As Edmonds-Woodway High School opens for the new school year, students will have the opportunity to not only learn in the classroom, but also to conduct hands-on research in environmental science.

Combining hard science with community outreach, members of the high school’s Students Saving Salmon Club venture into Edmonds marsh and creeks to gather information crucial to the restoration of local salmon runs. Despite becoming an official club at Edmonds-Woodway only one year ago, the program is already gathering attention from local organizations, with members presenting the results of their projects to the Edmonds City Council, the Pilchuck Audubon Society and the Water Resource Inventory Area 8 Salmon Recovery Council.

For the club’s founding president, 18-year-old Rondi Nordal, this communication of research results is one of the most important things the club does.

“I think one of the first steps to really making a difference is to make people aware of an issue that’s going on,” Nordal said. “If people don’t know what is happening they don’t really have an opportunity to really do anything about it.”

Edmonds Planning Board member Valerie Stewart started the club after enrolling in the Puget Sound Citizen Action Training School (CATS), which works to engage community members in the recovery of the Puget Sound. In exchange for the free program, participants are expected to volunteer at least 50 hours of their time organizing and executing a service project in one of three strategic initiatives: preventing pollution from stormwater runoff, protecting and restoring habitat, or protecting and recovering shellfish beds.

Stewart turned her attention toward the Edmonds area, with the intention of restoring the habitat of local salmon. Though the Edmonds Marsh is historically an essential habitat for young salmon, natural runs disappeared when developments like Harbor Square closed off the marsh from the Puget Sound. In recent years, the city of Edmonds has been working to create a tidal channel between the Sound and the marsh through the Willow Creek daylighting project, with the hope of encouraging new salmon runs.

When Stewart created the Students Saving Salmon Club as her project, fellow CATS participant and retired fishery biologist Joe Scordino saw an opportunity to coordinate and create the Edmonds Stream Team, which is now the club’s most prominent program.

“When the students formed the Students Saving Salmon Club, they were looking for different types of things to be involved in, and so what I brought to them is this proposal to engage in a monitoring project,” Scordino said.

Scordino, who worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for 32 years, first pitched the idea for Stream Team in the winter of 2014 after discovering Edmonds lacked water quality data in its local streams. Through the program, he hoped to set up a baseline of water quality data in each stream and ultimately determine whether that quality was affecting the existence of salmon runs.

In October 2015, the Stream Team began testing the water quality in Willow Creek, Shell Creek, Shellabarger Creek and areas of the Edmonds Marsh after months of planning and grant writing. Of the four areas being monitored, salmon only currently spawn in Shell Creek, and the Stream Team is working to see if the water quality is any indication of why.

“Our goal is to restore historic salmon runs, and one of the best ways to do that is to first figure out what the best areas are for them right now and to figure out what changes might need to be made or looked into,” Nordal said.

After gathering data on factors like oxygen levels and water temperature, students compare the numbers to Washington state standards and environments where salmon historically thrive to evaluate how suitable the water is for salmon needs.

“One of my intents here is that they’re not just out writing down numbers and reading numbers off gauges, but they’re actually out there to understand what those numbers mean and how they can be applied,” Scordino said. “That’s been the benefit to me, is to see these students actually get engaged, get where they understand field collection procedures, understand quality control, and get out and actually doing real science in the field.”

In addition to the water quality testing, members of the Stream Team were able to take a trip to Shell Creek to see an example of the salmon runs they are working so hard to bring back to the Edmonds Marsh.

“One of the students made the comment ‘This all makes it worth it,’ and when I heard that, I thought, ‘Yeah, it makes it worth it to me, too,’” Scordino said. “I think it provides them a great experience they can carry on into college and into future careers to say ‘Yes, I know how to do field work, and I’ve learned proper techniques.’”

This is certainly the case for Nordal, who will be studying biology with an emphasis in ecology, evolution and organismal biology at Western Washington University this fall after spending her summer as an intern at NOAA working with fishery biologists. She said her involvement in the club has had a huge effect on her future plans, and she’s considering adding a minor in environmental science.

“I think if I hadn’t been part of the club, I wouldn’t have realized that I had such an interest for field work or research,” Nordal said. “I probably wouldn’t know what I wanted to do at this point. I probably would have an idea, but not quite as clear of one.”

Earlier this summer, Nordal made a Stream Team presentation before the WRIA 8 (Water Resources Inventory Area 8) Salmon Recovery Council, composed of elected representatives from 27 cities and two counties (King and Snohomish), citizens, scientists and representatives from environmental interests and state agencies.

According to Edmonds City Councilmember Diane Buckshnis, who serves as Edmonds’ WRIA 8 representative, Nordal “had the audience sitting at attention as she gave the Edmonds Stream Team presentation.” At the end of Nordal’s presentation, the WRIA 8 representative from NOAA offered her an internship, Buckshnis noted, adding that Nordal  “indicated she already an internship with NOAA, causing the room to break out in laughter.”

In addition to continuing the work of the Stream Team, the Students Saving Salmon club is considering compiling a database of salmon occurrence in Edmonds with data from people who live along the creeks, tracking when and where people see fish most often to construct a better picture of when the salmon runs start declining or picking up. They also are interested to see if the amount and location of salmon shifts when the Willow Creek daylight project is complete.

Although many of the club’s active members graduated in 2016, Nordal is hopeful for the next year. In addition to the 15 or so returning members, at least 15 new students have become involved in the Stream Team over the summer. She also plans to return to Edmonds-Woodway to host a club meeting before classes are in session to help select the next officers.

“I know there are a lot of people at school who are passionate about the environment,” she said. “If we continue with the momentum that we have, and that we’ve generated this year, I feel like there’s a lot of potential for the club.”

— By Caitlin Plummer

A senior at USC this fall, Caitlin Plummer is a Meadowdale High School graduate who completed her second internship with My Edmonds News this summer.