Sammy Awards recognize nine county environmental stewards

Clark County's ninth annual Sammy Awards honored nine organizations or individuals who have extended themselves to conserve imperiled salmon.

The event, held Thursday at Vancouver's Water Resources Education Center, annually recognizes people who restore stream habitat not because of government-imposed mandates but because they choose to make a difference.

"History would say we haven't been particularly good stewards when it comes to salmon," Sammy Award recipient Harry Barber said Thursday afternoon.

This year's recipients stand out as exceptions:

-- George Nosko. The Salmon Creek cattle rancher contacted the Clark Conservation District in 2006 to help contain erosion on stream banks. After voluntarily enrolling in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, he went well beyond the minimum buffer requirement of 35 feet. He installed a 140-foot buffer planted with native shrubs, with an off-channel watering system to keep his beef cattle away from the creek.

-- Jac Arnal. As a Watershed Steward volunteer, Arnal cleared a half-acre of invasive Himalayan blackberries from a site along Tenney Creek. He worked with other volunteers to replant the area with native trees and shrubs. He's spread his enthusiasm for stream restoration to other local groups, including the Northeast Hazel Dell Neighborhood Association and Friends of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge.

-- Kirk Fitzer. The Hazel Dell Elementary School teacher, an avid fisherman and former Alaska fishing guide, spearheaded an extensive "Salmon in the Classroom" project, including hands-on learning and an aquarium so students could witness salmon transforming from egg to smolt. Fitzer, who caught his first steelhead as a 12-year-old fishing in Salmon Creek, said he hoped to instill a lifelong appreciation of salmon in his students. "What I want to build for children is a memory," he said.

-- Harry Barber. After retiring as a paper industry executive in 1999, the lifelong fisherman jumped into a new role as an advocate for salmon, steelhead and sturgeon. While serving as president of the Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group from 2003 to 2008, he guided the organization from one staff member to five with an annual budget between $1 million and $2 million. He serves on many salmon advocacy groups and was appointed by Gov. Chris Gregoire in 2007 to the state Salmon Recovery Funding Board.

-- Georgia-Pacific Corp., Concrete Products Inc., BNSF Railway and the city of Camas. The four project sponsors worked with the Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group since 2005 to transform much of the lower Washougal River into functional fish habitat. The project includes 12 major structures, re-contouring the sides and planting vegetation in a former gravel mine and planting more than 50,000 native trees, shrubs and willow cuttings along the river's banks.

-- Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership. The Portland-based organization received a certificate of merit for involving more than 5,000 people through student service learning projects and weekend volunteer tree-planting initiatives. The work has restored critical riparian habitat at the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge and Lacamas Creek.