Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association: Restoration
Part of our work as restoration technicians is to prepare sites for community work parties. At the invitation of Lummi Natural Resources (LNR), we visited the Lummi Nation Wetland and Habitat Mitigation Bank (WHMB) last month to help prep for an ivy removal work party in a collaboration between NSEA, LNR, and Whatcom Million Trees Project. The ivy was deep into a forest next to the Nooksack River, primarily within the Lummi Reservation, so we spent a day clearing a path for easier access to the site under the leadership of Jeff Solomon, a natural resources specialist at LNR.
English ivy is invasive, can crowd out the forest floor, and even kill large trees by adding a significant amount of weight and shading them out. It’s important to remove ivy patches like this one on the WHMB to prevent it from overtaking the forest. Thank you to all the volunteers who spent their Saturday morning removing ivy to save these trees and improve this habitat along the Nooksack River! – Crew Lead Devin Soliday
Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association: Stewardship
Salmon carcasses are popping up all over Whatcom County which means predators are showing up too! Did you know over 130 different animals eat salmon at some point in their lifecycle whether as eggs, fry, adults, or even carcasses? Over 75 percent of Washington’s land-based species, and many aquatic species, depend on riparian areas, which is why they are designated as a priority habitat by the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife. In one of the most biodiverse habitats in the world, you never know what you might see while searching for salmon! – Stewardship Program Manager Sarah Brown.