Longtime Edmonds resident, retired fisheries biologist and tireless advocate for preserving the city’s salmon-bearing streams, creeks and wetlands, Joe Scordino has been selected as Edmonds Citizen of the Year by the Edmonds Kiwanis Club.

“We had a number of excellent nominations,” said Kiwanis member Juliana Van Buskirk, who coordinates the annual honor. “This year it came down to someone who through his signature combination of energy, dogged persistence, dedication and unabashed love of our community has become the environmental conscience of Edmonds.”

Van Buskirk also pointed out that while in past years the Citizen of the Year rode in a special vehicle in the Edmonds’ Chamber of Commerce 4th of July parade, this year Scordino will also be parade Grand Marshall.  “We’ve discussed this with the chamber,” Van Buskirk explained, “and we decided to combine the two honors into one.”

Started by the Kiwanis Club in 1994, the Citizen of Year program has honored numerous people and organizations over the years. The inaugural award went to Stan and Valerie Dickison, with other winners including city officials like Dave Earling (1995) and Laura Hall (1996), business owners like Rick Steves (2017), organizations like the Edmonds Floretum Garden Club (2015) and the Edmonds Petanque Club (2016), and Fallen Heroes artist Michael Reagan (2023). Last year’s winner was consummate community volunteer Dr. Rob Scarr.

“When I got the call on Sunday telling me I’d been selected, I was sure they had the wrong number,” Joe laughed. “But the call was real, and it just knocked me over. I am so incredibly humbled and honored.”

Born in Pedara, Sicily, a small town on the south side of Mount Etna, Scordino was a mere 18 months old when his family pulled up roots and headed for California, drawn by the promise of employment and a good life in the agricultural fields near Fresno. He spent his childhood working in the grape fields, eventually attending Fresno State University where he majored in biology with a minor in chemistry. He soon found himself very attracted to fisheries and as part of his education spent a summer at the cooperative Marine Station in Moss Landing.

After graduating in 1973 he landed a job with NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, going out on commercial tuna boats as an observer to record data on catch size, methods and characteristics.

“Sometimes I wouldn’t see land for 90 days or more,” he recalled.

“Government officials weren’t always welcome on these ships out of fear that some of the data collected might be used in enforcement,” he added. “So sometimes I had to walk a fine line.”

He explained how tuna often travel with dolphins, and the idea is to catch the tuna without harming or killing the dolphins – and that takes some skill with setting the purse seine nets.

“Some skippers took the time to do it right,” he added, “but others were more interested in making as much money as fast as they could.”

On shore for a few moments in late 1975, Joe married Nancy, “the love of my life,” on Thanksgiving Day. The couple will celebrate 50 years this coming Thanksgiving.

But after another four years on the tuna boats, Joe and Nancy decided to pack up their two children and move to the Pacific Northwest.

“We found a home in Edmonds in 1979,” Scordino recalls. “But our closing got delayed and we ended up living for two months – with our two kids and a set of twins on the way — in the St. Francis Motel on Highway 99.”

But after moving in, they fell unabashedly in love with the house and the community. They raised their kids here, hiking, biking and spending quality time on the beaches. The children are now grown and have lives of their own, but for Joe and Nancy the house – and Edmonds — remains their home. When talking with him about it, it’s easy to tell that the roots go deep.

Today Scordino is known around town largely through his passionate advocacy for salmon.

As de facto leader of of Students Saving Salmon – now the Edmonds Stream Team – Scordino and his high school students can be seen stocking Shell Creek with baby salmon fry, pulling invasive plants out of waist-deep mud in the Edmonds Marsh to open the channel for fish migration, and preparing salmon eggs and hatch boxes at the Willow Creek Hatchery – all in an effort to restore wild salmon runs to Edmonds’ creeks and streams.

And at 73 years young, Scordino shows no signs of slowing down.

“I believe in leading by example,” Scordino said. “That can mean putting on a chest wader and being the first to slog into waist-deep mud at the marsh. I won’t ask my volunteers to do something I won’t do! The volunteers are so great – they come out in the rain and the mud and the cold, but they keep smiling and keep coming back. They’re truly making a difference.”

Scordino shared a memorable story about taking students to a creek around 2015 to see salmon. When they spotted a large chum salmon, about 2.5 feet long, one of the girls exclaimed, “This all makes it worth it.”

“I was so touched by her excitement at seeing a live fish in an urban creek in Edmonds,” Scordino recalled. “I feel so humbled at being able to provide lifetime memories like this to young people and help drive home the importance of environmental preservation. It just brings a tear to my eye.”

But it’s not all fun and games in the field.

Joe is also a familiar figure at city council and community meetings, where he tirelessly and intelligently advocates for his beloved fish and the environment in general.

“I know some folks get sick of hearing from me,” he added. “But someone needs to stand up and advocate for these things. We’re talking about our home here. The parks, the beaches, the trees – it’s all an extension of our home and our shared community.

“It may cost money in the short term, but we’re talking about priceless stuff here. You can’t put a price tag on it, and once it’s gone, it’s gone. So let’s be environmentally conscious and do the right thing before the opportunity passes. My dream is for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren – indeed future generations – to see wild salmon in our creeks, breathe fresh air, have clean water and hear the wind in the trees.”