Sound Water Stewards Of Island County

I am so grateful to be a part of Sound Water Stewards. It has educated me, helped form community and trained me for working in environmental educational programs for the public, citizen science and more. Because of this nonprofit, I am involved with programs that educate and give back to the community.

This is an exceptional organization and program that has had a significant impact on my life. I've always been interested in the natural world, particularly the marine environment; Sound Water Stewards has taken that interest to a whole new level. Most importantly, it has made me much more aware of the connectedness of everything in the natural world, including humans.

Through its annual Volunteer Education & Training, Stewards are exposed to myriad facets of our local marine and forest environment -- flora, fauna, geology, marine science, oceanography, Native culture and stewardship, climate. Topics -- presented through both classroom speakers and multiple field trips -- include bluff erosion, wind, waves and tides, seaweed, shellfish, forage fish, marine mammals, plastic and other pollution, and much more.

Stewards then take this knowledge to the community, through community science projects and many public education programs.

I moved to Whidbey Island five years ago, and many of the close friends I've made in that time are through Sound Water Stewards. It builds community as well as offering public education and stewardship.

Sound Water Stewards (SWS) provides excellent training classes and educational resources for adults wanting to better understand their natural environment on Whidbey and Camano Islands. The organization partners with other organizations like the State Parks and State Dept of Fish and Wildlife to provide opportunities for their members to volunteer for environmental education, citizen science, and stewardship projects. I retired from a career in the environmental field a few years ago, and even with a that background I learned so much from the expert lecturers assembled for the SWS training. I love that I can continue to contribute through citizen science volunteer projects such as collecting samples of forage fish eggs, observing pigeon guillemot nesting behavior, preparing mussels for Dept of Fish and Wildlife to use to study toxins in the Salish Sea, to name a few projects I’ve learned about through SWS. All of the SWS members are making a difference in their communities by spreading what they know and volunteering their time.

I first joined Sound Water Stewards to learn more about marine science and the area in which we live. I was curious about actions we could take as a family to help protect our coastal environment. I have learned all this and more. As a SWS member, I see firsthand how valuable this group is to families in the Stanwood-Camano Whidbey Island areas. Between educational events for people of all ages, guided beach tours plus the thousands of volunteer hours for community science each year, this nonprofit makes a difference.

Such a remarkable organization, dedicated to education, community science and stewardship. Sound Water Stewards education programs have helped me to understand my local near shore environment and given me tools to do my part in protecting the Salish Sea. Their reputation for factual, scince based work enables them to access top researchers who present complicated information in a way ordinary folks can understand. In addition, they offer members and the public ways to become engaged on any level. From collecting monofilament fishing line, helping to monitor toxins in the water and educating the next generation on stewarding this precious envirnoment.

I joined SWS in 2024. It has been an extraordinary educational introduction to the MANY environments of the Puget Sound. Classes and projects, that directly impact our knowledge, and stewardship of the fragile, yet resilient Puget Sound. This non-profit organization’s work, and it’s recruitment of “citizen scientists “, whom SWS educates, contributes to the continued efforts to protect the remaining areas of Puget Sound

As a liberal arts person through and through, but as someone who has a deep affinity for the natural world, I have found my calling and my people in Sound Water Stewards. The 15 week education and training course was a vertical learning curve for me. However, the deep dive into the natural sciences was more than rewarding, and it prepared me for volunteering in a plethora of community science and educational projects over the past six years. To a one, every Steward I've met along the way feels the same passion and desire to sustain our environment that I do. They also give countless hours of their time, energy and knowledge to gather data for scientific projects, to steward our island shorelines, and to educate others. In all, these Stewards are the most interesting, self-less, engaged, and generous group I've encountered. Last, when I share my sense of awe during a forest or beach walk discovery, they understand. I don't need to qualify my experience, and that's just pure joy. These Sound Water Stewards are ever so worth supporting!

I am a recent (Class of 2024) graduate of the Sound Water Stewards Volunteer Education & Training program. The program itself is top-notch, covering a variety of topics from bluff erosion to intertidal life to sea mammals to human impacts on the marine environment. The training was intense, but I came out of it with an even greater appreciation for the Puget Sound and greater motivation to help with research and education to ensure the continued health of the environment. None of this could happen without community support, a strong set of volunteers and subject matter experts who are passionate about their areas of expertise. The organization has a strong positive reputation in Island County, and I am proud to continue to support their mission through ongoing research and monitoring opportunities, as well as annual events like Sound Waters University, which is a community-wide education event held every winter.

I am a Ph.D. (Brown U, 1974) geologist and climate scientist that moved here 5 1/2 years ago. Sound Water Stewards, a non-profit established 1/1/2016, has an amazing 13 week professional training program modeled after the Master Gardener program. It's a worthy organization educating interested and concerned citizens who then volunteer in stewardship roles, educators or 14 community scientist projects in support of federal, state, county, Universities and municipal entities. It's worthy of your financial support. To see the work we do go to https://soundwaterstewards.org/our-work/