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Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery 

Description

The Issaquah hatchery is the most-visited Washington State hatchery with 350,000 visitors a year. The only urban location where visitors get nose-to-nose with salmon that have returned to spawn. The Issaquah hatchery is a unique "outdoor laboratory" to learn up close about salmon and watershed stewardship. Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery (FISH) trained guides provide free tours of the hatchery to visitors; many of them school children from the Puget Sound area and scores of others from around the globe who come to see salmon spawn in Issaquah Creek. Your contributions will be used to further our educational programs for school children and provide interpretative educational displays throughout the hatchery grounds.

Mission Statement
Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery (FISH) advocates retaining and improving the historic Issaquah Salmon Hatchery and to promote watershed stewardship through education.
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Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery
125 Sunset Way 
Issaquah 
WA
98027 
(425) 392-1118 

Jane C Kuechle, MNPL 
Executive Director 

Programs

Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery Programs

Hatchery Tours: Adults, children and families of all ages are welcome at the hatchery. Prearranged tours are provided by volunteer guides to groups of 10 to 60. Each fall FISH provides tours to 10,000 school groups from throughout Puget Sound. On weekends September through mid-November guides are on hand to provide information about salmon, the watershed and hatchery operations to hundreds of visitors who swarm to the hatchery and Issaquah Creek to witness the miracle of migrating salmon coming home.
                         
Those Amazing Salmon School Presentations: for elementary school students preparing to visit the hatchery. The Pacific salmon life cycle, habitat needs, predators, challenges, value of watersheds and hatchery operations. Enviroscape: Using an interactive hands-on model students see how pollution can impact watersheds. Puget Sound Game: Students practice real-life decision making about situations that impact the waters of Puget Sound. Science Fairs: Students and their families learn about the salmon life cycle and observe a real salmon fish dissection.                    

Salmon Science Camp:
Children ages 3 to 11 learn all about the salmon life cycle and watershed stewardship as they conduct a water quality and aquatic insect study of Issaquah Creek, perform experiments, go on a nature hike, make arts and crafts, play games, use microscopes, hear Native American legends, sing songs and more!                                        

Salmon In Schools: Classrooms throughout King County receive fertilized eggs from the Issaquah Hatchery, watch the wonder of their growth in classroom aquariums from the eye stage to fry and release them in the spring into nearby creeks. Each classroom is supported by a FISH environmental educator who helps students learn about the life-cycle of the Salmon and their importance to our economy, ecosystem and lifestyle in the Northwest.

Recent Successes and Current Challenges

During 2012, FISH completed the 19th year of its education programs. In the fall months, when the salmon return to Issaquah Creek to spawn and children head back to school, more than 10,000 persons received educational tours of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery.  75% of those visitors were children, and 94% came between mid-September to mid-November. There were a total of 824 tours, 52 tours during the "off" season. FISH visited students for 218 classes at 78 different schools in 12 school districts and conducted 103 presentations for 5,447 students in the greater King County area. To continue our educational programs for students and the community FISH invites your support so that we can expand our programs for students and refurbish the onsite interpretive signs that allow the public to appreciate the hatchery and its role in our ecosystem.

Evaluation


Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery (FISH) supports the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery with its education programming and education/public outreach. It works toward its mission through education programs conducted both at the hatchery and in school classrooms. The goal of their youth education programs is to cultivate a “sense of wonder” about salmon and to provide expertise for students and teachers in King County who are learning about salmon, their impact on our environment and the importance of the health of Puget Sound in “keeping the salmon coming home.”

Best Practices
FISH has a limited staff, but utilizes volunteers in order to expand its reach and meet the demand for its school and public education programs. They have around 60 active volunteers a year who go through training to assist in providing educational programs and directly help state hatchery staff manage the hatchery itself.

Sustainability
The Issaquah Salmon Hatchery will be 75 years old in 2012. This gives FISH an opportunity to raise community awareness and rally public support around some of its most important programs. FISH recently opened a gift shop at the hatchery as a new revenue stream. Thus far, they have found that they raise as much additional money in gifts as in sales with every day that the gift shop is open.

Collaboration
FISH has an important partnership with the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW). WDFW provides FISH with in-kind office and education space on the hatchery grounds, allows FISH to receive income from the rental of the Watershed Science Center, provides internet access and helps maintain interpretive displays and other equipment.

Grant History with The Seattle Foundation:

Grants Awarded through The Seattle Foundation Grantmaking Program:

DateAmountPurpose
12/15/2005 $5,000.00purchase office and computer equipment and support general operating expenses.

Financials

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