How You Can Help Protect and Recover Salmon

Salmon recovery in Skagit County and Puget Sound requires a concerted effort from all of us. Here are simple ways you can help. Many of the activities below concern protection of streams and wetlands, both of which are vitally important to salmon habitat and spawning areas.

• Washington State’s Shore Stewards program enlist neighbors to work together to protect our shorelands.
• The nonprofit Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group hosts planting parties, survey missions, and other habitat restoration projects.
• The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the National Wildlife Federation recognize homeowners who design their backyards to enhance wildlife habitat.
• Skagit Land Trust needs volunteers to help maintain habitat lands.
• The local Skagit Conservation District’s Watershed Masters and Stream Team programs involve citizens educating the public about watershed issues, and in monitoring water quality.

At and Around the Home

• Reduce runoff from roads, streets, cars, equipment, and other sources of pollutants
• Use permeable or porous pavement, or avoid paving 
•   Garden for healthy streams and to protect backyard wildlife habitat
• Safely dispose of batteries, motor oil, and other hazardous wastes 
• Plant a rain garden to filter stormwater runoff 
• Safely dispose of unused and expired medicine instead of trashing or flushing it, which eventually finds its way into streams and harms salmon 

Builders

• Use Low-Impact Development techniques
• Visualize wetlands and streams as a feature of a project, rather than a nuisance

Farmers & Land Owners

• Contact Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group for assistance with fencing, revegetation, culvert replacement, channel enhancement, bank stabilization, and other projects to help salmon on your property
• Apply for DNR’s Family Forest Fish Passage Program to get financial assistance correcting fish passage barriers in your forestlands
• Preserve farmland by selling an agricultural easement to the Skagit County Farmland Legacy Program
• Preserve riparian habitat by selling a conservation easement to a qualified entity
•  Work with our Natural Resources Stewardship Program or the Skagit County Conservation District for information, assistance, and funding for projects like plantings, fencing, heavy use areas, pasture management, bank stabilization, noxious weed removal, and manure bins.
• Learn about local NRCS programs to help reduce soil erosion, enhance water supplies, improve water quality, increase wildlife habitat, and reduce damages caused by floods and other natural disasters
• Certify and promote your farm as “Salmon-Safe” through the Stewardship Partners program