As 2024 wraps up, we are reflecting on our vision of collaborative conservation to ensure the bounty of the Salish Sea region continues for generations. When people understand the role they can play and feel connected to their community, positive change happens.Stewardship Partners completed our Strategic Plan through 2028, recommitting to inspiring all people to take innovative, inclusive, science-based action.
This year, Stewardship Partners hosted the 9th Annual Green Infrastructure Summit of the Salish Sea, expanded the Adopt-a-Downspout program, led 600 volunteers in restoration efforts, and much more. Our crew restored nearly a mile of riverbank, and 3 acres of land, maintained 4.5 acres, gave away 19 rain barrels, and planted 6,000 native plants.
Our restoration crew in the Snoqualmie Valley had a busy year, starting with a move of the field headquarters to Carnation Farms. We’ve built a strong relationship with Carnation Farms since we planted our first tree there in 2013 as part of a riparian restoration project. Since then, we’ve partnered on countless volunteer events, hosted our annual Feast on the Farm fundraiser there, and restored miles of the mainstem Snoqualmie River along the property. Our new central location reinforces our ongoing partnership with not only this farm, but other landowners in the Valley.
The 2024 Feast on the Farm was another grand success at Griffin Creek Farm, a Salmon-Safe certified farm and a living example of farmers embracing environmental stewardship. We hosted 150 people for a delicious dinner at the farm to raise an incredible $108,000! We’re grateful for our generous donors, attendees, and volunteers who came together to support our mission of working with landowners to promote sustainable practices. Stewardship Partners continue to work with farms engaging in sustainability and stewardship and listen to their concerns about financial barriers. We awarded multiple scholarships in 2024 for farms to become Salmon-Safe certified and have completed updated Salmon-Safe assessments at seven of our farm partner sites.
Our Adopt-a-Downspout program is another example of how we are helping keep our salmon healthy, by removing lethal chemicals from stormwater. Stewardship Partners is expanding our pilot program in Seattle to capture and treat polluted runoff with biofilter boxes. We have reached our 2024 goal of 1 million dollars raised for this effort, been featured by radio channel KUOW, and entered into a 10-year partnership agreement with the Washington Department of Transportation to scale the installation and maintenance of biofilter boxes across the region. By engaging local communities and replicating this model, we are working to keep pollutants out of our waterways.
Thank you for supporting us all year long in our mission to engage Puget Sound communities as caretakers of the land and water that sustain us!