Posted on

Feast on the Farm Update

Dear Feast on the Farm Family,

Ten years ago, Kate and I created Feast on the Farm, an event that brings communities together to celebrate our farm partners, who are dedicated to sustainable practices as caretakers of our land and water. As members of our community, you all have become essential to caring for our environment and protecting our earth.

As recent events surrounding COVID-19 continue to evolve, we have unfortunately decided to postpone Feast on the Farm until a later date not determined. We all look forward to this event, and the magic that’s created, each summer. Sadly, screens and email won’t replace the connection we desire from an event of this nature. But for now, they will act as a platform to keep us in touch as we continue to learn more information about when we can expect to come together in feast of thanks. We want to thank our in-kind donors, including Seattle Farm Tables, musicians, chefs, and Full Circle Farm. Most importantly, we want to thank all of you who fill the tables with laughter, intelligence, and appreciation.

We are thinking of all of you and how you might be impacted by this global crisis. Stewardship Partners would not be the same without you. Thank you for being loyal to our organization, for loving the land and ultimately creating a story of growth. By staying present, slowing down, and spending time alone or with family, we will grow now more than ever.

Thank you.

Love,
David and Kate

Posted on

Update from Stewardship Partners

Dear Stewardship Partners Community:

I hope this finds you and your family safe and healthy. People are the heart of our work and we care deeply about all of you, especially in these unprecedented times. 

As our region comes together to face the COVID-19 pandemic, I wanted to let all of you know how Stewardship Partners is responding to these challenges. Like many of you, our team is adjusting to new conditions and thinking both practically and innovatively about how best to continue our work. Our number one priority is the health and wellbeing of our employees. I’m incredibly proud of our team’s flexibility and dedication to this organization and its mission to create people-based solutions that engage Puget Sound communities as caretakers of the land and water that sustain us. Like almost everyone, we are adjusting to virtual meetings with our staff, partners, and board. 
 
Three ways we’ve had to change our plans include: 
  • One of the more difficult decisions we had to make was to postpone our annual fundraiser, Feast on the Farm, at least until Fall. We know it’s our big event getting everyone together, so we’ll be following up with you about our plans and what we need to bridge the gap created by this postponement. 
  • We are also moving the 5th annual Green Infrastructure Summit online. We will continue to find innovative ways to move our work forward safely. 
  • Lastly, in compliance with Governor Inslee’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order, we are suspending all field work and must furlough our hard-working Snoqualmie Stewardship Restoration Crew for at least the next 12 weeks. Their work is important, and we’ll get back at it when we can.
Because of good planning and financial support, we will get through this, but we are going through funds we didn’t expect to be tapping into right now. I’m hopeful for our future and will keep you informed on our steps moving forward.  We are all in this together and, in the end, I believe we will come out stronger. Our hearts go out to our many partners in the restaurant business, musicians, and elsewhere who are severely impacted. 

Thank you for your continued support and for being caretakers of yourselves and our community during these difficult times. Please feel free to be in contact with me at any time. 

With sincere gratitude,

David Burger
Executive Director
Posted on

Expanding our Stormwater Management Throughout the Snoqualmie Valley

We all need clean water to survive. We all should know this by now. The salmon we so cherish need clean water to survive as well. We all should know this by now. Our beloved orcas that symbolize our region need clean water and salmon to survive. We should all know this by now. Knowing is the first step, and now is the time to act to ensure that our region has clean water for the orcas, for the salmon and for us for generations to come. For nearly 20 years the Snoqualmie Stewardship program has focused on riparian habitat restoration along the Snoqualmie River and its tributaries. We’ve made a lot of great progress in that regard. As we continue this riparian restoration work, we are also focusing on expanding our efforts, not only by planting trees along the river, but by educating and engaging the public in green stormwater management efforts.

Starting with one small rain garden installation at Carnation Elementary School a few years ago, thanks to King County Flood Control Districts Flood Reduction Fund, we are now leading an effort to educate and connect community members, businesses and organizations in green infrastructure implementation. We are doing this collaboratively as we have all along with partners such as Nature Vision, The Snoqualmie Tribe, Aspect Consulting, King County, the City of Carnation, Full Circle Farm and Orenda Winery. Soon Stewardship Partners will sponsor workshops in Carnation that include educational talks and tools for green stormwater infrastructure implementation including cistern giveaways! We will also be installing a bioswale at Full Circle Farm to treat stormwater and production runoff before it reaches Griffin Creek!           

Carnation Elementary School Rain Garden Installation
Carnation Elementary School Rain Garden Installation

As we quickly approach the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day we urge folks to take action alongside Stewardship Partners and all our friends as we continue to pave the way for innovative restoration of the land and water that sustain us. If your group, school, business or church would like to get involved with a one of our on the ground projects please contact Chris LaPointe at cl@stewardshippartners.org or sign up on the volunteer calendar on our website.      

Posted on

Tickets are On Sale for the 5th Annual Puget Sound Green Infrastructure Summit!

It’s hard to believe that we created the first ever Puget Sound Green Infrastructure Summit 5 whole years ago this month! It seems like yesterday and yet an awful lot has happened in those 5 years. This year we’re proud to again bring together a community of green infrastructure thought leaders from the .com, .org, .gov, and .edu sectors and from every corner of Puget Sound, this time in Tacoma on March 20th, 2020! It’s inspiring and humbling to hear from partners and attendees who credit the summit with catalyzing new projects, partnerships, and strategies to address some of the region’s most pressing and complex problems. Never ones to get stuck in a rut, the green infrastructure summit always touches on a lot more than the stormwater that green infrastructure is typically built to address. Like a rain garden, the reason to attend the summit goes way past one single problem or solution.

Scenes from the inspirational 2019 Summit

At this year’s summit, attendees will hear from professors, youth leaders, agency officials, nonprofits and businesses about the vast array of benefits that green infrastructure can provide. This year’s theme is “Growing green infrastructure: Impacts and Intersectionalities When Scaling Up.” We hope you can join us! Purchase your ticket here.

Posted on

Stewardship Partners’ 2019 Highlights

Supporters are central to the success of Stewardship Partners and are one of the main reasons why our programs had such a profound positive impact throughout our region this year. By supporting Stewardship Partners, you continue to support a healthy Puget Sound environment.

Your support this year allowed us to:

  • Plant 15,000 native trees and shrubs
  • Restore 2.4 river miles
  • Restore 10.5 acres of vital riparian habitat
  • Engage volunteers in over 2,800 hours of work
  • Grow our Salmon-Safe program to over 100 farms and vineyards
  • Grow our coalition of over 100 green infrastructure partners
  • Host the 2019 Green Infrastructure Summit and begin planning for the 2020 Summit, to be located outside of King County for the first time
  • Provide resources and financial incentives for green infrastructure ($100,000 of incentives awarded to date)
  • Engage in the Seattle Waterfront Project alongside new partners
  • Host the 10th Annual Feast on the Farm, raising over $151,000 in direct support of conservation and restoration initiatives in Puget Sound

THANK YOU FOR BEING A STEWARDSHIP PARTNER!

Posted on

Job Opening: Program Specialist

Stewardship Partners is seeking a Program Specialist with experience with event production,  communication/marketing and grant writing, reporting and research. This position requires strong organizational skills, a keen eye for detail and the ability to work simultaneously on a variety of events and projects. This is a unique opportunity to direct your energy and talents towards a well-established organization with a solid reputation for improving quality of life for all inhabitants, human and wild, in the Puget Sound region.

Click here for full job description.

Posted on

Sound Impacts 2.0 Request for Qualifications

Stewardship Partners has opened up a Request for Qualifications for a project contractor for Sound Impacts 2.0. The goal of this contract would be to implement new features and functionality into the existing tool. This update to the tool has a contract budget of $70,000 ($15k reserve for potential partner contracts e.g. Earth Economics). RFQ submissions will be considered on an ongoing basis with a target selection date in January of 2020.

To view the full Sound Impacts 2.0 Request for Qualifications click here.
To view the current Sound Impacts portal click here.

To respond to this RFQ, please submit via email to EV@StewardshipPartners.org, a short cover letter, not to exceed 2 pages, that addresses the following:

• How does your firm meet the required and desired qualifications. Include links to examples or work samples?
• Which staff/team members would work on which elements of the project and who would be our primary point of contact? Provide links to team member bios or profiles if available.
• Provide 3 references for past clients for whom you have created a web-based portal who way may contact.

Posted on

Make Your End of Year Gift

This season, Patagonia Action Works is matching donations made to their environmental grantees! Now through December 31st, donations made through their site will receive a dollar-for-dollar match! Please help us take advantage of this amazing opportunity by making your year-end gift to Stewardship Partners through Patagonia Action Works! Thank you Patagonia!

You can also give directly through our website. Only together can we fight for clean water, healthy salmon and wildlife habitats, sustainable agriculture, healthy communities, and overall stewardship of our shared environment.

Posted on

Remembering a Friend of the Salmon – Bill Ruckelshaus

Bill and Governor Gregoire visiting Stewardship Partners rain gardens in Burien (2012)

On behalf of the staff and Board of Stewardship Partners, I am sad to announce the passing today of Bill Ruckelshaus. There are only a few people in the world that worked as hard to recover salmon in our watersheds across the region. The salmon have lost one of their best friends.

Bill had the ability to work with anyone including tribes, businesses, government, farmers and non-profits with integrity and honesty making him a great American hero for the natural environment. His priority was putting the environment before politics or party.

Bill was the first director of the EPA, led the U.S./Canada salmon negotiations, was the chair of Shared Strategy, the first chair of Puget Sound Partnership, and held so many other leadership roles. Bill received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama in 2015.

We went fishing together several years ago in the San Juan Islands and I remember Bill telling all of us on the boat that this would probably be one of the last times he goes fishing. Turns out it was, and I feel lucky to have shared that time with him. Bill had many accomplishments and was taller than most but was never intimidating. He was a warm down-to earth person that was willing to listen and give his time, talent and wisdom to what he called “doing the right thing for the fish.”

Bill has been a longtime friend and supporter of Stewardship Partners. We will miss him dearly and our thoughts go out to his family.

Written by David Burger – Stewardship Partners Executive Director

Posted on

Action is Needed Now

written by David Burger

“Right here, right now!”

Teen environmental hero Greta Thunberg is using the power of words like these to inspire millions of others young and old to step up efforts to rein in our carbon emissions and protect life as we know it on the planet. Thunberg, a 16-year-old activist from Sweden who recently traveled from home to New York via train and boat (given the climate impacts of flying) to address the United Nations on the responsibility of our current leaders to force positive action on cleaning up our act, the frontrunner for the Noble Peace Prize. She has been able to create a movement of younger people standing up for their future and demanding change to regulate the global climate. 

The science is clear yet unfortunately, our air isn’t. It’s hard to watch the images of the Amazon forest burning at such an alarming rate or accept that record-high temperatures are occurring all over Alaska. 

One impact of this warming is further trouble for our already endangered salmon runs. The water is simply too hot for salmon to survive let alone spawn and reproduce. We are faced with the reality that we have one chance to act now and be a part of the solution. 

I’m reminded by my children that it’s normal to feel hopeless about our future but we shouldn’t give up. Younger generations are taking action and sparking change in their communities. Let’s embrace their leadership by supporting them and not just sit back and wait.

In addition to supporting Stewardship Partners, here are some simple actions we can all do:  Plant Trees — Vote! —- Talk about it!  — Climate-Friendly Plant Based Diet! — Buy less stuff!