Brittany Ahmann, Stewardship Specialist at Sound Salmon Solutions In Washington

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, everybody, welcome to thepublic Affair show of your favorite iHeartRadio station

(00:04):
in Seattle. I'm your host LeeCallahan, and we're going to talk salmon
with Sound Salmon Solutions, Development andStewardship specialist Britney Ahmann. Hi, Britney
Hiley, Hey, thanks for beingon the show. Oh yeah, We're
excited to be here today and sharesome knowledge about our Pacific salmon. Let

(00:24):
me ask this question first. Ifyou could do anything for our beautiful salmon
around here, what would it bethe very top of the list. You
know, it's hard to pick justone thing. There's so many things each
of us can do to help salmonpopulations. But I think one of the
biggest things would just be doing whatyou can to reduce stormwater pollution. And

(00:47):
that could be anything from choosing towash our cars at car washes, we're
using natural cleaning products, things likethat, cleaning up after our dog's just
reducing the amount of water pollution wehave gone down those storm drains. Yeah,
and I saw a guy with somereally scary grass fertilizer. Does that

(01:08):
wreak havoc on the salmon population too? Yeah, fertilizing can definitely cause problems.
What happens if we fertilize is rightbefore the rain. If we're not
doing it in line with weather forecasts, it rains, all that fertilizer can
actually go down the storm drains,which we directly to our waterways. And

(01:30):
have you ever heard of saying toomuch of a good thing can be a
bad thing. Yeah, So thesame thing with fertilizer. That's just adding
nutrients to the water. And whathappens when we see a lot of fertilizers
coming into waterways is it causes what'scalled eutrophication, and that's an explosion of
the algae population because of that influxof nutrients. As algae uses up those

(01:52):
nutrients, they'll die off, andthen the bacteria population will explode, using
up or eating up all those Andwhen that happens, bacteria actually use oxygen,
it's like we do, just likefish do, and that can lead
to the creation of what are calleddead zones where there's not enough oxygen four
things like salmon to survive. Wow, I am so glad I asked you

(02:15):
that question because I knew when Isaw him out there with this weird white
dots, I was like, Oh, this can't be good. Hey,
everybody on the phone from Sound SalmonSolutions. I've got Brittany Ahmans and as
you can tell, she knows alot. So let's talk about your excellent
organization, Sound Salmon Solutions and tellme, like how it got started.

(02:38):
Where you guys are Are you anonprofit organization? Let me know everything.
Yeah, so we are a fiveoh one T three charity and we're we
were actually chartered by the State ofWashington in nineteen nineties. So there are
fourteen Regional Fisheries Enhancement Groups throughout thestate that were charted to eat in salmon

(03:00):
recovery through habitat restoration, education andvolunteer programs. And then Sound sam and
Solutions is unique because we're the onlyRFIGI with a hatchery. So we have
a hatchery located in Edmunds where wereadse and release up to eighty thousand co
hosts salmon into the Lake Washington Watershedeach year. Wow, that is so

(03:21):
great. How many eighty thousand whichsounds like a lot, but in the
hatchery world it's actually considered a microhatchy. Okay, well it sounds great
to me. You know, doingeverything you can so why does So let's
talk about what else you do.You've got the hatchery, your advocates for

(03:46):
not putting toxins into our storm waterdrains. What else do you guys do?
Yeah, we do a lot ofhabitat restoration. We have a crew
that's out every day restoring salmon's spawninggrounds. And they do this primarily through
invasive vegetation removal, so removing speciesthat are not naturally found here in Washington

(04:11):
and have the potential to overgrow andoutcompete our native species. And then they
go through planting native trees and shrubsto restore that habitat. So that's one
thing we do. We have educationprograms. We offer the Salmon in the
Schools program where youth can have asalmon tank in their school. They'll get
to help raise those salmon from eggto fry. They'll get three classroom lessons

(04:34):
with us, and then a fieldtrip where they come and release those salmon
into a tributary. And we alsodo a lot of volunteer programs both at
our habitat restoration sites and at ourhatchery. Wow Brittany Amen from Sound Salmon
Solutions. Their office is up inMuckle t o the hatcheries up in Edmonds.

(04:57):
You also work. Well, letme go back with this group of
people doing habitat restoration. Are thesevolunteers or is this a paid crew?
Yeah, we do have a paidcrew. It's doing this every day,
but then primarily between October and Aprilwill host volunteer events so that individuals from
the community come and join us anddirectly contribute to salmon restoration. That's great.

(05:23):
Hey, Brittany, do you workwith landowners on these projects, people
who have maybe a stream running upthrough their yard. How does that work?
Yeah, we definitely do. Weencourage land owners to reach out to
us. If you have a propertythat has a salmon burying or potential salmon

(05:47):
bearing stream going through, we doencourage you to reach out to our have
Tat program manager, Brianna Finch,and she can meet with you, let
you know all the ins and outs, and then if it's found to be
a good fit, we'll apply forgrants to do the restoration work, so
it would all actually be free ofcost to the land owner. Hey,

(06:09):
when you guys do this restoration work, Because I've got friends here that live
down right on the Elliott Bay inWest Seattle, and they had a crew
come in and just make this beautifulstream in their backyard. I mean,
the plants everything. Is that whatyou guys do? Yeah, Usually they're

(06:30):
on more rural properties that we're primarilyworking. So we do require generally one
hundred foot buffer from the river couldbe restored. So we will work a
lot with the farming communities in theStillguamish Nahomish in South Island County watersheds,
and that work is just to helprestore those areas. We've done a lot

(06:53):
of projects along the Skycomish River aswell as up along smaller creeks and other
tributaries. Man, that's cool.Hey, what kind of vegetation are you
getting out that is in danger tothe salmon around people's homes or wherever you
do your restoration projects. Yeah,So in terms of removing vegetation, that's

(07:18):
generally invasive species. So an invasivespecies is one that was introduced to Washington,
It's not naturally found here, andthey grow very quickly to the point
that they outcompete our natives. Sosome primary examples of these would be the
Himalayan BlackBerry. That's the most theBlackBerry we see around here. That forms
those big brambles, English ivy,Japanese not weed, butterfly bush, a

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lot of those species, and sowe go through we remove it and then
what we'll do we don't want toleave that land exposed, so then we'll
plant native trees and shrubs that canbe a lot of our evergreen trees,
like we're all pretty familiar with thewestern red cedar and Douglas fir, but
also some deciduous trees as well asshrubs and groundcover to establish a healthy riparian

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ecosystem. Wow, that is socool. And you work with the tribes,
Tell me about this, this iscompelling. Yeah, we actually work
a lot with tribes. We havesome close working relationships with the Stilguamas,
Tulela and snow Qualmie tribes both onour habitat restoration projects and education programs.
So in terms of restoration work,we'll partner with them at sites. They

(08:33):
occasionally tracked us out to assist withprojects, and we also work with them
for education programs, so they helpus to incorporate traditional ecological knowledge into all
our lessons. And then we doget our curriculum reviewed by designated tribal members
to ensure that everything we are sharingis done so respectfully and accurately. That's

(08:54):
so cool. So when you workwith the tribes, what tribes and can
you tell me about a project you'vedone together. Yeah. So, for
example, when we work with tLeylab tribe, we actually have multiple partnerships
with them, primarily with their naturalResources department. There we have projects where

(09:15):
we go out and work along thecreek to do that restoration work that I
mentioned in partnership with them, andthen they're actually the ones their education outreach
coordinator in the Natural Resources department.She's the one who went through all of
our curriculum with our education team toensure that all the traditional ecological knowledge that

(09:37):
is being shared is done so correctlyand respectfully, so that we are able
to share this indigenous knowledge and helpconnect our programs to that knowledge. And
it's really important since our tribes havebeen living in harmony with sam and since
time immemorial, so we can learna lot from them in terms of what

(09:58):
healthy sam and habitat it looks like, as well as how it's benefiting us
as humans and how we can bebetter stewards to the environment. That's so
cool. Everybody on the phone withme is Brittany Ahman. She is with
Sound Salmon Solutions and Britney back tothe tribes because I find this great information.

(10:20):
What have you learned from them?Can you give me a specific example
of something that works in conjunction withwhat you are doing with the tribe's traditional
work that they do. Yeah,So, thinking of some of the traditional
equodical knowledge we share in our educationprograms, a lot of this we work

(10:43):
with. Say we're on our fieldtrips for salmon in schools, the kids
come and release their salmon into thecreek, but there's also other stations where
they go through. So one waywe've really tried to incorporate this knowledge is
at a station where you get tolearn about plants. So they learn how
to identify some native plants and focuson the cultural uses of those plants.

(11:07):
For example, salmon berry, that'sa plant a lot of us are familiar
with and enjoy eating in the springtimewhen those berries are coming through. But
salmon berry also was traditionally used aspain killers to help treat wounds and burns.
The stems could be hollowed out andused as pipes for moving water things

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like that. So there's a lotof knowledge we can learn from them and
just showing youth, especially the importanceof us and how we can benefit from
native plants in our ecosystem. Theyare always shocked by the number of plants
that are edible but also can beused as medicines. That's a lot of
things that we can learn from ourtribes and it's great knowledge. So that

(11:50):
program is helped run. But withplant id books that are made with resources
from the Stillaguamish tribe. That's socool. Good jobs' pretty ammen. Is
with sound salmon solutions. And inthe beginning of our conversation, you told
me that you were chartered by thestate to begin this work to save salmon.
So is that how you're funded orare there other ways too? Yeah,

(12:13):
well, now that we're all allfourteen r figs or Regional Fisheries Enhancement
Groups are five oh one C threecharity organizations. So we do get a
lot of our funding from various levelsof government that can be come from municipal
up to federal funding, but wealso receive private and family foundations that make

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contributions. Corporations can donate a lotof rotary clubs kwannas clubs and fly fishing
clubs help support our education programs.And then we do receive donations from individuals
as well. That's cool. Wheredo people go to help out? Yeah,
people can visit our website sound Salmonsolutionsdot org and you can learn all

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about what we do, the importanceof this work, and how you can
support our programs. That's so cooland now and then also in the beginning
of the conversation you talked about whatwe could all do and our storm water
drains. We're like number one atthe top of the list, and not
to put funky stuff into that,but is there more stuff that we can

(13:16):
do to improve the watershed health forour salmon. Yes, there are so
many things we can do, andthis is something we really focus on in
all our education programs because every singleperson has the ability to make a difference
for salmon populations, no matter howold you are, what your abilities are,
what your background is. We canall make take individual actions that'll improve

(13:37):
salmon populations. And that could besomething such as choosing the plant native plants
in your yard. It could becleaning up after our pets using natural cleaning
products. With natural cleaning products doyou also mean in the home. Yeah,
in the home, because even ifwe are using cleaning products that go
down the sewer, they can causeproblems because those things can be really difficult

(14:01):
to remove. This is something wedo teach in our education programs that not
all products can be removed. Andyou think about it, a lot of
these products are toxic to us ashumans, so once it gets into the
waterway, it's also toxic to thewildlife that lives there. So if we
can choose products that are natural based, like vinegar taking so that those kinds

(14:22):
of things can keep our homes niceand clean, I use all those products
in my home without causing the pollutionthat those times while chemicals do. Okay.
I hate to sound naive, butI am when it comes to this,
because I thought that if we were, like if our products were going
down the sewer and not the stormdrains, that we'd be okay. Yeah,

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And I think that is one ofthe educational pieces that are really lacking.
So that's just another thing we cando as individuals too, just raising
awareness about these issues and encouraging othersto do what they can. There's really
a lot of education that has togo and salmon recovery. Can you tell
me about our sewer system and it'ssafety concerning our waterways for salmon. I

(15:09):
have the biggest problem with that wouldbe the storm drains. So those are
the drains along our roadways and sidewalks, especially here in Washington where we get
the high and lots of rainfall thatwe do because it does prevent flooding.
But those drains do go directly toa waterway. So our sewers that are
draining from the drains inside our homes, they connect to a water treatment facility

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where they get cleaned and filtered beforethey go back to keep in mind,
not everything is easily removed from thosebut the storm drains don't have any filtration
taking place, So anything that goesdown those drains is going directly into salmon
habitat. That I get, Andthank you you did clear it up for
me about our sewers and that whatthe heavy toxins we put into it don't

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necessarily get all the way clear leadout before they go into our waterways.
Right yeah, okay, thank youKle. That was clarifying all right,
So am I missing anything anything elseyou want to tell the general public about
your great organization, Sound Salmon Solutions. No, I think just if anyone's
interested in connecting with Sam and recovery. We offer so many different programs,

(16:23):
from summer camps to Community Action TrainingSchool, which is a free program for
adults. We have an online silentauction coming up in June, volunteer events
taking place at are Hatchery as wellas with our restoration projects. All of
that can be found on our websiteSound Salmon Solutions dot org. That is
excellent information. I really enjoyed talkingto you. I've learned so much already.

(16:48):
It's been great and thank you forall the great work you do for
our salm and it's much appreciated.Well, thank you so much for taking
the time to chat with me Todaylyabsolutely Brittany Ahmond. She is from Sound
Salmon Solutions. Go to Sound SalmonSolutions dot org. Thanks again, Yeah,
thank you,