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June 08th, 2015

6/8/2015

The Natural Resources Streamkeepers crew ( From left to right: Lucas Verstegen, Timothy Hernandez(me), Tyler Hansen, Nathan Schaeffer, Jon Joseph, and Dan Lieberman) all attended the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal council meeting to express their grtitude for all the things the Elwha Tribe has done for Natural Resources. Each of the students brought something different to bring to the tribal council to show how well the work the Natural Resources crews are doing helps the Elwha Tribe mission statement. In an abstract way, the gifts we brought can be connected to a tribal concept called Potlatch. A Potlatch is a ceremony or meeting where gifts are given away by somebody to increase their social standards. We were not exactly trying to increase our social standing, but we were trying to thank the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe for all that they have done and to show them the results of our serveys and cleanup projects.

Tyler Hansen brought a poster showing data from the Natural Resources Turbitity on Peabody Creek, along with this poster he brought a poster frame that they will be able to use for other posters that we will bring them in the future(https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-AylskFSA41R2xUN2psdXRackU/view?usp=sharing). Jon Joseph brought a “Wanted” poster he created about Japanese Knot Weed in the United States. Lucas Verstegen brought a study showing the ratio between cutthroat and coho in Valley and Tumwater Creek(https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-AylskFSA41ZlZnZm96Q2ZGZzA/view?usp=sharing). Nathan Schaeffer did a study on the changes of marine debris on the East Elwha Beach(https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-AylskFSA41MmgyYWhoV252RUk/view?usp=sharing). Finally, I brought a blog post that i created for opnrc.org(this website) about how the work that the Natural Resources crews do help the mission Statement of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe.

My Experience in Beach cleanup and Stream Keepers

6/1/2015

Here is another good blog post from the OCNMS student blog explaining what the this student did on a day with the Streamkeepers.

I went out not to long ago with a small crew and cleared black berry bushes from Valley Creek 1.0. At first I hated it of course but as we got into it I felt good knowing I am helping keep the stream clear. Enabling people to walk down to the creek without being stabbed by the invasive plants. There were a lot of them everywhere especially on the banks and where people walk down to the creek. It’s not a huge help but its helping and people don't realize what this class does. They don't notice that we test the waters that some kids play in and keep data on the fish. The people who are volunteers are really the good people they are taking their time out of there day just to help us kids and help with the creeks flowing through our town. Apart from stream keepers there is our beach class. We go out to West and East Elwha Beaches and do marine debris pick up. We pick up any trash we see and do a 100 meter cleanup and record the data so we know what's going on across the beaches and in the water with the marine mammals and birds. We keep the beaches clean of rusty cans and anything else you could hurt yourself on or kids anyone we make it pretty safe to walk barefoot. Without this class I wouldn't be able to graduate and the creeks and beaches would be a lot worse off than they are now.

Our Beaches

6/1/2015

Here is a post from the OCNMS student blog site about what they do do help improve our beaches here in the National Parks:

The East and West Elwha Beaches are what the Natural Resources group mainly focuses on. We get a lot of trash from our marine debris pick ups, we walk all the way across the beach from one side to the other and pick up any trash we find. Sometimes its hard because we have a small group of people doing it but we do our best. Having the beaches clean is a huge part it allows people to go out with there kids or anyone and walk around barefoot without being to hesitant because of trash. we help keep it a nice beach and a place people want to go to have fun and see what our environment is doing. across from that we record all of the data to know what the marine mammals are doing and the birds it helps us know what is going on in the environment and our data helps us figure out where the trash is coming from. on shore trash is from us and people on land leaving there trash or storms and off shore is from boats or hatcheries anything that looses trash out in the ocean and washes up on the beaches. for more of a visual and some more information on marine debris and our beaches check out a link to a poster one of the students made.http://www.nopsc.org/natural-resources/projects/poster/finish/18-posters/125-lorenmarinedebris.html

Natural Resources and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe

6/1/2015

The mission statement of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe is: “Assist the Tribe to protect, enhance, & restore land, air, and water resources, and environmental health for generations to come. Promote the protection of cultural resources, unique tribal interests and treaty rights. Serve the tribal community and promote sustainable community development.” Most of the North Olympic Peninsula is within traditional Tribal Land, so what the North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center Natural Resources Options Streamkeepers crew does to help them fulfill their mission statement is monitoring fish in the streams and streams and help plant new native plants in the many hundreds of acres of land that was freed as a result of the dam removal. This Natural Resources crew takes measurements about the health of the stream so the tribe can make sure the work they are doing is actually helping the streams.

Natural Resources Options Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary crew helps the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe fulfill their mission statement by helping out clean up the coastline and doing many different surveys such as seabird surveys and kelp rock surveys. Through these various surveys, the Elwha Tribe is able to be aware of any better manage their usual and accustomed grounds. As an example, the Natural Resources Options Olympic Coast Marine Sanctuary crew monitors marine debris. By monitoring the marine debris, our Marine sanctuary crew figures out what the composition of the debris is. With this information, people can better understand how to help reduce and prevent marine debris.

I personally have contributed with the Natural Resources project directly by going out with the Streamkeepers crew and planting Oceanspray along the side of Valley Creek to replace an invasive species of blackberry. Through working with the Streamkeepers crew, I have learned a lot about how much not only the Streamkeepers do, but what all of the natural resources crews do as a whole to help out the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe’s land. It felt like I was really helping out the ecosystem when I was planting the Oceanspray because i knew that it would help the ecosystem in the long run. I think the work that the Natural Resources crews do is very important to help keep our local ecosystem alive and healthy. Nobody wants to walk outside and see garbage everywhere, Natural Resources helps make sure people don’t have to.

Valley Creek Tree Planting

3/20/2015

On March 16, 2015, I went with the Streamkeepers group to help them plant Oceanspray next to Valley Creek at river mile 1.0 (GPS coordinates: 48.10459, 123.44798). According to the book “Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast”, the wood of this shrub is very hard, SO hard in fact that people used oceanspray Pegs before nails were invented. Planting these shrubs today will hopefully have a very beneficial impact on Valley Creek in just a few years. When we first showed up we talked about the rock layers around the stream and how that effects plant and salmon life. We also talked about how the native tribes moved logs around the outside of the stream in hopes of causing more sediment build-up and that we usually plant trees there so that in a few hundred years they will be old and fall over, causing there to be logs alongside the stream.

While digging holes for the Oceanspray to be planted, we found all sorts of interesting rocks and even a few worm eggs! We planted about 20-25 shrubs in total all around the area. Whenever we chose a spot for the new shrubs to be planted, we tried to get rid of an invasive species of blackberry and plant a native shrub in its place. Overall, going with the Streamkeepers crew was exhausting, they do a lot of work to keep our streams healthy for generations to come.

Salmon Coalition: Kody, Warner Creek

2/27/2015

Here is another blog post from the Pacific Coast Salmon Coalition.

Friday, January 16, 2015:
Today in Pacific Coast Salmon Coalition we went to Warner Creek and jumped in with our waders on so we didn’t get wet. We went up the entire creek. We started at the mouth of the creek and we were picking up garbage. So we walked up the creek 2 miles and we picked up trash. We had to climb under multiple bridges. Also we had a ground crew that picked up trash along the creek and road. The reason this is so important to do is because the debris and the garbage can clog the river preventing the fish from getting through. Also the garbage can pollute the water and it will kill the fish.

Salmon Coalition Welcome

2/23/2015

This blog is by students in the Skills Center Natural Resources program with Pacific Coast Salmon Coalition.

The Pacific Coast Salmon Coalition is a non profit organization that help repair broken eco systems and also allows high school students come in and help and volunteer time to earn credit and possibility of being and intern and making some money while they donate their time. One of my favorite things to do here at the Salmon Coalition is killing fish at the hatcheries. we separate them then into two groups, one of them is food quality fish and the other one is nutrient enhancement fish. The food quality fish get taken to get fileted and then taken to the local food bank. The nutrient enhancement fish get the tails cut off so that stream surveyors can tell the difference between naturally dead fish and ones that were placed there. we put the fish in the stream so that the nutrients go to the baby fish because the baby fish feed off the carcasses so they become healthy and we have better food quality fish.

New Blog Master

2/23/2015

My name is Timothy Hernandez, I have been working with Natural Resources for three semesters and I'm currently working on my fourth semester. As a part of my fourth semester I will be contributing to this blog by adding blog posts from other students that are in the Natural Resources program.

Natural Resource Careers on the Olympic Peninsula

11/18/2009

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June 08th, 2015

My Experience in Beach cleanup and Stream Keepers

Our Beaches

Natural Resources and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe

Valley Creek Tree Planting

Salmon Coalition: Kody, Warner Creek

Salmon Coalition Welcome

New Blog Master

Natural Resource Careers on the Olympic Peninsula

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