At Stillwaters we focus on educating our North Kitsap neighbors about the importance of healthy wetlands, streams, estuaries and nearshore areas in providing water to our aquifers, in promoting salmon recovery, and in maintaining the quality of life Kitsap County residents enjoy.

Our activities fall into three interconnected buckets: restoration, research and education. We use our environmental monitoring of the Carpenter Creek watershed and the Kingston estuary to better understand nature in our own backyards and to create a connection with the land and with the community.

We use the data our volunteers and college interns collect to educate K-12 students and adults alike about our lowlands streams and pocket estuaries.

Things we’d like you to know about…

• Invasive Green Crab monitoring: You can report a green crab sighting at ​​wsg.washington.edu/crabteam/greencrab/report/.

• Non-native frogs: Check out Salish Magazine’s article on non-native green frogs at salishmagazine.org.

• Planning for growth: Every eight years Kitsap County updates the plan that defines how our region will prepare for and direct growth. Members of the Kingston community are meeting regularly to understand the process and work on the update that is due at the end of 2024. While Stillwaters isn’t directly involved in this project, we support community involvement in planning for a future that preserves what we love about Kingston and North Kitsap. You can use this online form to let the Kingston Community Advisory Council work group know how you’d like to stay in touch with that project at forms.gle/jxRH3VJRDDBM8a968.

With community support, Stillwaters can continue to provide Kingston‘s future environmental scientists, voters, business owners, decision-makers, etc. with educational experiences to help them understand and address future environmental challenges in our growing community.

To learn more about Stillwaters, about locally important issues, and to support our mission to help our community protect our local environment and natural resources and maintain our quality of life visit our website at www.stillwatersec.org.

Beth Berglund is a Stillwaters board member.