The Snoqualmie Stewardship Program works to maintain the economic viability of farms and forestland in the Snoqualmie Valley while helping landowners restore fish and wildlife habitat. Only a 30-minute drive from the metropolis of Seattle, Washington state’s Snoqualmie Valley remains a rural agricultural landscape with significant ecological features and wildlife habitat. From the base of Snoqualm
ie Falls to the mouth of the river in the city of Monroe, the Snoqualmie meanders 43 miles, carrying with it some of the healthiest salmon runs in Washington. In the early 1980s, the river and its many tributaries produced more coho salmon than the entire west coast of Oregon. But the intervening decades have not been kind to the river and its salmon runs. By 2001, the Snoqualmie had become one of America’s “10 most endangered rivers,” according to the nonprofit American Rivers. The 15,000 acres of farmland in the valley is both an important local food resource and vital to maintaining the open rural landscape that is part of our region’s quality of life. The Snoqualmie Stewardship Program’s solution-based work in the Snoqualmie Valley includes:
Acting as a liaison between landowners and available resources to promote improved land stewardship. Implementing habitat restoration projects that open fish habitat, plant native trees, restore wetlands and protect farmland. Promoting new incentive-based tools to encourage sustainable land use and environmental restoration. Educating stakeholders on sustainable practices and innovative approaches to protecting the wild environment as well as working forests and farms. Collaborating with several communities and organizations to ensure the establishment of a shared common vision for the watershed. Ensuring strategies and fieldwork are coordinated with regional and local watershed planning, and salmon recovery efforts.
