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Patience, Awareness, and Grit

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by WCC Crewmember Tessa Perler

Our Washington Conservation Corps crew has been fortunate this summer to work with Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group to survey the Sauk and Skagit riverside. We are in search of one insidious ecological tyrant: knotweed. Knotweed spreads primarily through fragmentation from disturbances due to human activity, storms or flooding, and through underground root systems known as rhizomes. Even just a small half-inch root fragment that detaches from the plant can result in a new colony. Pretty gross, right? Makes me sick. Knotweed shoots up stalks in the spring time as tall as twelve feet. In late July and August, the plant begins to channel its energy back downward into its roots so that it can regrow again next spring. It is most effective to treat knotweed at this time so that the herbicide can flow down the stalk and into its root system. We give it the spritz, mark the patch location on our GPS so it can be monitored next year, flag the location in a nearby tree, take a picture, and the survey continues.

Constant communication is integral to our knotweed surveys. In order to ensure that a section of a riverside has been checked for knotweed, we keep around twenty feet between each of us and move together in a horizontal line. We indicate a general direction to head in, briefly discuss the plan, line up, and the survey is on. The first survey of the season, I got completely lost. I felt like I was walking aimlessly in circles. Within a week I learned to use the sounds my crewmates make (often, boisterous bird calls) to orient myself and stay in an adequate position in the line. If someone is stuck in a log jam or held up in a patch of dubious devils club, we can walkie our crew and ask everyone to wait up.

I have found it important to cultivate patience, awareness, and grit. We have to watch each other’s backs, stay in communication, and keep each other safe. Bucking up the motivation to trudge through thick brush, rotten logs and fallen limbs is a challenge each day. Some days we have full sun exposure, steep slopes, swarms of mosquitoes, and the threat of a hidden wasp hive around every corner.  Yet, most days, I’ll happen upon a peaceful shady pond surrounded by lush mossy rocks and inhabited by dozens of precious tadpoles or baby fish. One day I unexpectedly encountered an expansive young grand fir grove in the middle of a forest near the Sauk River. I was in awe. I have found peace in taking in the small worlds within the woods that I otherwise wouldn’t get the opportunity to see.

It’s not really goodbye!

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Somehow, it is already July, and my Americorps term with SFEG is coming to an end. This last ten months has been a whirlwind of new experiences for me. As Community Outreach Associate I got to wear many hats and explore the inner workings of the non-profit and restoration world, and get a feel for the different paths I may want to take for the future. 

With SFEG I got to explore every corner of Skagit Valley from wading a raging winter creek in search of spawning salmon, to helping host a film festival in the historic Lincoln Theatre, to spending my summer Fridays on Deception Pass beaches. I got to do all this and more while meeting and interacting with Skagit community members from all walks of life.  Working with SFEG allowed me to take part in many various types of projects and work settings and solidify that conservation is the right field for me, and helped me narrow down the ideal role I would like to serve within this field.

I worked hard trying to instill in everyone a sense of pride in the salmon species with which we share a home, hoping that maybe that pride will manifest in actions that could help aid salmon recovery. I can’t speak for the community at large, but I know that what I have seen and learned about salmon and the Skagit has inspired in me a burning desire to protect the legacy of our salmon and river. 

So hopefully I’ll see you all around, out on the water or a trail, sharing the magic and passion we all feel here in Skagit.

The salmon days aren’t over

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To help me reflect on my time here at the Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group, I looked back at my timecards for the last 10 months.  Planting parties, nursery maintenance, spawner surveys, grant writing, Earth Day planning, conferences, teaching, planting database management, potting parties, culvert surveys, vegetation monitoring, the list goes on and on and on.  I have had the opportunity to do SO MUCH during my service term and I am so grateful for every minute of it.

As a northern Californian, I knew nothing about the Skagit River watershed when I began my term in September.  I knew nothing about the immensely beautiful places that I would get to work in or the passionate people I would meet who dedicate their careers or their Saturdays to restoring the critically important salmon runs that call this watershed home.  Whether I was walking through Ennis Creek on a spawner survey with coho whipping through riffles around my boots, or watching flocks of snow geese fly above me as I worked at our native plant nursery, or driving out highway 20 to project sites in the fall under the brilliant oranges and reds of the deciduous tree leaves, or even planting willow stakes in the middle of a snow storm, I have fallen in love with this watershed.

This position with SFEG has taught me so much and confirmed my desire to pursue salmon habitat restoration as a career.  Going forward, I would like to get my graduate degree with a masters thesis focusing on restoration efforts in the Skagit.  In the past week or so, I have been reaching out to fisheries scientists who work in the watershed to identify unanswered research questions to help us better understand the effectiveness of restoration strategies and the specific life histories and habitat requirements of our Pacific salmon.  In the meantime before graduate school, who knows what I’ll be doing. What I do know is that I love working in the fisheries field and my term with SFEG has been a transformative experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world! Thank you!