Friends Notes

UPDATE: Grant for Fidalgo Bay and City of Anacortes stormwater monitoring.

The Rose Foundation awarded a significant grant to Friends of Skagit Beaches for monitoring stormwater outfalls at the point where stormwater meets saltwater. The objective of this project is to create a continuously updated baseline of measured stormwater pollution levels that reach Puget Sound.
The City of Anacortes has more than 80 outfalls that deposit stormwater directly into Puget Sound. This project, manned by volunteers, will monitor most of these outfalls. The outfalls not monitored are either on private land or are too unsafe for a volunteer to reach.

(FOSB President Tim Gohrke checking out one of Fidalgo Islands stormwater outfalls)

This stormwater pollution monitoring project is a partnership with Friends of Skagit Beaches, the City of Anacortes, and the Samish Tribe's Department of Natural Resources.

At this stage the project is organizing the training curriculum around six types of measurements:
1. Dissolved Oxygen Levels
2. Salinity
3. pH
4. Water Temperature
5. Turbidity
6. Fecal Coliform levels

Volunteers will use several calibrated electronic measuring devices for fast and accurate data capture. The data will be stored in the project's own database. The Rose Foundation grant provides funding for two years. At the end of that two year period the project will visualize the data and show the actual levels of pollution from Anacortes stormwater.

(Pictured: Wayne Huseby watches Diane Hennebert (City of Anacortes) calibrate her turbidity test equipment. This procedure involves three bottles with known turbidity levels. The sensor is shown each bottle and calibrated to that level. This machine will be used by the FOSB stormwater monitoring volunteers in their monthly data gathering work among the city's stormwater outfalls.)

The State Department of Ecology requires that a municipality with a stormwater permit must examine and sample at least 13% of their entire stormwater pipe network each year. Most municipalities have budget shortages for manpower. Usually no more than 13% is examined. That means in the five year permit time frame no more than 65% of a town's stormwater system is monitored, and likely only once in five years.
Stormwater is the state's largest single pollution source according to The Department of Ecology. It's greater than waste water treatment or agricultural runoff. Yet no municipality can routinely or consistently report pollution levels that discharge into Puget Sound.

This situation seems tailor-made for a citizen science volunteer campaign. The Anacortes stormwater monitoring project will not stop pollution, but will guide the city's limited manpower to find and eliminate the sources of pollution that the volunteers detect.

Plastic pollution and its impacts on the marine environment is an important issue that seems to be in the news a lot lately.
Crafted, created, and led by board member Betty Carteret, Friends of Skagit Beaches’ newest project, Skagit Plastic Reduction and Recycling Coalition (SPRRC) received a $30,000 from the Department of Ecology in September 2018.

The objectives of the project:

- Raise awareness about harmful impacts of plastic waste

- Reduce the use of single-use plastics

- Promote lifestyle choices that will reduce harmful impacts of plastic waste

- Reduce contamination of the plastic recycling waste stream

Right out of the starting gate, the project established a working partnership with Skagit County Solid Waste Division. Callie Martin, Skagit County’s outreach specialist for waste reduction and recycling has provided insights, valuable information, and resources.

Volunteer participation in the project exceeded expectations by more than double the 450 hours proposed in the grant application. As of the end of the grant period on June 30th volunteers had given over 1,000 hours of service to the project!

Over 1,300 community members were contacted and over 800 plastic reduction pledges have been completed. Pledge participants were sent a survey and results indicate that the messages shared in our outreach are making a difference and people are making positive changes to reduce their use of single-use plastics and also following guidelines for recycling more carefully.

Check out our other blog posts and the Plastic Initiative section to learn more about this project, plastic and what you can do to make a difference.

Would you like to get involved?
Contact Betty at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

It was a cool mostly cloudy 4th of July morning when Pete Haase, Tom Flanagan, and I met at the March Point Park and Ride. Pete and I are members of the Fidalgo Bay Aquatic Reserve (FBAR) Citizen Stewardship Committee (CSC) and Tom is a super volunteer/citizen scientist. We were headed to Libbey Beach Park, a small Island County park just north of Fort Ebey State Park on the western shores of Whidbey Island. It is part of the Smith and Minor Island Aquatic Reserve (SMIAR), an area that spans 36,300 acres of tidelands and seafloor habitat and includes the largest bull kelp forest in the State of Washington.

Today we were doing what any red blooded old white guys do on the Fourth of July, we were going to help a couple of young ladies, Jamie Kilgo and Cassidy Johnson from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), with a kelp harvesting study. Pretty much what everybody does on the 4th of July, right? The goal of their study is to gather information about harvester practices and evaluate potential impacts of harvesting on the intertidal kelp community. Kelp is a broad term used to describe a group of brown macroalgae species common to our Salish Sea rocky shores, including the iconic bull kelp (Nereocystis leutkeana). Kelp forests, as they are known, are extensive underwater (most of the time) “factories” that convert solar energy into food and protective structure for many of its inhabitants, like invertebrates and fish, including juvenile salmonids. They are vital to a healthy intertidal and subtidal ecosystem.

Although Tom and I are experienced citizen scientists, neither of us had experience with these types of studies. We are both former engineers so almost impossible to train! Pete was an “old hand” having been out on the beach with Dale Fournier, FBARCSC member, and Jamie a few weeks earlier. By some miracle, Jamie and Cassidy were able to quickly teach us (the tide would soon be coming back in!) how to identify, measure, and record data on these amazing macroalgae in a very short time. Proof that you can teach an old dog new tricks!

Although we were noting and recording the presence of several types of kelp, our focus was on Alaria marginata (winged kelp) and Saccharina spp. (sugar and split leaf kelp). These species are the preferred targets for the recreational harvesters.

One of the things that makes the beaches along the west side of Whidbey perfect for supporting large kelp beds but extremely difficult to walk (better to crawl!) are the large boulders that litter the beach. Kelp attaches and anchors itself to the rocks so as not to be swept away by winter storms or strong tides. Once anchored solidly to the sea floor, the kelp forests absorb significant amounts of wave energy thereby slowing beach erosion.

These studies actually started back in 2015 when members of SMIAR and other local environmental groups began observing and recording spatial and temporal harvester patterns, measuring the wet weight of harvester buckets, and conducting harvester interviews at Libbey Beach. Since 2017, the DNR led by Jamie Kilgo and her team, has been conducting a harvest method impact study.

One of the outgrowths of the work by volunteers and DNR is a harvester outreach and education program. Interpretative signs were developed and installed a few years ago. Harvesters are provided information on the best method to harvest kelp so that it can survive and re-grow. It turns out the methods used to harvest kelp are critical to sustainability. If the stem is cut too close (generally less than 12”) to the holdfast, it is not able to regenerate and/or reproduce. Not a good thing if we want sustainable kelp forests!

As we finished up and headed home for a “normal” 4th celebration, it reminded me that the actions taken by a small group of engaged local citizens can make a big difference toward protecting our rich marine environment.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this year's Academy a great success. We had a great line up of presenters and exhibitors, wonderful volunteers and over 85 attendees who enjoyed the day of learning

Check out the Fidalgo Shoreline Academy write-up in the Skagit Valley Herald

Membership Drive with Board members Barb and Gina

 Registration with Rachel and Brad

Jude Apple's Keynote Address on Blue Carbon was great!

Shannon came to share more information on the
Swinomish Department of Environmental Protection

Thank you Skagit Conservation District for spending the day with us!

Friends of Skagit Beaches new Plastics Interpretive Station

Karen and friends enjoy lunch

Todd McLeish shares some great stories about our coastal sea otters

The Salish Sea Stewards Class of 2018 completed their training on Tuesday, May 22. Twenty-five eager and engaged community members completed the ten-week course, which included hands-on training in forage fish spawning monitoring, intertidal monitoring, and crabber outreach. Many regional experts gave their time to the class, presenting on a variety of important topics, such as ocean acidification, the importance of citizen science, and tribal treaty rights. The training included field time at Bowman Bay, the shoreline of Fidalgo Bay and the mudflats of Padilla Bay.

 The new Salish Sea Stewards have committed to give back to the Salish Sea 50 hours of their time over the next year. Programs needing volunteers were highlighted throughout the trainings and class participants have already signed up for many that interest them. Many have already started volunteering at intertidal monitoring, heron monitoring, and education events for school children. When these Salish Stewards complete their volunteering in twelve months, the Salish Sea will have benefitted from a whopping 1,250 hours of dedicated volunteer energy!