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We are excited to welcome two new members of our team, who will be with us through the next year working on a variety of projects with us.

Katrina Poremba was raised on a hobby farm in Idaho, where part of her daily life included chores around the pasture and backyard pond. At 17, she attended Humboldt State University to study marine biology. As an undergraduate, Katrina went abroad for a year to Australia to continue her studies. She worked at the university’s marine laboratory and wrote her thesis on the unintentional benefits of the introduced species watersipora (bryozoan) to Humboldt

Construction begins June 1 on the second phase of the Steigerwald Reconnection Project. This is the biggest habitat restoration project on the lower Columbia River to date, and will provide unobstructed access for salmon and lamprey to 965 acres of habitat, while also protecting private, city and Port property from flooding. 

Read more about the project at the Camas-Washougal Post Record and on the Refuge 20/20 website.

Cover photo courtesy Ken Pitts.

We are fortunate to have two Summer Recreation Leaders to help lead Big Canoe paddles and support our environmental education programming, brothers Joshua and Jo’Sean Joseph. Some summer programming was delayed due to Covid, so our education team is delighted that these “Summer” Recreation Leaders will be continue working with the group this fall, too.  

Joshua and Jo-Sean spent a lot of their time with us on the water in the Big Canoes.   

“A highlight for me was learning to steer the Big Canoe and seeing people’s reactions to being on the water – many for the first time,” said Joshua

The Estuary Partnership Education Team has been staying at home, like most of you. So we've been thinking up activities to keep you and your "littles" engaged in learning about science and nature in and around your home. Check our At-Home Activities page for ideas, and keep your eye on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for the latest!

Major construction has wrapped for the season for the Steigerwald Reconnection Project. Fall rain and the in-water work window, which protects salmon during the most vulnerable parts of their life cycle (spawning and egg incubation), means most construction has to stop during fall and winter. There is one more season of construction to come next year. We recently released a video recapping the project and the work done so far. 

Crews from our lead contractors Rotschy, Inc. and LKE Corp., both local firms, made a lot of progress on some major construction components through the season. Raising

We owe a thanks to our sister organization, fellow National Estuary Program the Tillamook Estuaries Partnership (TEP), for lending us one of their VetsWork Interns this year. Over the last few months, Chris Sutherland has worked on a variety of projects with us. While he’s still assigned to TEP, unexpected challenges from the pandemic made it hard to reach Tillamook consistently. Since he is local to the Metro area, we have been happy to provide fieldwork opportunities for him.  
 

Chris was born and raised in California where he discovered an early love for the outdoors and developed a “soft

In a normal year, the Estuary Partnership’s Big Canoes hit the water in mid-late March, with a warm up paddle here and there. By mid-May, we typically have 10 paddles under our PFDs, and our staff is ready and dialed in for a summer of providing multiple on-water Big Canoe trips a week for youth and community groups from diverse communities. Trips in our Big Canoes—29-foot, 14-passenger, orange canoes—are typically a summer highlight for many participants as well as our Education Team staff. Hey, who can complain about getting paid to canoe!?

Of course 2020 has been no normal year, and sadly