Orca Recovery Week - A SUCCESS!

Thank you to the over 200 individuals who participated in our Orca Recovery Events in October & November!

With the help of our partners, including Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Quileute Tribe, and Clallam County Department of Community Development, we hosted 5 educational programs and 5 volunteer restoration events throughout the Olympic Peninsula to bring awareness to the plight of the southern resident Orca whale, and aid in salmon recovery.

Accomplishments include:

• 2,100 trees planted along the Elwha and Quillayute Rivers by 65 volunteers to help accelerate restoration of fish habitat.

• 1,200 beach plants installed on Ediz Hook by 30 volunteers.

• 116 participated in 5 educational events focused on the Dungeness River, Elwha River, Indian Creek, Little River and on Pacific lamprey.

For more photos and highlights visit our Orca Recovery webpage and sign up on our Volunteering page to be notified of future volunteer events.

Each conservation district in Washington State is overseen by a board of five supervisors. Three supervisors are elected by registered voters within the district, and two are appointed by the Washington State Conservation Commission. The term of office for each supervisor is three years. They meet once a month to discuss district business, oversee district finances, and provide guidance on district activities.

Conservation districts are political sub-divisions of state government that conduct their own elections. State statute RCW 89.08.190 requires all conservation district elections be held in the first quarter of the year.

The term of office currently held by elected supervisor Robert Beebe on the Clallam Conservation District board will expire in May of 2023. All potential candidates for this position must be registered voters residing in Clallam County.

This year’s election will be held on March 21, 2023 and Candidate Applications are due February 15, 2023, according to the 2023 Election Resolution passed at our regular board meeting in October. Clallam County voters may vote in person or request a mail-in ballot.

Many gardeners spend the winter thumbing through seed and plant catalogs and daydreaming about spring planting. If you fall into that category, then we got you covered! Clallam Conservation District’s bare root Native Plant Sale is OPEN. Below are tips to help you decide which plants will work best in your landscaping.

Make a plan before you place an order. Just like a trip to the grocery store, avoid impulse buying by making a list of the plants you need and want by preparing a landscape plan. Your landscape plan doesn’t have to be elaborate or pretty, but it does need to be practical.

Before working on your plan, make a list of your objectives. What do you want from your landscape? Low maintenance and low water-demand are probably on everyone’s list. Do you want to attract birds, butterflies and other pollinators? Is growing your own vegetables and fruit important? Do you need space for children or grandchildren to play? What about pets? Are there certain “must have” plants on your list? By going through the exercise of writing down your objectives, it helps you prioritize what’s really important.

Next, figure out what nature has given you to work with. In other words, analyze your site. It’s helpful to have a sketch of your property to make notes on. You can make a base map and print several copies for note taking or use transparency paper. For instruction, watch this video of how to make a base map of your property.

• Note the locations of structures, driveways, utilities, septic and other infrastructure, and streams and ditches on your base map. These aren’t going anywhere, so you’re going to have to work around them.

• Determine the texture of your soil. Dig a few holes around your property to find out if you have a sandy-gravelly soil, clay, loam or a variety, and where each is. Soil texture affects drainage and water retention, thus the types of plants you can easily and successfully grow.

• Identify existing vegetation that you either want to preserve or that you need to remove or control. If a tree needs to be taken down, consider leaving part of it as a snag to provide valuable habitat.

• What’s your microclimate? Note areas that receive lots of sun, shady spots, areas that are exposed to the wind, and sheltered areas. Also note places where you’d like to make microclimatic modifications, such as protection from the wind or to create summer shade.

• Take stock of your views. This may sound obvious, but there’s a bit more to it. Note both the desirable views you want to preserve and the undesirable views you’d like to screen

• Remember if you have some acreage (a half-acre or more), the entire acreage doesn’t have to be landscaped like a city lot. Consider leaving open space and habitat that requires minimal to no care.

Once you’ve laid out a general plan for your landscape, with different spaces identified, you can get into the nitty gritty of designing those spaces. Focus on one space at a time as you develop your detailed designs and plant lists.

When deciding on plants, always keep in mind their mature size. Do you want a tree or a shrub? Do you want it to be evergreen or deciduous? Deciduous trees provide summer shade but allow light in winter. Evergreens are good for visual screens and windbreaks and liven up drab winter.

Garden dreaming can help chase away any winter blues. Just think, in about a month the daylight hours will be increasing but, for now happy garden dreaming.

Since 1990, Clallam Conservation District has held an annual Native Plant Sale, enabling over 410,000 native plants to find homes with thousands of Clallam County residents.

Plant Information

Most plants are 1 to 2 year-old bare-root seedlings (no soil on the roots) ranging in size from 8” to 24”. Conifer trees are sold in bundles of 25, and most deciduous trees and shrubs are sold in bundles of 10. Our Native Plant webpage has details, additional plant information, and our past webinars, such as natural landscaping, choosing native plants for birds and pollinators, site preparation and protecting plants from animal damage may be of assistance with what plants work best in your project.

We also sell a Native Pollinator Seed Mix. The mix is formulated to cover 100 square feet at a density of 40 seeds per square foot, and designed to attract bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and beneficial insects. The mix includes annual and perennial wildflowers and grasses, species details can be found on our website using the link above.

Plant Availability

All plants are sold on a first-come, first-served basis. Plants must be pre-ordered by January 23, 2023. Quantities are limited this year, so please place your order as soon as possible if there are certain species you are hoping to purchase.

Picking Up Plants

Plants will be available for pick-up on the 3rd and 4th of March 2023 (Friday & Saturday) at Lazy J Tree Farm (located between Port Angeles and Sequim at 225 Gehrke Road). To help with the flow of traffic, pick-up times will be staggered again this year. Customers will choose a timeslot for pick-up of their plants during the order checkout process online. A reminder notice in the form of a brightly colored postcard with your order number will be mailed out two weeks prior to pick-up day. Please bring the postcard with you when picking up your plants to help aid in quicker pick-up.

Unless prior arrangements are made, any orders not picked up may be donated to restoration projects. Refunds will not be given for plants not picked up.

Volunteers Needed

We need volunteers the last week in February and first week in March to help package and distribute orders. If you are interested, and aren’t already on our volunteer email list, please register. We will send out an email mid-February with the dates and times that we need volunteer assistance. Without volunteers our plant sale wouldn’t be possible, so we appreciate the help!

• Remove livestock from wet pastures. When animals begin to leave hoof prints in the soil and/or when the stubble height is down to 3-4 inches it’s time to pull them off the pasture.

• Confine animals in a winter feeding area located away from waterways. Hogfuel, concrete and gravel can be used to help keep areas mud-free.

• Fence livestock away from streams, wetlands, and ponds to protect water quality, minimize soil erosion, and protect native vegetation and wildlife habitat.

• Properly manage manure to ensure that manure generated on your farm is a useful resource rather than a risky liability that can pollute nearby waterways.

  • Collect manure every 1-3 days from winter pens and store manure in a dry, covered location at least 100 feet away from wells, streams, and other water features.

  • Do not spread manure during the winter months when the grass is dormant and nutrients can cause runoff concerns.

  • Maintain a grassy buffer strip around manure storage areas to help filter runoff.

• Ensure that culverts, overflows, and spillways are clean and free of debris to minimize flooding and erosion during storms.

• Check gutters and downspouts to ensure they are securely attached to buildings and free of debris.

• Put native plants to work on your farm.

  • Plant native trees and shrubs along streams and waterways to restore riparian habitat.

  • Use native trees and shrubs to create windbreaks and hedgerows that provide shade for livestock in the summer and protection from wind and rain in the winter.

  • Native plants can create a great screen around areas like manure storage bins.

Conservation Planners are able to help with making sure your farm is ready for the winter.

Riparian buffers, the vegetated area next to a waterway, play an important role in making stream habitat more livable for fish. The shade provided by these trees and shrubs help keep river temperatures cool, especially during the hot months of the year. Overtime trees falling in the waterway can make the stream system complex, slowing down the river and creating pools, great for spawning fish looking to rest.

A vegetated bank can also reduce erosion along the streambank, and can help shade out unwanted invasive weeds. This vegetated zone can also attract pollinator species, which can be good for your garden or farm. These areas are also great wildlife habitat, as the flowers and fruit of these plants can attract more wildlife such as mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and birds.

Now is a great time to plan for planting a riparian buffer since our plant sale is now OPEN, and is filled with native plant species that are excellent for planting in riparian buffers. If you are interested in planting a riparian buffer on a waterway on your land, CONTACT US. District staff are available to help you with selecting species most suited to your site, and grant funding may also be available to help you with purchasing plants and covering the costs of planting crews.

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