Featured Stories
Collaboration is at the Heart of Floodplains
Collaboration is at the heart of floodplainsBy Heather ColeThe moment was clear, March 5th, 2020, during our regular Culture and Capacity (C&C) Action Group meeting. Part of that meeting was to plan the Floodplains by Design in-person spring gathering. At that...
Leadership Update
Leadership Update By Bob Carey Dear Floodplains by Design Partners, We want to celebrate with you the achievement of a significant milestone in the Floodplains by Design (FbD) program. As of February 2021, Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF), under the direction...
A Tale of Three Meetings
Photo: Keith LazelleThis spring, the Floodplains by Design Culture & Capacity group hosted five Virtual Coffee sessions on Zoom that focused how to shift in person meetings to an on-line platform. Three of these Virtual Coffees centered around specific members of...
Leque Island
Photo: Courtney Baxter/TNCLeque Island was once entirely salt marsh.But if you were to visit the island today, located west of Stanwood between Port Susan and Skagit bays, you would see vast wetlands and previously farmed fields that are no longer surrounded by...
Agriculture Resilience
Photo: Paul Joseph Brown/LighthawkOn a damp December evening, we watched the sunset and the mist rise from the fields surrounding Carlton Farms, on the outskirts of Everett, as we walked the path to the main barn, where the Snohomish Conservation District (SCD) was...
Stillaguamish
As a local farmer and small business owner, Tristan Klesick's livelihood is tied to the rich "resource lands" of Snohomish County - the farms, forests, natural habitat, open space, and parks that make this a beautiful place to live and work. He is not alone. For the...
Yakima
For Yakima - a city in the middle of a semi-arid desert - the Yakima River truly is a lifeline. The river underpins the local economy, providing the urban water supply, irrigation for the farmers, and importantly, recreational opportunities for thousands of people...
Puyallup
A hundred years ago, city planners and engineers tried to improve a place – making the lands more orderly and useful for new residents – by straightening a meandering river. It was an incredible engineering feat for its time. The river was dredged and its channel...
Additional Stories
Re-imagining and Re-designing Our Floodplains
By Heather Cole, TNC Community Relations Manager Taking on the challenge of how we re-imagine and re-design our rivers and floodplain systems is no easy task. But in just six years, Floodplains by Design (FbD) has taken on this challenge and changed a siloed approach...
A Story About Storytelling
By Jordan Jobe, WSU Puyallup In the Spring of 2018, myself - Jordan Jobe (WSU Puyallup), Kristin Williamson (South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group) and Harold Smelt (Pierce County Surface Water Management) participated in a Floodplains by Design (FbD)...
Accelerating our Learning through FbD
By Heather Cole, Community Relations Manager Integrated floodplain management takes patience, persistence and challenges our current paradigm to floodplain management. Floodplain Leaders- local practitioners that are engaged in doing integrated floodplain management,...
A New Tool For Farmers In A Changing Climate
By Jamie Robertson, Conservation Geographer, and Heather Cole, Puget Sound Community Relations Manager Imagine you’re a third-generation farmer in the Puget Sound. You’ve seen changes around your farm for years — neighboring farms disappear to urban sprawl and...
The Only Constant Is Change: Explore How Rivers Meander Over Time
Words and graphics by Erica Simek Sloniker Many of us live near a river. Overtime, we grow accustomed to observing its flow at various times of the year as well as the path it follows. In many cases, we simply enjoy watching the wildlife or the beautiful glossy hue a...
Stories From The Floodplain
Floodplains Come Alive Through Storytelling By Heather Cole When I think of rivers an idealistic picture comes to mind. An image of water flowing from steep snow-capped mountains, meandering through valleys and forests and then finally emptying into the...
From Dust to Foods: Dramatic Weather and Natural Solutions
by Courtney Baxter, Puget Sound Conservation Coordinator I grew up on the surface of the sun, though most people know it as Phoenix, Arizona. My childhood memories are filled with hot, hot summers; impossible to endure the outdoors for longer than 10 minutes, we often...
Farms as Whole Ecosystems
By Courtney Baxter, Conservation Coordinator I grew up in dirty boots, my Ariats always coated in a thick layer of dust. I never really bothered to clean my boots, because in my mind I knew they were just going to get dirty again anyway. I’ve since moved away from my...
Watch: Stillaguamish Tribe-led Estuary Project Comes to Life
By Jenny Baker, Senior Restoration Manager Restoration of the zis a ba tidal marsh, named for a former Stillaguamish Tribal chief, has been documented in a wonderful new video. Interviews of tribal members, cultural resources experts, tribal staff and consultants all...
Nooksack Levee Project Shows Success of Floodplains by Design
By Jenny Baker, Senior Restoration Manager Thanksgiving Day floods found many people evacuating their homes around Puget Sound and fish searching for quiet places to get away from fast-moving floodwaters. Two of the 29 projects funded by Floodplains by Design provided...