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Chumstick Wildfire Stewardship Coalition

by Nancy Neyenhouse, Community Grants Committee Chair

What images come to mind when Leavenworth, WA is mentioned? Bavarian village? Christmas lights? Wine tasting? After my extremely informative visit with Chumstick Wildfire Stewardship Coalition Director, Annie Schmidt, I will always conjure up images of bushwhacking up a hillside in the Chumstick watershed and learning the ins and outs of stand examination and forest fuels reduction! In 2009, the Mountaineers

Director Annie Schmidt, Nancy Neyenhouse, Volunteer Steve Raymond

Foundation funded the Coalition which included the purchase of several pieces of equipment to support their work in developing protocols for monitoring of roads and tree stands in the Chumstick. And that’s where my field trip began.
It was a mere 97 degrees as I met Director Annie Schmidt in the parking lot of the fire station on the outskirts of Leavenworth. I had in tow my daughter, Jill, and friend, Jan. We all piled into Annie’s 4-wheel drive vehicle and headed up the road, into the hills. The 4-wheel drive was a good thing because we kept going up, up, and up. Finally, when the paved road ran out and the dirt road began, we stopped and met up with uber-volunteer, Steve Raymond. Steve drives a wood/gas hybrid jeep (that’s a whole new story!) and appropriately, is also the chair of the Coalition’s Woody Biomass Utilization Committee. And we still continued UP the road!

As we drove, Annie stopped the car and pointed out different stands and what makes one stand of trees

Various tools purchased through Mountaineers Foundation grant

more fire resistant than another, such as the absence of very low branches on larger trees and an abundance of smaller trees (termed ‘fire ladders’). She discussed the Coalition’s work in the particular area we were visiting, which is to collect data in various plots within the project area and feed that information to the forest service to be incorporated into their forest management data base.
We stopped near a steep hillside, rubbed lavender oil, which we were told is a natural insect repellant, all over ourselves and headed up through the brush. Plots have been determined throughout the project area and we were to collect data on this particular one. Through Foundation support, the Coalition was able to purchase necessary data-collection equipment and those items were put to good us this day. Did you know that with a diameter tape one can measure the circumference of a tree and the diameter is automatically calculated? The snazzy GPS the Foundation purchased allowed pin point accuracy in finding the plot, and, more importantly, the car when we were finished! I proudly, and with great effort, used the increment bore to determine one of the plot trees to be a very healthy, 46-years old. Jill tramped 75 feel up slope, and using another instrument, determined my tree to be 78 feet tall. As this data, plus more, is collected throughout the project area, the forest service is able to calculate stand type and health, which trees to take down and which to leave.

The Coalition has begun a new program, Private Land Cost-Share which brings private landowners together with fire professionals to develop a plan for conducting fuels reduction activities on their land. Land owners submit an application that is reviewed and ranked by Coalition partners. Ranking includes strategic location in the watershed, fire equipment access, water availability, and more. Once an application is approved,

Counting rings in bore sampling to determine age of tree

landowners can be reimbursed at up to 75% of the cost of the fuels reduction work. It’s a win-win for everyone.

The Chumstick Wildfire Stewardship Coalition is a collaborative partnership involving many organizations, including local landowners and residents, local fire district members, industry representatives, County Commissioners, as well as the United States Forest Service, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, The Wilderness Society, Conservation Northwest. Their mission is to protect lives, property and infrastructure in the Chumstick watershed from wildfire. The Coalition works closely with public entities, to ensure that complementary fuels reduction work occurs on private and public lands in the area. For more information, please visit their website at ChumstickCoalition.org.

Weaverling Spit Ivy Eradication

by Nancy Neyenhouse, Community Grants Committee Chair

I left Seattle as a few clouds covered our almost forgotten blue sky. Once I hit the convergent zone around Everett, it was rain the rest of the way to Anacortes.

Area of Weaverling Spit before English ivy removal

That’s where I met up with Natural Resource Technicians Jennifer Weeks and Todd Woodard, and the Samish Indian Nation’s Natural Resources Director, Christine Woodward. Through grant requests from the Samish Indian Nation, the Mountaineers Foundation has funded two consecutive years of an English ivy removal project on the Weaverling Spit in Fidalgo Bay. This six acre patch of land jutting into the bay was returned to the Samish Indian Nation in the mid 1990s after it had served for decades as a summer cabin venue and even had its own dance hall.

After English ivy removal

As chair of the Community Grants Committee I was intrigued by the 2008 grant request as the project directors designed the removal to be done using labor from the Whatcom Alternative Corrections center. After spending three hours with Jennifer, Todd, and Christine, I learned that the Weaverling Spit Restoration project is one of many projects the Samish Indian Nation is involved with throughout the Fidalgo Bay/Anacortes area.But, back to the ivy…

The Mountaineers Foundation’s 2008 and 2009 grants were awarded to support the removal of ivy from the Weaverling Spit, the only remaining unarmored shoreline left in Fidalgo Bay and an important cultural site for the Samish Indian Nation. When the project began, ivy fully covered two acres of the six acre spit with a thick mat, choking out native understory plants and climbing up and threatening 200-year old Douglas Firs. Small cabins built over the years were totally engulfed by the ivy. A hard working corrections crew removed a whopping 27 tons of ivy over 12 work days during those two years.

Foxglove returning to the understory

Native plants such as foxglove, miner’s lettuce, ocean spray are making their way back to the spit; eagles, otters (a pair lives under one of the old buildings still left partially standing), and a coyote are part of the new landscape.There are still pockets of heavy ivy infestation that will need to be dealt with. The ivy pull had to be halted as a large midden was found and disturbance of the soil covering the midden will need the Nation’s approval. Ivy re-growth will also need to be attended to over the next few years but this is a project that the Foundation can be extremely proud to have funded.

Please visit the Natural Resources tab at samishtribe.nsn.us for more information about this and other successful projects both in progress and completed by the Samish Indian Nation.

Bruni Applications Now Being Accepted

The Mountaineers Foundation has received an extraordinarily generous bequest of $1,400,000 from Brunhilde Marie

Victorine Wislicenus. A application process has been established in support of awards from this fund.

The online grant application and guidelines are now available.

100 acres of protected land added to Rhododendron Preserve

The Mountaineers Foundation is pleased to announce the acceptance of a gift of a conservation easement from Ueland Tree Farm, LLC protecting approximately 100 acres of critical watershed near Chico and Lost Creeks in perpetuity. The conservation areas are in the northern portion of the Ueland Tree Farm property in central Kitsap County and borders the Mountaineers Foundation Rhododendron Preserve. The easements include critical portions of the Lost Creek and Chico Creek watersheds. This generous gift ensures that riparian zones adjacent to these watercourses in the Rhododendron Preserve, near the Mountaineers Forest Theater, are preserved in perpetuity and is another step toward ensuring the long term health of these important salmon-bearing stream systems. The agreement also includes an option for the Foundation to purchase 68 acres of Ueland’s property as an addition to the Preserve.

“We first approached Craig Ueland about purchasing this acreage when Ueland Tree Farm acquired the property as part of its larger purchase of over 1,700 acres in 2004,” says James Gordon, President of the Mountaineers Foundation. “The protection afforded these areas demonstrates Ueland Tree Farm’s commitment to environmentally responsible management of their property. We have continually had a positive relationship with Craig Ueland and his associates, and we hope to continue it in the future. I believe there is still more opportunity for mutual benefit as we work with our neighbor in conserving the natural beauty of the Preserve.”

“The Chico Creek basin is a special place, one that deserves to be protected for future generations,” added Craig Ueland, Managing Member of Ueland Tree Farm, LLC. “As a major landowner in the watershed, we take our stewardship responsibilities seriously and are honored to join with the Mountaineers Foundation to preserve this property.”

The fundraising effort to exercise the purchase option for the 68 acres will begin immediately.

The Mountaineers Foundation

How do we use your donation?

We provide financial support for public benefit programs of the Mountaineers Club--such as the Library, Hikes for At Risk Kids, and the Mountaineers Players.

Our Community Grants program is unique in so many ways. It funds groups doing important work that are often 'under the radar' of other donors. In many instances, a grant from the Foundation for a small portion of a program's cost is a 'stamp of approval' that the group can use to successfully raise additional funds from foundations that would not otherwise have considered a grant. See a list of our grants awards here.

The Foundation owns and manages the beautiful 360-acre Rhododendon Preserve in central Kitsap County. This magnificent property is one of the largest parcels of Puget Sound lowland old-growth in existence. The property contributes to sustaining a vibrant Chum salmon population. The property is use for several educational programs to enligten students on salmon life-cycle and habitat.

The Mountaineers Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) organization that is very proud to be affiliated with, but is separate from The Mountaineers Club.

McCall Outdoor Science School

By Nancy Neyenhouse, Chair - Grant Screening Committee

The Mountaineer Foundation has been an ardent supporter of organizations who bring educational projects to our grant-proposal table. The Foundation’s mission to promote the study, protection and enjoyment of natural areas is perfectly suited to this project.

In 2007, the McCall Outdoor Science School asked the Foundation to approve their proposal to partner with mccall2 the McCall-Donnelly High School environmental science class. The ultimate goal was to empower high school students as citizen scientists to affect change in their community. How could we resist.