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

Excited for the residents of Hamilton to expand residential and economic opportunity while reducing risk from devastating floods. Thanks to many great partnerships that have flourished in the last few years, including the Town of Hamilton, Skagit County, Washington - Government, Forterra NW, Skagit Land Trust, and Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group!!!

Hamilton zoning change allows development to proceed

HAMILTON — The Hamilton Town Council approved a zoning change last week that paves the way for the nonprofit land conservancy Forterra to begin the design phase of a development

goskagit.com

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Skagit Watershed Council

Love that our Sooke found a home with wide open spaces and plenty of love to take care of her! Stop by and see her and the good people at Mount Vernon City Library!

Long Live the Kings SeaDoc Society Washington Environmental Council Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group Orca Network Orca Research Trust The Whale Museum

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Skagit Watershed Council

Thanks to Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group and City of Sedro-Woolley, Washington for another great partnership to improve parks for people and the Skagit River for the environment!

https://www.goskagit.com/community/community_news/sedro-woolley-park-project-taking-shape/article_5eece4ef-3bb4-5491-9bfa-956ae4b0e40f.html

Sedro-Woolley park project taking shape

SEDRO-WOOLLEY — Once overrun with thickets of invasive Himalayan blackberries, a 7-acre piece of city-owned land is on its way to becoming a new forest and recreation area.

goskagit.com

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Skagit Watershed Council

Bad news out of the Strait of Georgia with their herring populations suffering a 60% decline in the last 4 years. Herring are a critical species for the Salish Sea foodweb, particularly Chinook Salmon and Southern Resident Orcas.

Feds called on to enforce emergency closure of B.C.’s last herring fishery | The Narwhal

Conservation groups are calling for the immediate closure of the herring fishery in the Strait of Georgia following the release of new federal government data showing a four-year population biomass decline of almost 60 per cent. “We’ve been systematically overfishing these stocks and the Gulf of...

thenarwhal.ca

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Skagit Watershed Council

The choices we make today will either prepare us well for climate change or leave us more vulnerable. We should work together to use what we've learned over the last 20 years to secure our future. https://www.kuow.org/stories/rising-waters-bring-tough-choices-fight-or-flight

Rising Northwest waters bring tough choice: fight or flight

The climate’s already changing. People north of Seattle have been facing the muddy consequences head-on.

kuow.org

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Skagit Watershed Council

"Fewer salmon are surviving, and that means trouble for two creatures that really love the king of fish: killer whales and us... Now with entire ecosystems in hot water, how much longer can they stand?" It's not just the Columbia River that is getting hotter, so are streams in Puget Sound due to climate change. Can we work together to keep salmon as our cultural legacy?
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/22/weather/columbia-river-dams-salmon/index.html

How a dead whale gave new life to debate over dams

Dams in the Pacific Northwest are generating lots of clean electricity, but critics say they are killing the region's vital salmon runs and endangering the local orcas.

cnn.com

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