Snoqualmie Stewardship Program

The Snoqualmie Stewardship Program works to maintain the economic viability of farms and forestland in the Snoqualmie Valley while helping landowners restore fish and wildlife habitat.

Although located just outside of the densely populated Seattle metropolitan area, Washington State's Snoqualmie Valley is still a rural agricultural landscape with significant ecological features and wildlife habitat. The Snoqualmie River contains some of the healthiest salmon runs in Washington State. In the early 1980's, for example, the river and its many tributaries produced more coho salmon than the entire west coast of Oregon. By 2001, however, the Snoqualmie was designated as one of America's "10 most endangered rivers" by American Rivers. The 15,000 acres of farmland in the valley is both an important local food resource and vital to maintaining the open rural landscape which is part of our region's quality of life.

The Snoqualmie Stewardship Program consists of the following activities:

• Facilitating collaboration among organizations and agencies to service landowners with conservation needs
• Serving as liaison between landowners and available resources
• Implementing habitat restoration projects that open fish habitat, plant native trees, restore wetlands, and protect farmland
• Promoting new incentive-based tools to encourage sustainable land use and environmental restoration
• Educating stakeholders on sustainable practices and new innovative approaches to protecting the environment as well as working forests and farms
• Ensuring our projects are coordinated with regional and local watershed planning, and salmon recovery efforts and monitoring results are shared for adaptive management

Stewardship Program Accomplishments

Since 2002, Stewardship Partners has achieved the following results:

• Established restoration projects which restored three miles of stream bank, opened 1½ miles of salmon habitat, restored one acre of wetlands, enhanced connection to off-channel rearing habitat, and created bank protection for eroding farmland
• Developed the Snoqualmie Salmon-Safe Program to recognize and market farms that utilize best management practices for protecting water quality and fish and wildlife habitat
• Educated a broad cross-section of people on the environmental issues and opportunities associated with farms and other land uses in the Snoqualmie Valley through attending workshops, conferences, and other events, distributing information, and conducting the Environmental Discovery Program (EDP), a hands on learning program for Elementary School classes throughout the area

Snoqualmie Valley Restoration Crew

In the fall of 2005, Stewardship Partners hired a full-time crew to implement new projects, service additional landowners who have identified restoration needs, and conduct ongoing maintenance of established restoration projects. We favor Valley residents for the crew demonstrating the link between restoration and the local labor pool. This local preference is particularly important in the farming off-season. By creating a more permanent structure for the crew, we avoid the inefficiencies of on-and-off volunteer projects. In addition, Stewardship Partners works with a Washington Conservation Corps crew. Click here to Meet the Crew.

If you would like to learn more about the program, contact Larry Nussbaum, Program Director via email at ln@stewardshippartners.org.