Skagit County, A Place of Beauty

The Skagit is a place of incredible beauty, amazing people, and abundant natural resources. At Skagit Watershed Council, we believe that a healthy community contributes to protecting what it loves – its natural beauty and resource, its cultural richness and history, its people, and its future.

In that spirit of community, Skagit Watershed Council is launching the #OurSkagit photo contest. Head over to our blog to read more!

Skagit Watershed Council

'Our Skagit' is a broad-based initiative to empower folks who live, work and play in the Skagit area to protect our natural environment and our communities through knowledge, dialogue and the motivation to act. The Skagit Valley and its coastal regions are places of scenic beauty and natural resource abundance that have provided us with economic vitality and cultural richness. Diverse communities and interests - fishers, farmers, loggers, builders, recreationists, conservationists and others - have worked hard to steward the bounty and beauty of this place for the benefit of their families and future generations. We all share a sense of community around this special place. While we have differences, we have much more in common that should be celebrated. Our challenge, in the face of so much change coming to our Skagit, is finding common paths forward that recognize and protect our quality of life into the future.

Skagit Watershed Council

“We know how to increase chinook salmon and orca abundance, but unfortunately, there aren't any painless options in front of us,” Brocksmith said [Skagit Watershed Council's Executive Director]. “That's why we really have to work together to understand the implications and find out what we can do together.”

Skagit Watershed Council mission is Voluntary restoration and protection of natural landscape, floodplain, and estuarine processes that form and sustain the habitats to which salmon & trout are adapted. The Governor's Orca Task Force is calling for bold action to recover the Southern Resident Killer Whales, we all need to work together to ensure orcas and salmon remain in our waters.

#ourskagit #kuow #nprnews #npr #southernresidentkillerwhales #orcataskforce #washingtonstate #governorinslee #chinooksalmon #skagitriver

Can Puget Sound’s orcas wait 90 years for more salmon? They may have to

That’s what environmental activists found as they began to restore the tiny Rhone-Poulenc salt marsh deep in the industrial bowels of Tacoma.

kuow.org

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Skagit Watershed Council

Read/listen to this KUOW Public Radio story on the connection between the Southern Resident Killer Whales and Chinook Salmon of the Skagit.

"'This river produces over 50 percent of Puget Sound chinook,' said Shannahan [Skagit Watershed Council Board Vice-Chair], who works for the Upper Skagit Tribe, as he splashed up the creek and surveyed it for chinooks and their big, underwater nests known as redds."

Also, read our blog post 'We Belong Here' which is part of our This Skagit Life series featuring Scott Schuyler, a member of the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe: https://bit.ly/2DFnBCj

#ourskagit #thisskagitlife #skagitvalley #skagitpeople #chinook #chinooksalmon #chinookrecovery #SRKW #killerwhale #orca #pugetsound #salishsea #skagit #skagitriver #KUOW #NPR #NPRnews

Stop fishing salmon, orca lovers say. You’re missing the point, Skagit tribe says

At meeting after public meeting over the past six months, orca lovers and orca experts have urged bold action: Everything from removing dams to restricting or banning activities that can harm the whales.

kuow.org

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Skagit Watershed Council

November through January Bald Eagles migrate to the Skagit Valley to feed on spawned-out salmon. The Skagit River Bald Eagle Interpretive Center does a weekly count of eagles along the Skagit, in 2006/2007 they counted 859 eagles in one day!

Photo credit: Noelle Morris - submitted in the 2017 Seasons of Skagit photo contest

#funfactfriday #funfactfridayskagit #skagitvalley #ourskagit #baldeagle #wildlife #skagitriver #skagitvalley

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Skagit Watershed Council

Skagit River Chinook Salmon are top of the list for important stocks to the Southern Resident Killer Whales. National funding will help support the efforts in recovering the runs to what they used to be.

National organization invests in Skagit County project for orca recovery

The National Fish & Wildlife Foundation announced Wednesday $742,000 in grants for projects aimed at protecting and restoring the endangered Southern Resident orca population.

goskagit.com

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Skagit Watershed Council

The Skagit is no exception...

"Many Puget Sound rivers have suffered reduced complexity through years of development as dikes, roads, and riprap have hemmed them into straight, narrow channels with far less room. That leaves less refuge for juvenile fish to grow before migrating into the Salish Sea."

#ourskagit #skagitriver #science #NOAA #NOAAFisheries #salmonrestoration #salmonrecovery

Restoring side channels can boost salmon recovery in Puget Sound rivers, new research finds - Northwest Fisheries Science Center

Northwest Fisheries Science Center is one of six regional Science Centers for NOAA Fisheries. NOAA Fisheries Service, also referred to as the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), is a branch of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration in the Department of Commerce.

nwfsc.noaa.gov

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Skagit Watershed Council

Anne Schwartz, a Skagit Valley Food Co-op organic produce supplier, taking an order for her farm, Blue Heron Farm. Read about why and how Anne got into organic farming upriver in Skagit Watershed Council blog post: https://bit.ly/2DqEbGb

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