Camp Keystone Registration is Open!

We are so excited to announce that registration is now open for our 5th year of Camp Keystone, a licensed, outdoor nature-based program where campers ages 3-6 can learn all about salmon, a keystone species in our region. There will be 9 weeks of camp to choose from, starting on June 23rd and ending on August 22nd with both full and half-day options available. We can’t wait for the campus to be filled with laughter and excitement once again!

This summer, we’ve got something special in store – this will be our first year implementing emergent learning in our curriculum. Instead of having activities centered around predetermined themes each week, the curriculum will change every day based on each group's unique interests which they will discover through outdoor play. Whether it’s flipping over logs, searching for frogs, cooking up new concoctions in the mud kitchen, or something else entirely, themes naturally emerge in play. Our wonderful camp educators will tailor each day’s curriculum to allow the campers to explore these themes on a deeper level. This approach to curriculum is dynamic, engaging and endlessly fun!

Of course, camp will still feature many of our old favorite activities. Each day will start with a salmon circle, which includes salmon songs, salmon yoga and a land acknowledgement to honor our Indigenous neighbors who have stewarded this land since time immemorial. Campers will learn the different stages of the salmon life cycle through movement, games and songs. They will also learn to name all five species of Pacific Salmon using their hand. Each week, campers will build important social and life skills and foster an appreciation and connection with the natural world.  

Field trips will also be a regular weekly feature of camp. Half-day campers will spend one day at a property located along Tenmile Creek with and full-day campers will travel to Larrabee state park, Birch Bay State Park and Fairhaven Park.

Camps fill up quickly, so register early to make sure your child gets a chance to spend an exciting summer with NSEA! As a licensed program, we offer subsidies to make camp more accessible to families in Whatcom County. If you’d like your child to attend camp with a sibling, we offer a 10% discount for the second camper enrolled.

To register, visit the Camp Keystone page on our website at https://www.n-sea.org/camp-keystone. If you have any questions about Camp Keystone, please contact Nathan Zabel at nzabel@n-sea.org.

We hope to see you there!

Students Fully Immersed in Salmon Education

By Nathan Zabel, Education Programs Manager

This school year, NSEA’s Students for Salmon (SFS) education program expanded programming to include salmon rearing aquariums and professional development workshops for teachers on our newly revised teacher-led curriculum.

SFS is offered at no cost to the school districts for all 4th grade students throughout Whatcom County. Students learn about Pacific salmon, their habitat needs, and transform into “stream scientists,” studying a local waterway before participating in a stewardship project to leave that waterway in better condition for salmon.

This school year, 1,902 students from 81 classrooms participated in SFS. Collectively, they studied 16 local creeks and worked hard to improve the riparian zones of those creeks, planting 34 native trees and shrubs and removing 4,900 pounds of invasive vegetation.

Thanks to funding from National Oceanic Atmospheric Association - Bay Watershed Education and Training, NSEA hosted full day workshops for 62 teachers on the recently updated curriculum. The six curriculum units build upon each other creating a learning cycle facilitated by teachers in the classroom to extend the learning and bring the program full circle, leaving their students with a deeper knowledge of salmon, the threats they face in our region, and actions they can take to help salmon in their local watersheds.

Additionally, thanks to funding from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), students from 17 schools got to raise salmon from eggs to fry, before releasing them into their creek of study, connecting what they learned in the classroom and in the field with the importance of environmental stewardship to support salmon recovery.

The value of the SFS program is a combination of NSEA-led programming and a teacher facilitated in-class curriculum, while raising salmon in their classrooms. Students were fully immersed in salmon and watershed science education, providing a continuum from awareness to action, with the ultimate goal of environmental stewardship.  One teacher recently summarized the impact of the SFS program. “It taught my students a new respect for our salmon in the Pacific Northwest. The SFS Curriculum is very engaging and teacher friendly. The students love being scientists, the restoration project helps the students feel like they have contributed something wonderful to their community and the future salmon.”