PORT ANGELES — The North Olympic Salmon Coalition will use a $15,000 grant from the Benjamin N. Phillips Memorial Fund to increase education and volunteer programs in Clallam County.
The program connect community members of all ages with large, landscape-scale restoration projects, said Reed Aubin, education and volunteer program manager with the coalition.
“We will be able to bring middle school students from Clallam Bay, Joyce and Neah Bay to project sites and challenge them to think like the engineers who consult on these types of projects,” Aubin said.
The organization works with teachers to develop hands-on programs aligned with educational standards, Aubin added.
The 25-year-old nonprofit organization, which is headquartered in Port Hadlock and has a field office in Port Angeles, focuses on salmon habitat restoration on the North Olympic Peninsula.
It is one of 14 regional fisheries enhancement groups in the state, covering a territory from Hood Canal to Neah Bay.
“I truly do appreciate the enthusiasm and energy and commitment of time and financial resources devoted to our students in Crescent,” said Mike Schermer, science teacher at Crescent Middle School in Joyce.
Funding will support not only the middle school program, but the coalition’s sequence of educational offerings from elementary science through to high school leadership programs in Clallam County, Aubin said.
“With the salmon coalition, I have had the opportunity to practice motivating my peers, to work in professional settings and to benefit the community in which I have grown up,” said Sequim High senior and Peninsula College student Emily Larson in a speech to the organization’s annual meeting in early October.
The organization’s habitat enhancement work is also expanding to reach points farther west.
“We are developing several exciting opportunities in the Lyre, Sekiu, Hoko and Pysht watersheds, and collaborating with fantastic partners,” said Kim Clark, project manager based in the coalition’s Port Angeles office.
Clark cited major habitat improvement projects in the Dungeness watershed, such as an estuary restoration of the Three Crabs site in Dungeness, and a project underway with the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe to remove invasive species and plant native trees on 75 acres along the Dungeness River.
The Benjamin N. Phillips Memorial Fund was established in 2006 by the estate of Joy Phillips to honor her late husband.
The goal of the fund is to make grants to nonprofit organizations to improve the lives of Clallam County residents.
Approximately $250,000 is distributed annually, with grants ranging in size from $1,000 to $25,000.
For more information about the salmon coalition or to volunteer, visit www.nosc.org or call 360-379-8051.
