PORT TOWNSEND LEADER
FEATURES BEACH WATCHER PROJECT
In November and December, ten county elementary classes (240 students) received a 35-minute lesson called “Reduce Your Use" from Jefferson County Beach Watchers and Jefferson County Public Health. The lesson covered issues including: the dramatic increase in consumption of single-use bottled water bottles and the impacts of the resulting waste, low recycling rates of beverage containers, cost and safety of bottled water compared to tap water and how plastic waste harms animals and the environment. Students participating in a poster contest received a reusable metal water bottle. The Leader's Scott Wilson and Brennan LaBrie selected the final winners who are pictured in the article above which was published on January 6. Beach Watchers and our County Health partners are reaching out to more schools as we speak. Read on for more......
BEACHWATCHER'S LAUNCH MAJOR NEW PROJECT
'Reduce Your Use' is the message
On November 18th, Beach Watchers, in partnership with Jefferson County Public Heath, took to the classrooms at Chimacum Elementary School to share their message on reducing the use of single-use plastic bottles.Using beans, bottles and displays, the Beach Watchers (class of 2009) made their point to about 150 students at Chimacum Elementary. The 45 minute presentation focuses on bottled water and covers the growth in sales of plastic water bottles (from zero in 1950 to 28 billion today), the amount of bottled water an average American uses in a year (10 cases), and the harm plastics are causing to our environment (plastic doesn't go away it just gets smaller and smaller causing harm when ingested by birds, mammals and even sand fleas and diatoms.)
MaryJo Nichols and Andi Neisen presented the lesson with assistance from Jaya Banwell and Deanna Pumplin. In addition to the presenters, many other members of the class of 2009 worked behind the scenes on the project including: Denny Justis, LaVaughn Snel, Kate Dwyer, Meredith Lowry, and Karl Meyer.
This project is a partnership between the WSU Jefferson County Beach Watchers and Jefferson County Public Health. Darcy McNamara, WSU Beach Watcher coordinator and Karen Obermeyer, Health Educator for Jefferson County Public Health, facilitated the partnership. Lori Clark, Environmental Health Specialist for Jefferson County Public Health Department, contributed by providing excellent feedback in developing the curriculum. Funding for the project was provided by grants from Jefferson County Public Works and from Department of Ecology, and from funds raised by the WSU Jefferson County Water Watchers program (Thank you to OPWW!!)
Inspiration for this project came from the research being conducted on marine plastics by the Port Townsend Marine Science Center and on water quality issues by WSU's John Stark and Mahmoud Abdel-Monem. Many thanks to Jen Kingfisher and Judy D'Amore of the Port Townsend Marine Science Center for their feedback throughout the project and to Beach Watchers Linda Smith and Burt Howells who also contributed. Special thanks to Pat Pearson, WSU faculty for her support.
Beach Watchers will be in the 4th grade classrooms in Port Townsend schools in December. All students receiving the presentation are invited to participate in a contest by drawing or writing about single-use plastic bottles. The company EcoUsable has provided 255 metal water bottles at below cost as prizes in the contest.
Congratulations to everyone involved in bringing this important message to the community. In 2010, Beach Watchers hope to expand the project to other grade levels and bring the message to adults too.
WATERSHED DAY - REALLY SCARY!Over 65 people attended the 11th Annual WSU Watershed Day hosted by the Jefferson County Beach Watchers. This year's mini-conference was held on Halloween and was titled: Creepy Chemicals, Invisible Invaders and was focused on the impacts of pesticides in stormwater. Dr. John Stark, Director of Washington State University’s Puyallup Research Center and WSU's Salmon toxicology research laboratory was the keynote speaker. He discussed pesticides in the water and the potential impacts on aquatic life. To view his website click here (very large: 11.7MB).
Other speakers included former WSU Extension Agent Mary Robson who provided a look at alternatives to using pesticides and herbicides in the home garden. Brittany Kimball, coordinator of Sound Citizen.org discussed the results of water quality research being done by citizen scientists in Puget Sound. There was also an update from Samantha Trone, Development Review Engineer for the City of Port Townsend, on the Low Impact Development projects now underway in the city. There was also a surprise visit from Super Beach Watcher!
Many thanks to volunteers Diana Hughes, Linda Smith, Mary Jo Nicols and Deanna Pumplin for their help in hosting Watershed Day. Extra special thanks to Sally Chapin for the wonderful poster and to Pat Pearson for her assistance.
John Stark, Brittany Kimball & Allison Meyer-Pigg
Gabe & Robin Ornelas
Crew of the Adventuress at Watershed Day
MICROPLASTIC MONITORING (& Orca Whales)
Beach Watchers once again conducted microplastic monitoring at Fort Flagler for the Port Townsend Marine Science Center. This year we were joined by high school students from Jefferson Community School and other volunteers and upon the advice of project leader Jen Kingfisher of PTMSC, we moved our monitoring higher up on the beach.
Beach Watchers Denny Justis, Deanna Pumplin, Andi Niesen mentored new WSU volunteers Patt Roche, Gillian Brightwater and Phil Smith along with students from the Jefferson Community School including Evan O'Brien, Dan Stranahan and Dylan Nichol.
The students were joined by JCS volunteer Ray Grier and Head of School, Linda McGuire. After the material was collected, it was sorted by students at JCS. Sorting the material is a critical part of the monitoring protocol and the students really got an opportunity to see what is happening on our beaches.
It appears that our samples once again were dominated by tiny, tiny bits of styrofoam. We will eagerly await the official results from the PTMSC but it appears that by moving up higher on the beach we are seeing significantly more pieces of foam. Oh -- and it was a beautiful day and we saw ORCA's!!