Puget Sound's Invisible Shoreline

I went to John William's The Invisible Shoreline video tour Saturday night at the Poulsbo Marine Science Center. I have not been to the Science Center in a while. I forgot how fascinating it is to get a peak at the underwater creatures. We got to see crabs delicately dining on a clam dinner. I could relate having just come from one myself. The center is housing a huge octopus in the large tank in the foyer. He (I found out how to tell it is a he) was extremely active . . .ballooning up and thrashing around the tank. He even did a few head butts on the window. Niki, MSC volunteer, told us this boisterous activity wasn't typical and wondered if it was time to release him to find his soul-mate in the depths.

The tiny auditorium at the center was packed. Obviously there is interest in our Puget Sound life. It was a free event sponsored by one of our KEEP/ECONet grants. John showed clips of underwater videos shot by him and his diving buddies. Amazing stuff going on down there. Sea Slugs are definitely much more attractive than the terrestrial kind. We were amused by a hitchhiking worm protecting his host by giving a sea star a painful pinch. John slipped in episodes of education in between clips: teaching about wave action, differences in tidal zones and that, indeed, Puget Sound health starts with picking up dog poop.

Looking around, I did recognize a few folks as members of the "choir". But the viewing definitely drew from a larger population. To reach even more new audiences . . .maybe he needs to show his footage on the wide screens in bars. I did learn that John has his own TV show on BKAT. For more information, visit: http://SEA-Inside.org.

First day of summer

Happy first day of summer. Our Spring certainly was soggy! So far this June we have received 1.59 inches of rainfall. Average for the entire month of June is only 1.58! Remember the wet late 90's? We had 3.58 inches of rain in June, 1997. Who knows maybe we will break that record.

Our rainfall total for the water year so far is 48.04 inches. Still below our record setting wet year of 1999 when it rained 62.16 inches during the entire water year. By the way water years are from October to October. Wet years are really good news for Kitsap. We depend on rain to replenish our aquifers. Good for drinking water, not so good for our spirits. Look at it this way. . .our glass is way over being half full.

If you are interested in more fascinating rainfall data, visit KPUD website www.kpud.org.

Last week of school! Next year is going to be exciting for some of the 4th graders in CK school District. I and two cohorts along with the CK school district have come to the end of a two+ year process of creating a science kit to be piloted to twelve fourth grade teachers in the district come fall. The kit, called Connecting Kitsap, contains lessons on local watersheds, drinking water, Wetlands and Streams as well as recycling, and hazardous waste. As you may guess this kit is quite comprehensive. The lessons will give students hands on learning and opportunities to use the scientific process. Plus all the lessons are all very engaging to 4th graders.

When I say we "built" these kits. I mean we physically built them. This involved writing the lessons, purchasing materials and using our imaginations to create hands on manipulatives to be included in the kit. The lessons were written by Doug Dowell and Kim SanFilipe from Ck school district, Pat Kirschbaum from Surface and Storm Water Management and Jo Meints from Kitsap County Solid Waste and me. This was a lot of work on all of our parts as well as a major chunk of our respective budgets. We now know why science kits are so expensive. CK school district and their students are being given quite a gift! Our goal with these kits is to offer science education as well as fostering stewardship for our Kitsap environment. I feel they do the job. Teachers and students will give us their feedback next year.

Puget Sound starts in Kitsap County

Wow. I have one follower. AWESOME! This does pose some responsibility though. What to blog about????. . . .

This week, as well as 5th grade field trips at Buck Lake, I attended a KEEP meeting. KEEP stands for Kitsap Environmental Education Programs. This group has been getting together for 16 plus years. Members are all doing some type of environmental education in Kitsap County. We represent government or quasi government agencies like PUD, Kitsap County Public Works (Solid Waste and Surface and Storm Water Management), Conservation District, WA Sea Grant and WSU, but also have nonprofit members such as Stillwaters Environmental Center, the Great Peninsula Conservancy and the Illahee Citizens Group .

The purpose of the group is to network to facilitate members working cooperatively with each other. KEEP has changed somewhat recently due to the interaction with the Puget Sound Partnership and its Puget Sound Starts Here campaign. I have heard positive and negative comments about the Puget Sound Partnership, but I would have to give them a thumbs up because they are funding our group and groups like ours for projects that promote a healthy Puget Sound. This means that KEEP has added EcoNet to its name in order to play. A major result of doing that is that a coordinator for KEEP is being funded. The compensation is small, but Joleen Palmer from Stillwaters volunteered to take the KEEP/EcoNet coordinator position. Also, we were given an opportunity to choose a handful of projects to be funded through EcoNet block grants. Activities resulting from these projects can be found at www.greatpeninsula.org/events.

At this week's KEEP meeting updates were given on the funded projects:

• Still Hope Productions' The invisible shoreline video tour is being shown June 15 at Long Lake County Park, June 17 in Port Gamble and June 19 at Poulsbo Marine Science Center.
• Print and online ads are running in the Sun about activities for citizens.
• Stillwaters Environmental Center is sponsoring shoreline boat and kayak tours
• Rain garden mentors have been trained by WSU

Belonging to KEEP is a valuable tool to help environmental educators to make a difference.

Late Spring traditionally brings nature field trips for elementary schools. North Kitsap fifth grade field trippers visit the Hansville Green Way trails around Buck Lake. They spend the morning walking through Doug fir, cedar and hemlock; looking at pond creatures and experiencing the meadow. This field trip is sponsored by Hansville Greenway collaborator, Ken Shawcroft. Ken is a dedicated community gem of a guy. For the past 12+ years, Ken dedicates time to arrange for teachers to bring students out and arranges for volunteer "experts" to be at stations around the the Greenway. He greets the buses, chats with the kids for a bit giving them insight about the trail and some do's and don'ts for the morning. The larger group separates into smaller groups that he then escorts around to the learning stations.

I get to be one of the "experts" at the pond. The fifth graders walk down an avenue of trees, make a sharp turn though the forest to see a awe inspiring wetland open up before their eyes. They spend the first few minutes at the pond in silence, looking and listening. We play a game where they hold up a finger when they spy another shade of color in the wetland. They point out brown hot-dog shaped cattails poking up through the water. They spy yellow on the floating lily-pads. On islands of moss they see the white blooms of the bog plant, labrador Tea. Then the fun begins. I dip my net into the water and pull out a myriad of small pond creatures and place them in white tubs of pond water. The kids scoop up the "bugs" and look at them through mini microscopes. Most of them have never realized how much life is in a pond. Dragonfly larvae, damselfly larvae, water boatman, even tiny copepods are studied and identified. All too soon Ken comes for the troop and moves them on the next station delivering a new group to experience the pond.
Fifth graders always look forward to late Spring - so do I.