It’s that time of year again when a new group of good people step forward to participate in a truly unique program that we offer every summer – the Nisqually Stream Stewards course! This unique and popular course lasts about 2 months and covers the Nisqually Watershed from top to bottom. Our goal is to share the many facets of this wonderful place to inspire stewardship of and participation in the many ecological and cultural opportunities that can be found here.
Our agreement with Nisqually Stream Stewards participants is that we offer 40+ hours of course time in exchange for 40+ hours of volunteering in the watershed. As you can imagine, many of our partners appreciate this model, including the Nisqually Land Trust, Nisqually Reach Nature Center, Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, Mount Rainier Institute/Pack Forest, and more.
Our 2015 Nisqually Stream Stewards accumulated more than 770 hours of service in their first year! Volunteer activities included planting trees, maintaining rain gardens, collecting data on salmon spawning, helping out at our Nisqually Watershed Festival and Eatonville Salmon Festival, volunteering with local schools on their service learning and citizen science projects, maintaining the Nisqually Tribe’s Community Garden, and more. In addition to giving a boost to the Nisqually watershed, it’s communities and ecosystems, we all also have a lot of fun and meet some amazing new people.
This is a unique year, as our timeline overlaps some with the Paddle to Nisqually. This event involves over a year of planning by hosting tribes; bringing together natives and non-natives with a common goal of providing a drug and alcohol free event and offering pullers a personal journey towards healing and recovery of culture, traditional knowledge and spirituality. Many events are open to the public. Learn more about the 2016 Paddle to Nisqually – Don’t Forget the Water here and find a volunteer form here.
Our 2016 Nisqually Stream Stewards is already full with a hefty waiting list. If you’d like to learn more about the course or even get on our list for 2017, email info@nisquallyriver.org, or call us at 360-438-8715.
