Volunteers will gather on Saturday, Oct. 19 to plant a goal of 1,600 native trees and shrubs along California Creek, a habitat for Chinook salmon in Blaine, Wash. for the annual Orca Recovery Day, hosted by Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association, Whatcom Land Trust and the Whatcom Conservation District.
Orca Recovery Day is a day of action in Washington State dedicated to supporting Southern Resident Orcas, which are endangered under the Endangered Species Act and depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Orca Recovery Day events take place all across the state, and in 2023, there were 50 total.
Orca Recovery Day was created by the Washington State Conservation Commission, which oversees all 45 conservation districts in Washington, in response to the harrowing story of Tahlequah, a Southern Resident Orca who spent 17 days carrying her dead calf’s body in 2018.
Whatcom Land Trust owns over 100 acres of land on California Creek, where Saturday’s work party will be held. Whatcom Land Trust purchases properties throughout Whatcom County and helps restore them.
Planting 1,600 trees and shrubs from 9 a.m. to noon. at Saturday’s event might seem ambitious to some, but NSEA provides a Washington Conservation Corps crew to make it happen.
“Sixteen-hundred is the goal, and you know; it would be amazing if we got that all done on Saturday, but the nice thing about working with the NSEA folks is that whatever we don’t finish, we have funding to send them back out and finish up,” said Whatcom Conservation District Habitat Restoration Specialist Tristan Simons.
Chinook salmon comprise 80% of the diet of Southern Resident Orcas. Installing these native plants along California Creek will improve the quality of the creek’s water, benefitting the Chinook salmon and the orcas that rely on them for food.
One of the most jeopardizing issues contributing to orca endangerment is a depleting food source.
“Native plants provide tremendous services to our local waters. They shade water to keep it cool, their roots help stabilize banks and also help filter any pollutants that might be coming through runoff or stormwater," said NSEA Stewardship Program Manager Sarah Brown.
Brown will be at California Creek early on Saturday with other event organizers to set things up for volunteers. After checking-in, shuttling to the work site from parking at Blaine Middle School, an introduction to the event, a safety lesson and a planting tutorial, volunteers are set loose.
“It’s sort of a free-for-all. We plant as much as we can. ” Brown said.
Brown said there are also snacks and education booths around so people can catch breaks and make the most of the time.
Kea Lani Diamond and Owen Begley-Collier, club officers of Students for Climate Action at Western Washington University, plan on attending Saturday’s event. As a club, Students for Climate Action has been very involved in salmon recovery. Diamond and Begley-Collier have both had a vested interest in orcas since childhood and several years of climate activism under their belts
Diamond said there are a lot of different avenues to try out when it comes to volunteering for the environment, and lots of ways to get your voice out there, like Orca Recovery Day or checking out Students for Climate Action.
“The more you do it, the more you learn and the more hopeful you get,” Diamond said.
While some are regulars at these local work events, plenty of volunteers at the annual Orca Recovery Day work party are newcomers.
“The common thing is everyone’s really passionate about the environment and caring for our green spaces,” said Whatcom Land Trust’s Volunteer Coordinator Madeline Mahler. “The cool thing about the Land Trust is that every time we purchase a piece of property or put an easement on it, that means that property is protected forever.”
Mahler said she thinks people are very inspired by the mission and know the work that they do is going to be permanent.
Hope Rasa (she/her) is a city news reporter for The Front this quarter. She is a second-year Western student majoring in news/editorial journalism. She enjoys running, hiking, reading and spending time with her cat. You can reach her at hoperasa.thefront@gmail.com.
