Tipping the Scales Toward a Greener Future

King County Parks is committed to restoring and sustaining our natural environment to benefit people and animals alike, but we can’t do this work alone. Across the County, a dedicated network of community partners is investing in education, restoration, and youth programs to ensure our green spaces and waterways are safe and healthy for all.

Green Jobs for Youth, Green Futures for Everyone
Through our Open Space – River Corridors grant program, Mid Sound Fisheries Enhancement Group received $156,255 in funding from King County Parks to restore critical riparian habitat along the Lower Green River in Auburn. To advance this vital work while also providing paid, hands-on job training to a diverse group of young people, Mid Sound brought in their Green Jobs Youth Crew. The Youth Crew engages in ecological restoration in public parks in South King County to ensure those ecosystems are healthy, resilient, and able to benefit our communities for generations to come.

A diverse group of six smiling teenagers stand around a large pile of invasive plants they helped to remove from the area
“The fields of environmental restoration and salmon recovery have historically lacked the diversity needed to ensure the best outcomes. The more diverse our future environmental problem solvers are, the better their solutions will be.” -Amy Cirio, Stewardship and Education Specialist at Mid Sound

Throughout the summer of 2023, eight teenaged Youth Crew members from Auburn, Kent, and Des Moines helped remove over 18,000 square feet of invasive blackberry; received training in restoration techniques, water quality testing, and plant identification; and learned about green career paths from guest speakers. At the same time, Crew members developed teamwork and communication skills and built connections that can help them pursue future careers in environmental fields and beyond.

A diverse group of eight smiling teenagers stand together side by side. They are showing off a colorful painting that includes symbols of their work together, including trees, plants, bees, and a river.
“It was a great experience! It was fun and it’s a great feeling to know you’re helping not only the environment, but the world.” – Dominic, a 2023 Youth Crew member

While Mid Sound’s restoration work along the Lower Green River is ongoing, the Youth Crew’s summer efforts contributed to the immediate improvement of the area’s natural habitat, a key step toward an abundant future for all South King County residents, finned or footed. Learn more about Mid Sound’s Youth Crew and watch a video detailing the experiences of their 2023 cohort.

Getting Schooled at a Salmon Science Summer Camp
Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery (FISH) is a nonprofit that works to protect salmon and ensure their survival for future generations through education, advocacy, and outreach. Last year, with support from a $15,000 grant from our Healthy Communities and Parks Fund (HCPF), FISH hosted youth summer camps that introduced participants to the lifecycle and habitat of salmon, as well as challenges that salmon face throughout their lifelong journey from the river to the ocean and back again.

Over three weeks last summer, 44 campers aged 3 to 11 took field trips, learned to perform water analysis, and participated in local clean-up and restoration projects, in what was surely a watershed moment in their young lives.

10 children sit and stand on a rocky riverbank with two summer camp teachers.
Summer camp students explore different areas around the hatchery to learn about salmon lifecycles and habitat

Parks’ funding also supported other equity-focused work at the hatchery, including audio tours in four different languages, internships for FISH’s tour guide program, and subsidized school field trips for underserved students. With a fish ladder, baby salmon aquarium, native plant garden, and viewing bridge and windows, the hatchery provides a unique opportunity for fish fans of all ages to connect to the local watershed and engage with the natural world.

A woman turns the wheel on a large interactive display that demonstrates how salmon swim upstream to spawn.
One of 37 interactive exhibits at the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery that teach visitors about salmon and the roles they play as part of a healthy natural environment

FISH’s ongoing work ensures that visitors leave with a deeper understanding of their impact on the environment and ideas about how to make positive changes to help future generations of alevin, fry, parr, smolt, and adult salmon. Click here to learn more about FISH’s 2024 summer camps, including scholarship information.

Tackling Big Problems for Small Fry

Nonprofits aren’t the only ones prioritizing salmon recovery, environmental stewardship, and habitat restoration. A recent success story in salmon recovery comes from Seattle Public Utilities, which received $1,000,000 from our Open Space-River Corridors grant program to restore a 19-acre area of natural floodplain along the Cedar River’s Royal Arch Reach. The primary goal of this project was to address the most critical known problem for the river’s Chinook salmon: baby salmon (called fry) don’t have enough calm, protected places off of the main river channel to escape high-flow winter flood waters or to feed and grow during the summer.

To create more safe harbors for the salmon, SPU created and reconnected a network of more than 4,200 linear feet of side channels and three acres of new connected wetland. Their work also included placing more than 600 pieces of wood and completing upland and lowland restoration planting- all critical components to healthy aquatic habitats. Incredibly, less than one week after crews connected the new side channels to the Cedar River, salmon were already spawning in the new spaces created for them!

Two bright pink salmon swim side-by-side in shallow water
“The most exciting part of this project, in my interpretation, is that we were able to design and construct new stream channels with enough detailed habitat morphology—aka shape, water flow, complexity of depth, gravel bed, and interaction with installed wood—that they were highly ‘natural’ upon construction and didn’t require natural process to make useable aquatic habitats—they were ready to go!” -Brent Lackey, Senior Environmental Planner at SPU

Salmon aren’t the only beneficiaries of this impressive project. Properly functioning floodplain areas provide benefit for people, too, by relieving the pressures of flooding and helping remove turbidity and pollutants from rivers. For fish and other wildlife, active floodplains provide critical aquatic, riparian, and upland habitats and especially support the complex interfaces between these different areas. The outcome is an array of healthy, functional natural spaces whose very existence alleviates some of our region’s most pressing environmental concerns.

A bird’s eye view of the project at Upper Royal Arch, showing mature trees, side channels, plantings, and installed wood that will make this area safer for salmon
“Resources for continuing to restore river habitats in the urbanizing regions of the Puget Sound are limited and critically important. Having Chinook salmon in our rivers is an iconic part of the cultural identity of our parks and open spaces.” – Brent Lackey

We look forward to ever more juvenile salmon being successfully reared in these newly created habitats. Learn more about SPU’s restoration work along the Cedar River.

King County Parks is honored to invest in our shared future by supporting projects like these and so many others through our Parks grant programs. Funding for the Parks grant programs comes from the voter-approved 2020-2025 King County Parks Levy. Thank you for your support!