PORT ANGELES — Biologist, landscape architect and filmmaker Shelly Solomon wants people to know that all the environmental news isn’t bad.
Some people are doing great things, she said, and she hopes that her two films of restoration projects will make that point during their screening at the Wine on the Waterfront on Saturday.
“There are a lot of positive stories out there, and these are some of them,” she said from her Marrowstone Island home Wednesday.
“The evening is to give that message — and to drink some wine.”
Samples of organic wine will be served during the screenings of the two documentaries by Leaping Frog Films at the lounge at 115 E. Railroad Ave.
Wine on the Waterfront’s “Toast to Earth Day” will begin at 6:30 p.m.
Solomon will be there and will answer questions if asked, but plans no formal presentation.
Ticket prices for the “Toast to Earth Day” event are $15 and include admission to both films, appetizers, samples of organic wine and a bag of Earth Day treats that include coupons to local businesses, organic seeds and native tree seedlings.
The Arthur D. Feiro Marine Life Center in Port Angeles will receive 20 percent of the proceeds from the event.
The North Olympic Peninsula Resource Conservation and Development Council is a co-sponsor.
Salmon Creek estuary
The first film, “Buried in Sawdust for 50 Years,” covers the $1 million restoration of the Salmon Creek estuary at the mouth of Discovery Bay by the North Olympic Salmon Coalition.
Highlights of the film include an examination of the chemical contamination of the bay from 50 years of accumulated milling waste, interviews with an original mill worker and his memories of the mill operation, and the returning of tidal waters to the restored estuary.
“What is really interesting about that project is the whole concept of it,” Solomon said. The estuary “just kind of disappeared for so many years. It was a lost estuary.
“To have a local group find the money to dig it out and restore it is pretty amazing.”
Pinto Abalone
The second film, “Almost Lost — Pinto Abalone Recovery,” follows recovery efforts for the pinto abalone — the only abalone species in the state.
The abalone were thinned almost to extinction by over-harvesting, Solomon said.
“With only one or two left [in an area] how can they reproduce?” Solomon said.
The Puget Sound Restoration Fund, working with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, has spawned them in a lab and planted them in the San Juan Islands, which provides the fresh, flowing water the abalone needs to survive, Solomon said.
“The big story is that a lot of people don’t realize there is abalone in Washington state,” Solomon said.
Solomon, who owns Environmental Design and Consulting is a water restoration specialist, had been a biologist and landscape architect for 30 years before she took up filmmaking four or five years ago.
“I had the idea of starting to document these projects and getting some telling the real story behind the project visually,” she said.
The wine-tasting will feature three wines and include a discussion of how organic grape production addresses concerns of water pollution, loss of biodiversity, pest-resistance and use of chemicals.
For more information or to purchase tickets, phone Wine on the Waterfront at 360-565-8466.
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Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or leah.leach@peninsula dailynews.com.
