The class of 2009 is in training and we’re having a great time. This year’s class consists of 13 fantastic students. We have enjoyed a few new activities and field trips this year.
Highlights for me included touring Bellingham Cold Storage, learning about effective educational techniques from our 4-H Educator, Michael Wallace, and doing a beach seine at the Post Point Lagoon with Glen Alexander from the Padilla Bay Estuary Research Reserve – we found fish, a nudibranch, and numerous other neat creatures in the net!
Once again, I've been a bit overwhelmed by training preparations and have neglected the newsletter. But the world has not slowed down one bit and I suspect you haven't either! There's a ton of things I have to share with you as well as upcoming events and opportunities on the events page.
Enjoy!
Marine Invasive Species Monitoring (MISM)
On Monday April 13 from 6 to 9 pm, at 322 N. Commercial Street on the second floor we’ll have Ann Eissenger wildlife biologist with Nahkeeta Northwest explain marine invasive species and train us in what to look for and introduce the MISM program.
“The Puget Sound Marine Invasive Species Volunteer Monitoring Program (MISM) is a new citizen-science shoreline monitoring effort – targeting 32 non-native marine and estuarine organisms. The purpose of the program is to identify the distribution of selected non-native species and provide early detection for high-risk invaders.”
You are all welcome to join us for this Beach Watchers training session or any others you wish to brush up on. I sent out a course agenda earlier this month to everyone. Please just let me know when you would like to come.
Ferry Landing Fish and Wildlife Habitat Enhancement Project
This project to restore and enhance marine habitats, reduce water pollution and secure eroding shoreline bank, spearheaded by Watershed Master / Beach Watcher Wanda Cucinotta on Lummi Island is ready to roll!
Want to help do some fun work and protect our marine waters and public tidelands? Come join our Saturday morning volunteer work parties this spring.
Volunteer crews will:
• Remove noxious weeds, install approx. 2,000 native plants along the bluff areas around the ferry terminal and shoreline to the north.
• Install 1 mutt mitt station with signage at a location approved by Whatcom County.
• Remove rough creosote logs from the northern shoreline.
• Install pretreatment bays and an oil/grease separator to the rain gardens in the new ferry terminal parking lot.
• Install bioinfiltration measures along the wetland path north of the new parking lot.
• Install and maintain a Bioclean catch basin insert in the catch basin immediately north of the southern entrance to the new ferry terminal parking lot.
Call Wanda at 220-3077 if you would like to volunteer, or have any questions and/or concerns. Check out their Blog: http://liwec.wordpress.com.
When 1+1 = 100
Garden-variety pesticides add up to more than the sum of their parts when it comes to attacking the nervous systems of salmon, a newly published study finds.
http://www.wsutoday.wsu.edu/Pages/Publications.asp?Action=Detail&PublicationID=13986&PageID=
Cutting water use Could be Best Way to Save Electricity
Policies that lead to reduced water consumption could help to address climate change, writes Ben Block, a staff writer with the Worldwatch Institute.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/13/network-water-efficiency-climate-change
Check out The Jellyfish
Inventor Chad Maglaque doesn’t just want to bring change to the world of renewable energy -- he wants to mass produce it. The Seattleite has recently invented an affordable, accessible version of the micro-wind turbine, which he calls the Jellyfish
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/009415.html
Global Warming Groove
This is serious fun!
http://www.climatecrisisjam.org/
Ecosystem Services
Around the world and in our backyard people are talking about ecosystem services – a way to recognize, value, and protect the ecosystems that provided life-support services to humanity. This issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences delves into ecosystems services and challenges to implementation.
http://www.pnas.org/content/105/28.toc#content-block
An Ocean Fairy Tale
A beautiful story with a powerful message - a different way to educate!
http://chge.med.harvard.edu/programs/healthyoceans/once_upon_a_tide/home.html
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
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