As Val Koehler, Habitat Biologist and Stream Team Coordinator for Kitsap County, explained, “I cannot think of a better location to learn and grow than right here on the Kitsap Peninsula where both marine and freshwater environments meet and afford us the luxury of being able to observe them easily. I think people forget how fortunate we are to live and tie in so closely with our natural resources to the extent that we who live in the west are able to, with natural systems thriving right outside our homes, schools and offices.”

Koehler can draw this appreciation having served in the U.S. Peace Corps where she taught Biology to underprivileged street-children in Tanzania, East Africa. “Living in a third world country and experiencing the frustrations of life there have taught me just how lucky we are. I love that I can now work with a generation of people who are students, landowners, business people, tribal members — really the community at large — and they are excited and eager to learn, work with the environment and understand our relationship with it. I think there really can be a balance, but we have to work together in order to be successful at achieving it. My position as Stream Team Specialist allows me to give something positive back in my lifetime, and that is to share with people the responsibility we have to care for our resources. I feel very good about that,” she says, beaming with that warm smile and fresh vitality those who’ve worked with her have come to know.

And that list is growing exponentially, as Koehler’s stream team restoration projects grow. In the last six months, 358 community members contributed 1,264 hours of volunteer work on stream restoration, outreach events, biological monitoring for benthic indexes of biological integrity, and salmon surveys. The volunteers have also assisted with revegetation activities on public and private properties, planting approximately 4,050 native trees and shrubs in the riparian corridor of six county streams and one wetland area.

Fifty-one volunteers bore a deluge of mud and wind to plant nearly 2,000 native plants along Gorst Creek, which recently saw spring storms rip a new path. Paul Dorn, Fisheries biologist for the Suquamish tribe and Jim Trainer, Forester for Puget Sound Energy, had planned for a dynamic system but, as Dorn said, “Mother Nature showed us how she wanted things to go there, this is as natural as you can get.” The Sinclair inlet near Gorst will soon see a facelift of its own.

Don Melvin, who oversees the Food Safety and Shellfish Programs for the state department of health, feels strongly that folks need to learn more about the health of our natural systems even if they don’t live by the water. “People need to understand that the upland ecosystems are literally connected to the marine ecosystems, you can’t have healthy marine environments if you don’t have functional, healthy watersheds. People need to understand that they are going to have to start picking up the tab for the impacts of development, our counties need permanently funded and adequately staffed water quality programs; and people need to understand that environmental protection is much more effective and much less costly than restoration.”

If you’d like to restore your shoreline, volunteer, or just learn more, call (360) 337-7290 ext. 6770, email vkoehler@co.kitsap.wa.us or visit a community calendar of events at www.kitsapgov.com/nr/calendar.htm.