2022 Election Results

Christy Cox is the unofficial winner of the 2022 Clallam Conservation District Board of Supervisors Election. Conservation District elections results are unofficial until they are reviewed and certified by the Washington State Conservation Commission, which occurs during their May board meeting.

The Conservation District Board is run by a five-member Board of Supervisors. Each Supervisor serves a voluntary three-year term. The Board of Supervisors are responsible for supporting the CCD mission, and overseeing District activities and policies. Three of our Supervisors are elected and two are appointed by the WA State Conservation Commission. Applications were accepted for a 2022 expiring appointed position and will be announced in May’s CCD eNewsletter.

Get involved in local conservation. Learn more about Conservation District Supervisors through our Elections and Appointments Webpage.

Now is the perfect time of year to get mulch on your garden. Mulch mimics natures process. Trees grow and die, century after century, all the while dropping leaves, needles, cones, twigs, lichen, moss, and other forms of plant material. It makes its own ecosystem in various stages of decomposition.

All this organic matter makes for great soil biology, contributing important nutrients for plants and providing plant health benefits. The breakdown of mulch creates excellent habitat for mycorrhizal [mahy-kuh-rahy-zee] fungi. Mycorrhizal fungi creates an underground network of connections. These fungi have symbiotic relationships with plants, obtaining carbohydrates from the host plants while helping them absorb water and nutrients.

Mulch on the garden saves your back and knees. The icing on the cake is that mulching suppresses weeds! Those are magic words to a gardener. Apply a thick six-inch layer of mulch in early spring and you will have very little weeding to do the rest of the summer.

Mulch is a temporary groundcover. It should be applied yearly or twice per year, as it breaks down and turns into soil. This process of nutrient cycling helps to build the soil texture and quality. These soils absorb water readily, have a high capacity to store moisture and also help reduce stormwater runoff. Stormwater will be able to permeate in these soils, filtering the water and eventually helping to replenish our underground aquafers.

If you mow your lawn, we suggest grass mulching. Leave the clippings on the lawn. Just make sure that your grass clippings are not so thick that it smothers the grass. Benefits to grass mulching include: saves time, it’s a natural fertilizer, creates healthy soil, and improves water retention.

When it comes to mulching, any mulch is better than no mulch.

Each year, the Conservation District Board of Supervisors reviews and adopts an annual work plan to direct district operations and services. This plan is based on a long-range that is also developed and adopted by the board. To review the Annual and Long-Range Plans visit our Publications webpage.

For 2021 the focus of our annual work plan was on water, fish and wildlife habitat, and soil, with the following specific objectives:

• Reduce Water Use

• Improve and Protect Water Quality

• Enhance and Restore Fish and Wildlife Habitat

• Conserve Farmland and Forestland

Let’s take a closer look at how we tackled these objectives in 2021 to help put conservation on the ground.

Reduce Water Use

Most of our efforts to reduce water use have focused on big-ticket water conservation projects with the Dungeness irrigation districts and companies, most notably, piping leaky irrigation ditches. In 2021 we completed the piping of the two laterals in the Agnew Irrigation District. Together these projects totaled over 8,500 feet of piped ditch and Dungeness River water savings of 0.25 cubic feet per second during late summer.

We continued partnering with a diverse group of stakeholders to develop plans and secure funding for the Dungeness Off-Channel Reservoir. This project will result in substantial reductions in irrigation water diversions from the Dungeness River during the last four to six weeks of the irrigation season when river flows are low.

Conserve Farmland and Forestland

The 2021 highlights of our activities in this area include:

• A spring/summer series of noxious weed alert articles published weekly on Facebook, monthly in our eNewsletter, plus 3 webinars.

• We processed 56 soil tests. Bring in your soil for analysis. Drop off days are the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of every month

• Assistance to WSU AgWeather Net on installation of 2 weather stations in Sequim, and planning for 3 additional stations throughout Clallam County

• Partnership with Department of Natural Resources to host 5 webinars for forest landowners attended by over 300 people.

• Webinar on wildfire prevention.

Recordings of the webinars are available on our Virtual Workshop Recording webpage.

Enhance and Restore Fish and Wildlife Habitat

Our habitat activities are focused on restoration of riparian habitat for salmon and addressing impacts from forest roads, including fish passage barriers and road related erosion and sedimentation.

• Partnered with the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and the Quileute Tribe to plant 1.16 miles of riparian buffers along the Elwha River, Little River, and the Sol Duc River.

• Enrolled 2 landowners in CREP to install and protect riparian buffers on the Big River and Quillayute River, and maintained nine previously planted CREP sites.

• Worked with the Forest Service on upgrades to the Sitkum 2900 Road, including replacement of culverts at milepost 15.9 and 18.3, and draft designs for replacement of three additional failing culverts.

• Assisted with correction of 1 forest road fish passage barrier on Cedar Creek, and helped 2 landowners apply for Family Forest Fish Passage Program funding to replace fish passage barriers.

• Provided information/technical assistance to 72 individuals on topics such as native plants, sustainable landscaping, habitat, forestry, drainage, soils, etc.

 Improve and Protect Water Quality

We have two primary water quality focus areas: helping homeowners repair failing septic systems and helping horse and livestock owners implement best management practices. Our ultimate goals are safe and healthy shellfish growing areas (surface water) and drinking water (groundwater).

Onsite Septic System (OSS) Repair Program

In 2021 we provided program information to 4 homeowners. Since its creation in 2014, this program has provided financial assistance to 19 homeowners to help repair or replace failing onsite septic systems impacting water quality.  The geographic focus areas are the current Pollution Identification & Correction (PIC) activity areas.

Agricultural Water Quality

For agricultural water quality we helped farms throughout Clallam County, for both surface water and groundwater improvement and protection.

• Assisted 13 farms with implementation of 15 practices to help improve and protect water quality, including riparian fencing and planting, gravel heavy use area protection, waste storage structures, manure lagoon decommissioning, and a rotational grazing system.

• Provided technical assistance to 63 horse and livestock farms, and 13 non-livestock farms.

• Conducted 12 farm tours and webinars (304 participants).

• Published 11 newsletter articles promoting best management practices for water quality protection.

• Submitted 18 soil tests for 10 farms to assist with nutrient applications.

WEED WATCH: Poison Hemlock

Spring showers bring more than May flowers! Walk your property now to identify new infestations of poison hemlock, as well as other weeds, before they mature and flower. It is often found on poorly drained soils, particularly near streams, ditches, and other surface water. It grows alongside roads, edges of cultivated fields, and vacant areas.

Poison hemlock is extremely toxic! All parts of this plant can kill humans and animals, even when dried, and it can easily be mistaken for more benign members of the carrot or parsley family.

Early growth includes clusters of lacey-like leaves on the ground surface. Mature plants can grow up to 12 feet in height, and often stalks from the previous year my still remain standing to help with identification. It has strong, smooth stems with purple splotches, and white flowers in 4 to 8 inch umbrella shaped clusters.

To control, pull out, bag up and dispose of all dead plant material at the landfill. Wear gloves while handling this plant. Mowing and cutting this plant is not effective.

Native Plant Landscaping Course

Sign up for our 3-part Native Plant Landscaping webinar series be equipped to transform your yard into an eco-friendly, bio diverse, water saving, native habitat landscape. In this course you will learn how to:

• Create a vision and map your property

• Learn the right plant for the right place, and

• Learn planting and maintenance techniques and cover some common pest issues.

The webinars will be held on Tuesdays, April 19th, April 26th, May 3rd  from 1-3pm.

For those unable to attend the live webinars, we will send a link to the recorded version of the webinar to all those that are registered.

Horse & Livestock Workshops

We’re working on some exciting educational events for this summer and fall. Sign-up for our horse and livestock mailing list to be notified of upcoming educational events and publications.

We also have created a collection of recorded webinars over the past few months on topics such as poultry keeping, pasture management, weed management, creating gravel heavy use areas, soil testing and more. Webinars can be viewed through our Virtual Workshop Recordings webpage.

Less Weeds, More Feed

WHEN: Wednesday, May 11, 10:30AM to Noon
WHERE: Robin Hill Farm Park, Sequim
COST: FREE, but pre-registration is required.

Learn how to identify and control poisonous and noxious weeds, such as tansy ragwort shown in the photo, and management tips to improve pastures. Feel free to bring weeds from your pasture for identification. Presenters include Clallam County Noxious Weeds Coordinator, Cathy Lucero, and Conservation District staff.

CONSERVATION SPONSORS

Peninsula Environmental Group - (360) 819-3081 www.peninsulaenvironmental.com

Clark Horticultural Inc - (360) 460-9178 www.ClarkHorticultural.com

Eagle Creek Tractor - (360) 683-9391

John and Kriss Seago

Conservation News sponsorship's cost $50/yr for business names printed every issue or $100/yr for a name every issue and a business card once a year. They help offset publishing and distributing costs to reach nearly 4,000 readers. CALL US TO FEATURE YOUR NAME!