Donated Time
by Ethan Brown
Where blackberry vines once choked off all other plant life, newly planted Indian plum, twinberry and willow plants are beginning to take root. Mangled trunks of saplings, freed of the oppressive vines, see sunlight for the first time. On this small piece of land sandwiched between Squalicum Creek and Squalicum Parkway in Bellingham a change is taking place. As the dripping, gray skies begin to clear, volunteers oblivious to the pervading dampness arrive to continue the transformation.
Whatcom County enjoys a higher rate of volunteerism than the rest of the United States, according to the Whatcom Coalition for Healthy Communities. The 2000 U.S. Census Bureau survey found that 44 percent of adults volunteer in the United States. In an increasingly busy society, 64 percent of Whatcom County residents take the time to volunteer.
Jeremy Brown, a local commercial fisherman, volunteer and fish advocate, is part of this volunteer effort.
“There is a hell of a lot to do,” Brown said.
Brown is a volunteer with the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring salmon runs in Whatcom County through habitat restoration, education and community participation.
Squalicum Creek, one of the highest salmon producing streams in Bellingham, is a NSEA project.
“NSEA is a win-win situation,” said Tina Mirabile, a member of NSEA’s volunteer board of directors. “NSEA gives the little man a chance to do the right thing.”
NSEA is one of the more than 1,200 Whatcom County nonprofit organizations that are flourishing because of the work of its volunteers. Cathy Lehman is program director for the Whatcom Volunteer Center, an organization that coordinates volunteers for more than 350 organizations. She said there is no shortage of dedicated volunteers in the Whatcom community.
“People feel attached to the community,” Lehman said. “We have volunteers anywhere from 6 years to 96 years old.”
While volunteerism is strong in Whatcom County, Brown is worried about what he sees as negative attitudes elsewhere in Washington state toward community volunteer programs and their support and funding — citing recent anti-tax initiatives.
“They say, ‘screw that, someone else can pay for that,’” Brown said.
Brown is comforted, however, by actions of the residents he sees around him.
“This community has said, ‘hey no, we want to live a little differently,’” Brown said.
Lehman said she and her colleagues at the Whatcom Volunteer Center have tried to figure out why Whatcom County has so many dedicated volunteers.
Mirabile said the strong volunteer numbers are not only because of the community, but also because of the Whatcom Volunteer Center. She said that the center provides a way for volunteers to be placed with organizations that need their skills and expertise without having to find the organizations themselves.
Instead of searching for volunteers, Brad Lystra, volunteer coordinator for NSEA, said he must turn away requests for independent service-learning projects, due to the high demand from teachers hoping to pass on the importance of NSEA’s work to their students.
Saturday community work parties, Lystra said, have had record numbers this year. He said approximately 1,000 people have attended Saturday work parties since the fall. On average, 40 to 50 people attend work parties.
Volunteers vary from Boy Scouts and retirees to parents introducing their children to the work that needs to be done in the community.
“We do have a great sense of community,” Brown said about Bellingham and Whatcom County.
Brown said people who volunteer for groups such as NSEA are more likely to get involved with other causes.
Before coming to Bellingham, Mirabile worked at various hostels on the East and West coasts. She decided to settle in Bellingham after seeing the community support for the hostel on Padden Creek where she worked until it closed its doors five years ago.
“I felt a lot of support from the community,” Mirabile said. “They had an interest in sharing with the travelers.”
Mirabile became involved with NSEA through her connection to Padden Creek, where NSEA was working at the time.
Currently, Mirabile runs her own wetlands and wildlife consultation company.
Between NSEA, where she spends one to four hours a week, and her own company, Mirabile finds time to volunteer for the Bellingham Parks and Recreation’s Greenways Volunteer Program, a program that focuses on maintaining Bellingham’s trail systems and restoring wildlife habitat. She also helps the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance, an organization working to protect and restore the Pacific Northwest’s wildlands.
“I understand the value of volunteering,” Mirabile said. “I am already in over my head, so I don’t sleep.”
Not everyone has the time to volunteer to the extent that Brown and Mirabile do.
“It takes so much time,” said Jim Swinburnson, owner of Swinburnson Enterprises, a local drywall contracting company. “Everybody gets so busy.”
Ten years ago, Swinburnson volunteered extensively during the creation of the Lynden Pioneer Museum.
“My business was suffering so I had to stop,” he said.
Currently, Swinburnson said he works 60 to 70 hours a week, leaving no time for volunteering. He hopes to be able to return to volunteering in the near future however.
In order to spend three to four hours a week volunteering for NSEA, Brown must juggle saving fish and catching fish. As a commercial fisherman, he is not tied to a desk job and he doesn’t answer to a boss, but he must be ready to go out when the fish are there.
“You gotta do what you gotta do,” Brown said. “If the fish are there, you gotta go.”
Brown quit fishing for salmon eight years ago, shortly after the formation of NSEA. Brown said he had his best season in 1994 and felt it was time for a change.
“It was little too much to be helping salmon half the year and killing salmon the other half,” he said.
Now Brown said he trolls for albacore tuna and long lines for halibut and black cod.
“There isn’t a clear demarcation between caring about fish and catching fish,” Brown said. “I like the kind of things salmon like; clean water and healthy ecosystems and such.”
As the rest of Bellingham begins to awaken, Lystra excitedly shows the volunteers the Squalicum Creek site, his pet project. He takes them first to the area already freed of blackberries and planted with various native trees. Volunteers finger their work gloves as they watch and listen to Lystra describe the day’s tasks, consisting of digging up any remnants of the blackberry patch, clearing the same area and planting more Indian plum, twinberry, ninebark, crab apple and willow.
Pausing on the creek bank, Lystra spends a moment describing what the stream looks like after the first big rain in the fall, filled with spawning salmon. As he advises everyone to return to witness this yearly phenomenon, it is evident why Lystra, Brown, Mirabile and the volunteers present choose to volunteer with NSEA.
“The salmon is a proud symbol of this part of the world,” Brown said. “If we can sustain salmon, we’re sustaining what the area is.”
