Eliza Buck joins our staff

Eliza Buck joins our staff as part-time Agricultural Resources Co-ordinator. She'll be working with Ron Zee, our district manager, to support the activities of the Agricultural Resources Committee. You can contact her at the regular office number - (360) 378-6621. Eliza and husband Dan both farm on a small scale on their San Juan Island property.

Natural Resource Planner and Educator help establish Raingarden at the Friday Harbor High School.

Peter Alexander - math geek and former Waldron teacher - is helping Friday Harbor High School kids improve their math scores. The high school has formed a class for students identified as needing extra help with their math, and is taking an innovative approach to helping them. The students get to choose to work on a project that ties applications of math to practical examples in the 'real world'.

Rachel Dietzman - a well known San Juan Island civil engineer - and mom to a high school student - came up with the idea of creating a rain garden on school property to absorb and filter rainwater from the roof. She then turned to the Conservation District for help, and enlisted Steve Hussey to help with the design issues, and Danna Kinsey to help with plant selection. Danna has her masters degree in Landscape Architecture, and grew up on Lopez and Orcas Island.

Last Tuesday Peter, Rachel, Steve and Danna gave presentations to the class, to help them decide which project to choose. Over the next few weeks the students will be involved in calculating roof areas, rainfall, volumes and using that information to design a rain garden. Later they will dig the rain garden, amend the soil, and plant plants that are either salvaged from the school grounds or purchased from the District plant sale.