Thanks to our supporters like you, Stewardship Partners celebrated a decade of hosting the Green Infrastructure Summit of the Salish Sea, broke organizational volunteer records, installed two new Adopt-a-Downspout sites, and much more in 2025. Rebuilding our volunteer base and Adopt-a-Buffer program was a focal area this year. Emphasis on this paid off! In the past year, Stewardship Partners worked with an all time high of 1,400 volunteers! Next, the DLR Group planted a record 976 native trees and shrubs in a mere 3.5 hours out at Wallace Acres. No volunteer group has planted that many trees/shrubs in one event since we’ve been keeping track of the stats. We worked with multiple new corporate volunteer groups this year and signed on two new Adopt-a-Buffer sponsors.
In March, Stewardship Partners hosted the 10th Annual Green Infrastructure Summit of the Salish Sea, bringing together 250+ partners across the educational, nonprofit, tribal, private, and government sectors with a theme of community, collaboration, and connection. This landmark 10th anniversary year saw an unprecedented number of speakers, including a feature of Stewardship Partners’ Adopt-a-Downspout program as the keynote session on a panel alongside our key partners – WA Department of Transportation, The Nature Conservancy, and Herrera. Since then, the Adopt-a-Downspout program has installed two new sites, filtering toxic tire chemicals from stormwater in Mercer Slough and at the I-5 Ship Canal Bridge. We completed guides to replicate the Design, Installation, Operations & Maintenance, and continue to refine each process as we work towards our goal of more boxes built to save more salmon! View the guides and more about the Adopt-a-Downspout program.
10th annual Green Infrastructure Summit of the Salish Sea held in March 2025
Stewardship Partners supports farms engaging in sustainability and stewardship on their land. This year’s Feast on the Farm hosted 150 people for a delicious dinner at Salmon-Safe certified Griffin Creek Farm and raised an incredible $115,000! We recertified six existing farm partners as Salmon-Safe, certified one new farm, and plan to have a new cidery certified by the end of the year. We provide farms with full or partial scholarships if the cost of assessment and certification is a barrier to them joining the program.
Live auction during the 2025 Feast on the Farm at Griffin Creek Farm
Stewardship Partners’ latest strategic plan recommits to inspiring all people to take innovative, inclusive, science-based action. To operationalize our strategic goal for inclusion, the staff and board are going through an internal organizational assessment with support from a Capacity Building Consultant, Jonathan Joseph, provided by King County Parks. Key learnings will help us identify our strengths as well as gaps in services so that we can better align our operations guided by our values and community needs. We have also updated our website as part of our outreach efforts to engage people in becoming stewards of the land and water of the region. Lastly, four new members were added to our Board of Directors in 2025!
A special thank you to all of our 2025 donors, sponsors, in-kind donors, and volunteers that supported us throughout the year. We wouldn’t be able to accomplish these goals without your support. We are excited to continue our work together in 2026 protecting our water and habitat for orcas, salmon, and people.