'Currents' -- Friends of Ennis Creek Newsletter 2/10/2020

Bringing communities together to save the last salmon in Port Angeles February 10, 2020

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Notice the new heading! Thank professional artist Kelsey Redlin who was inspired to donate it after participating in an Ennis Creek walk experience. Thank you, Kelsey (third from right)!

Fellow walkers are from left: Robbie Mantooth, Bob Larsen, Kathe Smith, Karen Larsen, Kelsey, Margo Brendel and Jim Mantooth

Featured in this newsletter: Webinar Feb. 19 and Rayonier cleanup plus poster Ennis – a Creek Worth Saving filming, funding Kelsey Redlin donates Friends of Ennis Creek logo Comment deadline for western PA Harbor cleanup Award for Ennis Creek restoration leader McHenry Stream walk schedule still open: ennis@olypen.com Recommended reading for information, inspiration Facts and how they define our priorities

Free program to explore cleanup options Thanks again to Darlene Schanfald for letting us know about another opportunity to gain more understanding about Washington State Department of Ecology alternatives that could be related to the former Rayonier mill site cleanup.

“Institutional Controls 101: Hazard warnings and access restrictions vs. active cleanups of hazardous wastes. What you need to know” is a webinar sponsored by the Northwest Toxic Communities Coalition and University of Washington Superfund Research Program. Register online at https://bit.ly/2ReMZnY so you can be prepared to stream the program at noon Wednesday, Feb. 19.

Institutional controls at hazardous waste sites have been described as fencing and signs and covering up toxic soils and sediments rather than removing them, an option the Washington State Department of Ecology recommended for the Rayonier Mill site.

Darlene Schanfald, a representative of Olympic Environmental Council, the local organization that works with the webinar sponsors, said governments frequently recommend institutional controls instead of cleaning up the pollution.

Presenters will be Dr. Peter deFur (left photo above), featured at fall webinars before the last Ecology deadline for comments on the Rayonier property and adjacent harbor, and Dr. Cliff Villa.

The two presenters will offer examples of how this approach has been applied to different sites around the U.S., she said, noting that studies have included seafood consumption in such sites as the Lower Duwamish River, in Seattle.

Dr. deFur is president of the consulting firm Environmental Stewardship Concepts, LLC. He is science consultant to the local Olympic Environmental Council and other communities working on contaminated sites around the U.S. such as the Delaware River and Oregon’s Portland Harbor, as well as the Duwamish. He was a postdoctoral fellow in neurophysiology in the University of Calgary’s Department of Medicine, in Canada, and has held university faculty positions, most recently as Affiliate Associate Professor in the Center for Environmental Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. He has served on numerous state and federal advisory committees.

Dr. Villa joined the University of New Mexico Law School faculty after 22 years as legal counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – first with its headquarters in the nation’s capital and then in Denver and Seattle regional offices. His experience includes administrative, civil and criminal enforcement of the Clean Air and Clean Water acts and other federal laws. He also provided legal assistance for federal actions related to hazardous waste sites, oil spills, natural disasters, and other situations. He taught courses in environmental law at Seattle University School of Law and has spoken at conferences throughout the U.S. and in Spain and Latin America. His research has appeared in Harvard Environmental Law Review and Columbia Journal of Environmental Law and other publications.

After registering, be sure you’ve got all the right moves for reaching the site at the right time.

You should get a registration confirmation and instructions.

We were only able to include the abive excerpt from the sponsors’ wonderful webinar flyer. It’s attached so you should be able to forward it electronically or print it to post in some strategic spots.

Friends of Ennis Creek joined Olympic Environmental Council and the Peninsula College Associated Student Council in sponsoring the webinar that helped stimulate more than 100 submissions during the last Ecology public comment period. Comment excerpts appeared in the January newsletter. If you missed it, write ennis@olypen.com and we’ll send one to your email from ours.

Ecology is processing those comments before releasing recommendations and announcing next public comment opportunities on them. That could happen this year. Stay tuned!

Harbor Cleanup study available, comments due by March 16 Ecology’s documents related to cleanup of the Western Port Angeles Harbor are available for review at https://apps.ecology.wa.gov/gsp/Sitepage.aspx?csid=11907 and the Port Angeles library.

Darlene Schanfald said Olympic Environmental Council consultant Dr. Peter deFur is reviewing materials and will provide comments.

Restoration leader to receive award Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe Fisheries Habitat Biologist/Manager Mike McHenry will receive this year’s conservation award from The Daughters of the American Revolution, in recognition of environmental awareness.

The Tribe’s official representative to Friends of Ennis Creek, Mike led the team creating a model of stream restoration on the stream that is a feature of frequent guided walks contrasting good habitat with habitat that needs help. Always giving credit to his team for any recognition, Mike has received such honors as the Society for Ecological Restoration – Full Circle Award, a U.S. Interior Department award for Excellence of Service, and the NOAA Environmental Hero American Fisheries Society Conservation Organization of the Year in 2010 and 2005.

With his staff, McHenry has restored 42 miles of stream in seven watersheds across the Olympic Peninsula over the last 12 years with more than $4 million in funding from local, state, federal and private organizations.

The film Ennis – A Creek Worth Saving will feature a filmed interview with him about the restoration the Tribe’s team completed in the stream.

Mike’s presentation about the Elwha River five years after dams were removed has been rescheduled to May 28 after snow caused its cancellation in January. Peninsula College Little Theater, 12:30-1:30 p.m.

While celebrating Mike’s much deserved honors, we regrettably note the coming departure from our area of Ann Chang, who will present the award to Mike in late February. Ann starts seeking candidates many months before the annual awards event and makes careful selections to bring attention to people who have helped take care of our local environment. Highly regarded as a nurse at Olympic Medical Center and for countless community volunteer activities, Ann is moving to Arizona to be closer to family members. Thank you, Ann, for your many contributions to the community. It’s time for you to be honored with a listing on a North Olympic Land Trust plaque at the Clallam County Courthouse. Come back and see the next update, in 2021.

Ennis Creek film account at North Olympic Land Trust nears $1,000

Bobbie Lowe-Kreider became the first donor to the Ennis Creek film project when she asked Robbie Mantooth to put whatever she planned to pay for her haircut into the film account.

Donors are helping with expenses for the film Ennis – A Creek Worth Saving. Those coming through northolympiclandtrust.org were nearing $1,000 by early February.

Filmmaker John Gussman, who has made many other films including Return of the River – about Elwha dam removal, is donating his time but has expenses, including almost daily trips from his home on Palo Alto Road for filming and interviewing. We’re still considering possible benefits of a Kickstarter campaign, which might attract more donors but would take 5 percent. North Olympic Land Trust sets aside all donations specified for the film project, as part of its support for Ennis Creek, where landowners have protected more than 50 acres of the watershed through its conservation easement agreements.

Goals for the film include enabling everyone to experience Ennis Creek even without walking down to it – and back up. We hope it will provide a greater understanding of what it takes to restore and protect a salmon stream and why so many people agree Ennis Creek – known as our last best hope among all the streams flowing through Port Angeles – is indeed “a creek worth saving.”

At least 20 interviews have been completed or scheduled by early February. More are coming. Let us know at ennis@olypen.com if you have recommendations for filmed interviews.

Olympic National Park fisheries specialists – Park’s watershed protections Jeff Bohman, president, Peninsula Trails Coalition – Ennis Creek and the Discovery Trail John Brewer, 2020 History Center president and retired newspaper editor/publisher, City Pier murals Ed Chadd, recently retired Clallam County Streamkeepers coordinator – bugs as measure of habitat health Frances Charles, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe chairperson; cultural resources staff – Tribal connections Dr. Elizabeth Christian, retired physician, church and interfaith leader –physical and spiritual health Suzanne DeBey, Peninsula Daily News columnist – Judaism and the environment Kathy Estes, Clallam County Historical Society Executive Director – historic highlights Jessica Hernandez, Waterfront Center Development Director – community enhancements from Center to creek Randy Johnson, Clallam County Commissioner – How Ennis Creek fits with his other goals Cathy Lear, Clallam County natural resources/salmon recovery, avid bicyclist – benefits beyond biking Jim and Robbie Mantooth, Friends of Ennis Creek volunteers – inspirations for volunteer work Colleen McAleer, Economic Development Executive Director, Port Commissioner – economy essentials David Mattern, environmental consultant, Land Trust volunteer, interfaith leader – vital connections Mike McHenry, LEKT Habitat Biologist/Manager – Stream restoration achievements, needs Tim McNulty, author; longtime Olympic Park Associates leader – a poet’s vision Tom Sanford, North Olympic Land Trust Executive Director – Ennis Creek conservation easements Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin, Port Angeles City Council member – governmental responsibilities Jim Walton, College fisheries head, Fish/Wildlife commissioner, college president – historical perspectives Jim, Karen Halberg Weaver, children, owners Wild Edge Farm on Elwha River – why save Ennis Creek Nathan West, Port Angeles City Manager – importance of Ennis Creek in city planning Melissa Williams, Executive Director Feiro Marine Life Center – Ennis Creek and the Center’s mission

Ennis Creek experiences continue popular Participants are enjoying getting to know each other as well Ennis Creek.

From left: fairly recent retiree and active volunteer Rita Canada, Feiro Marine Life Center Executive Director Melissa Williams, Port Angeles Mayor Kate Dexter, property coowner and guide Jim Mantooth, North Olympic Healthcare Network outreach leader Lynn Kennan, former County Commissioner and commercial fisherman Ron Richards, happy retiree and Rita’s husband Larry Mikolajczyk and whale/orca researcher Dr. Fred Sharpe.

Email ennis@olypen with preferred and possible dates and times for walks explaining habitat restoration.

Reading adds insights North Olympic Library System offers a treasure trove of books relevant to Ennis Creek. Recent good reads have included: Conquering the Last Frontier, by Thomas T. Aldwell, the entrepreneur behind the Elwha dams and much more early day Port Angeles history; Myron Eells and the Puget Sound Indians, by Robert H. Ruby and John A. Brown; The Story of Port Angeles and Clallam County, by G.M. Lauridsen (as in Lauridsen Boulevard) and other early day civic leaders; Breaking Ground: Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and the Unearthing of Tse-whit-zen Village

by Lynda V. Mapes, Seattle Times writer and author of other books on our area, and Stronghold: One Man’s Quest to Save the World’s Wild Salmon.

Insights, information and inspiration. Here’s just one quote to help keep us going in our efforts to honor the streams’ first stewards and do everything we can to save our last best chance of a Port Angeles salmon stream.

From Breaking Ground:

“We don’t want the generations behind us to go through what we did. We want to be able to stand and say we did the best we could, and to carry on and educate the community and whoever its leaders might be. To look at the partnerships and the collaborations that everyone needs to work things out.” – Tribal chairperson Frances Charles, speaking of moving ahead despite disrespect for the ancient village where her ancestors lived as early as 750 B.C. and until the 1930s. They also lived at I’n’is, along the banks of the stream we call Ennis Creek until the Puget Sound Cooperative Colony displaced them.

Did you know?

According to Patrick Crain, Chief Fisheries Biologist at Olympic National Park, the mapped distance of Ennis Creek shows that about 3 miles of the 8.65-mile stream are in the Park and a little over 2 miles are either on Department of Natural Resources land or DNR is on its east bank.

About a half mile of the stream is protected through conservation easement agreements with North Olympic Land Trust. That leaves only about 3 miles under other private property ownership. Rayonier has responsibility for significant stretch of the stream. A priority for Friends of Ennis Creek is helping property owners know how they can restore and protect habitat for their neighboring fish.

Reaching out to complementary groups We’ve applied for a tree planting project with One Tree Planted and Protect the Pods (as in orca families).

North Olympic Land Trust’s stewardship volunteers will be scheduling a cleanup where illegal campers have left tents, sleeping bags, bicycle parts and other messes near Ennis Creek. Email ennis@olypen.com if you’d like to help.

Let us hear from YOU! Currents, the Friends of Ennis Creek newsletter, and Ennis Friends, our Facebook page, welcome your letters and comments. Why is Ennis a creek worth saving? What experiences have you enjoyed along the stream? Share your observations at ennis@olypen.com and attach your photos. This image from Lee Strucker, graduate of Washington State University’s Stream Stewards program and frequent Ennis Creek experience guide, shows one of some 40 logs the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe team anchored in Ennis Creek during its 2004 restoration project. Walks emphasize how such work has enhanced habitat and why its important for degraded parts of the stream to benefit from similar improvements.

Friends of Ennis Creek appreciates North Olympic Land Trust’s many contributions to this special stream, including protecting more than 50 acres of the stream’s riparian corridor in perpetuity, providing stewardship assistance and guidance and handling donations to Ennis – A Stream Worth Saving.