitoring data
Finally, a big thank you to Jane Lewinski for her work entering your great beach monitoring data into an online data base. It’s a big job and I surely appreciate Jane’s dedication!
End of the Year Reporting Round-Up
I'm writing up my end of the year reports for WSU, for our grantors, and, of course, I'm bragging about all of the great work you all do. If you haven't reported your hours please do so now. If you don't find an online category that encompasses your work, please let me know so that I can update the system. If you just can't stomach the online system please send me an email and let me know in writing what you've been up to. Whatever you do, please don't be shy about your contributions!
And thank you very, very much for all you do!
Upcoming Events and Opportunities
Seismic Hazards of the Bellingham Waterfront: Expert Speaks December 4
Storming the Sound
Padilla Bay Reserve, National Park Service and People For Puget Sound
Invite YOU to attend the 8th Annual “Storming the Sound” Conference
Friday, January 30th, 2009 Maple Hall in La Conner
Registration is officially open! If you are interested in attending, consider registering NOW because conference attendance is limited to 130 participants. To attend the North Sound “Storming the Sound” Conference, you must either work/reside in a North Sound County (Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish, Clallam, Jefferson, Island or San Juan) or if you live outside this area, have programs/resources accessible to North Sound teachers.
Why attend “Storming the Sound” - “Storming the Sound” is an annual conference that brings together environmental education resource providers, teachers in the private, public and home school sectors and students interested in pursuing an environmental education career. This is the place to attend fabulous and unique breakout sessions, participate in the annual story and song swap, hear the keynote speaker and enjoy a delicious organic lunch.
What else do I need to know? If you register via online, you will receive a confirmation message in January (all else, as we receive them) with a simple what to bring list. Most importantly, we encourage you to plan on bringing a $10 conference attendance donation, a name tag, a travel mug and consider carpooling to this event! Visit the web page at www.padillabay.gov/storming to learn more.
How do I register for “Storming the Sound”? There are two options –you can register online at <http://www.padillabay.gov/storming> or contact Britta Eschete at 360-336-1931 or beschete@pugetsound.org.
Coastal Training Program
Registration is now open for Coastal Training Program classes to be held January through March 2009! To read class descriptions, instructor bios, and to register, please go to
http://www.coastaltraining-wa.org.
January
Grass, Sedge, and Rush Identification for Western WA Puget Lowlands, January 14-15, 2009, Mt. Vernon, $150
How to Administer Development Permits in Washington’s Shorelines, January 21, 2009, Mt. Vernon, $60
Protecting Aquatic Ecosystems: A Guide for Puget Sound Planners to Understand Watershed Processes, January 28, 2009, Bellevue, $60
February
Grass, Sedge, and Rush Identification for Western WA Puget Lowlands, February 18-19, 2009, Mt. Vernon, $150
March
Planning for Climate Change, March 4, 2009, Mt. Vernon, $60 – NEW CLASS!
Planning for Climate Change, March 18, 2009, Olympia, $60 – NEW CLASS!
Using the Revised Washington State Wetland Rating System, March 25-26, 2009, Olympia, $125
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