View our latest posts: From the Field

Fly Fishing Carey’s Slough/in /by
Volunteer Dick Raisler

Volunteer Dick Raisler fishing Carey’s Slough

What’s living in Carey’s Slough?  Three volunteers assisted SFEG with finding out that answer, by going fly fishing!  Volunteers Dick Raisler, John Leighton, and Robin La Rue recently joined SFEG staff and interns to assess the fish population of this Skagit River backwater slough using a different technique than our usual seine or snorkel surveys.  These three local fly fishermen and AmeriCorps member Nik Novotny offered their skills to see what they could find in the slough.   Although floating this calm waterway in a canoe made for a very relaxing morning, we didn’t catch much!  They caught two cutthroat trout and one pumpkin seed sunfish.  This information gives us another piece of the puzzle for analyzing Carey’s Slough for future restoration projects.

A few fish species and a few very wet staff members later, we at least got some neat photos!

Volunteer John Leighton

Volunteer John Leighton assisting with Carey’s Slough fishing survey

cutthroat trout cropped

Cutthroat trout

Pumpkin seed sunfish

Pumpkin seed sunfish caught in Carey’s Slough

Dannielle and Kyle doing cross section surveys

Fish Survey intern Danielle Vandenberg assists SFEG Habitat Restoration Coordinator Kyle Koch in cross-section surveys

fishing is tiring work

Fish surveys are tiring work!

Nurturing the Native Nursery

/in /by

Vegetation Monitoring Interns Lauren (right) and Alexis (left) with Fish Habitat Intern Danielle (center) recently visited our native plant nursery for some weeding the in the summer sun.  Nursery Intern Rose has been helping to keep the nursery healthy and weed-free this summer.  Interested in learning more?  We welcome volunteers to help out at the nursery on a continuous basis.  In exchange for helping us maintain the nursery, you will gain a wealth of knowledge about the importance of planting native plants in our riparian areas. 

Join us in late October as we start our Fall Planting Parties to plant these young plants along salmon streams of the Skagit Watershed.  Check back here in early September for an updated schedule of dates and locations. young native plant ready to be potted

Search and Destroy!

/in /by

lost in a knotweed patch along the Sauk RiverSFEG and our Washington Conservation Crew are diving into the Upper Skagit knotweed program!  Stewardship Manager Bengt Miller and Washington Conservation Corps members will spend the bulk of their summer floating the Sauk and Upper Skagit River searching out and destroying knotweed, a highly invasive weed that can damage salmon habitat by outcompeting native riparian vegetation and changing the channel dynamic.  Thanks to this program, started by The Nature Conservancy back in 2003, and led by SFEG since 2010, the Upper Skagit River is one of the few rivers in western Washington that is virtually free of knotweed.