On a recent walk to Carpenter Lake, the special bog behind Gordon Elementary School, we were pleasantly surprised to see that there was some urban renewal going on. We quickly realized that we were seeing the work of beavers.
One of the things we do when Stillwaters takes people out on short educational ecocruises in Appletree Cove and Puget Sound is look at examples of the seaweed and seagrasses that grow in these waters.
One of the things marine researchers (and those of us that spend time on the beach) have begun to take notice of is the plastic everywhere.
All these bodies of water are connected and researchers and policy makers alike have realized that they influence each other so they all should share the information they collectively have for the system’s benefit
At the time of this writing, we have just had some very wet days.
Recently folks in the north end of Kitsap were asking for itineraries to advertize to promote tourism in our area.
Each one of us is in a watershed every day as we move on the landscape between home, work, shopping and school.
An intrepid group of volunteers monitors the skies, trees and water in and around Kingston. They are the Monday Bird Survey Team.
One of the many things that make a stream, a great stream for fish, is the presence of fish food.
As you may have observed, there are many changes happening in the slough area south of the new bridge on South Kingston Road.
In early July, I had the privilege of using some new equipment Stillwaters has obtained to do some in-water monitoring in the new bridge area.
As we watch the natural forces of water, wind, rain, tumbling rocks and woody debris sculpt our new Carpenter Creek estuary, we are starting to get the first glimpses of how the fish, birds and other aquatic life are using the “new slough.”
We have dollars lying around Kingston! As some of you may know, there is a sand dollar colony on the slough side of the bridge. You should go take a look!
I (and maybe you too) have walked down to the water’s edge on the Apple Tree Cove side of the new bridge structure and have become aware of some amazing things.
While Stillwaters does its best to keep track of the water quality in the Carpenter Creek Watershed and its connection to Apple Tree Cove, there are some others water courses that we know little about: the stormwater ditches, drains and piped waterways streaming under our feet when it rains in Kingston.
With the South Kingston Bridge beginning, much is changing at the Carpenter Creek estuary. Traffic will be slowed at times. The scour holes on either side of the estuary will be modified so the deep holes created by tidewater funneling through the narrow culvert will likely disappear. The way the water moves the soil, sand, and debris from trees and shrubs will change greatly. New flow patterns will emerge and sediment habitats will change.
The folks at Stillwaters regularly “take the pulse” of Carpenter Creek and its estuary by sampling water quality. We have…
As the Stillwaters Stream Monitors ventured out on a raining Sunday ready to take measurements of dissolved oxygen, nutrients, water…
We all have a relationship with stormwater. We route it off our roofs and away from our houses to protect…
For about a month in the early summer, Stillwaters sponsored four three-hour boat cruises to allow participants to see our…
As we discussed several months ago in this column, one important water sample the stream monitors from Stillwaters Environmental Center take every month at our monitoring sites (see map) is to measure fecal coliform bacteria.
When the Stillwaters monitoring teams went out into field in search of information about Carpenter Creek and the estuary Jan….
Part of the Stillwaters’ monthly monitoring program focuses specifically on the marine nearshore and salt marsh areas that are fed…
