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Page A-1O Shelton-Mason County Journal Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020
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The Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group
this month celebrates its 30th anniversary ensur-
ing salmon are abundant in local waters.
The nonprofit headquartered in Belfair is one of
the 12 original Regional Fisheries Enhancement
Groups (RFEG) created by the Legislature in 1990.
The RFEGs were created to be partners to help
salmon recovery efforts, supported by local volun-
teers.
Group employees and volunteers monitor and
help restore salmon in the riversheds of Hood Ca-
nal, including the Union, Dewatto, Little Quilcene
and Tahuya rivers. The group nurtures a certified
organic garden and hosts farm animals that include
ducks, goats, llamas, alpacas and chickens. The
group demonstrates that agriculture, salmon and
people can co—exist.
“We used to just raise fish,” said executive direc— ‘
tor Mendy Harlow, who joined the team in 2003
through the AmeriCorps program. “Now we’re doing
$2, $3-million habitat projects.”
The group was first headquartered at the The-
ler Wetlands. In 2007, it moved next door into the
building that now houses Smith Insurance. In 2009,
the group relocated to its present site, the house on
the Johnson family farm. ‘
“We’re showing people how you have a working
farm 100 feet from the water,” Harlow said.
The center has eight full-time employees, and
four members from AmeriCorps. Five members of
the Washington Conservation Corp restore habitat.
The center hosts dozens of educational programs.
In December, the group will install a juvenile ro-
From left, Alexandra Ehrich, the communication manager for Hood Canal
Salmon Enhancement
Group, and South Kitsap High School agricultural teacher Michelle Carter
record an interview in
September with longtime fish count volunteer Lynn Fisher next to the Union
River in Belfair. Volun-
teers and staff counted 1,777 chum salmon at the site between Aug. 15 and
Oct. 15. Journal photo
by Gordon Weeks
The steelhead will enter the Union River in January
and February. .
tary screw trap just upstream in the Union River
“to begin the fourth year of assessing the juvenile
chum out-migration. Those juvenile chum will re- The group seeks volunteer
counters beginning in
veal the numbers of summer and fall chum, their January. To volunteer, call
360-275-3575 or go to
survival rates and the timing of their movements. the website at
www.pnwsalmoncenter.org.
Salmon: Harlow moved to Belfair from Arizona in 2003
continued from page A-1
raised Harlo’w and her two older
brothers, and then worked as a para-
educator at an elementary school. .
The family lived on a “hobby farm,”
where Harlow had a horse, cows,
chickens and ducks. She was a mem-
ber of the 4-H Club. She also skied
on local slopes, and hiked and rock—
climbed rocks with her father.
“He loved being outside and explor-
ing the world around us,” Harlow said.
After attending Lakeview High
School for two years, her father got a
new job in Scottsdale, Arizona, to be
the regional fire training manager for
the federal government. Both brothers
were already in the area, attending
the University ,of Arizona.
As a high school junior, Harlow
transitioned from a “very rural, very
poor” region of Oregon where the
policies on the spotted owl had closed
many of the lumber mills, to an af-
fluent area of Phoenix. She found
salvation playing the trombone in the
marching band at Chaparral High
School. “That was like an automatic
Your full Service Roofer
family,” she said.
Harlow roomed with her brother in
a condo while attending the Univer-
sity of Arizona. She changed her focus
to studying birds, and learned about
birds of prey while volunteering at the
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. She
graduated in 2003 with a Bachelor of
Science degree in wildlife, watershed
and grange land resources.
She came to Belfair in May 2003
for her interview for the job through
AmeriCorps. She had visited the re:
gion before her uncle lived in Ta-
coma. ' l
“I wanted to go more northwest
than the high desert to be, close to
the water I was drawn to,” she said.
On Hood Canal, “1 was immediately
enamored of its unique habitat a
rich blend of organisms.” v
Harlow was the team leader for a
group of 10, maintaining the Theler
Wetland trails and fish programs.
She got involved in fieldwork projects.
After eight months in a part-time ad-
ministrator working in finances, she
became a full-time biologist.
The greatest reward in her execu-
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tive director position is werking with
“passionate, amazing people,” Harlow
said.
“Mendy is really the heart,,soul
and mind of the salmonlcenter,” Gus
Johnson, the group’s project manager,
wrote in an email to the Shelton-
Mason County Journal. “She works
tirelessly to make sure that all of our
various projects and programs suc-
ceed, as well as managing the depart-
ments. Her dedication, knowledge and
insight are an inspiration to us all.”
Harlow started as an AmeriCorps
employee, “so she has seen it all,”
wrote Lucas Martin, the center’s edu-
cation and outreach coordinator. “This
allows her to understand every staff
member’s position, and be a well-in;
formed, involved supervisor to us all.
She is always willing to help out on a
project, and is even better at hearing
out our ideas, and bringing them from
a concept to reality.”
“Mendy has a very calm, profes-
sional and relaxed demeanor, but
there’s also a sense of a very motivat-
ed and driven person, that underlies
it all,” wrote Alex Papiez, the group’s
stewardship coordinator. “After spend—
ing time with her, you are aware of
her deep sense of place for the Hood
Canal landscape.”
“She is a fierce champion and our
guiding light, her dedication driv‘esl‘ali
of us employees to want to succeed,
thrive and grow in our careers,” wrote
Clayton David, the group’s salmon
and steelhead biologist.
Harlow lives with her partner off
Pickering Road, halfway between
Shelton and Belfair. Her daughter Al-
lison, a 2019 graduate of North Mason
High School, is a college sophomore
majoring in music at Washington
State University -— currently learning
from home.
In her spare time, she gardens,
hikes, plays tennis, practices yoga
and enjoys the company of her two
German shepherds. She spends most
weekdays working from home, but
when she’s in the converted farm-
house on the water, she walks the
Theler Wetlands Trail across the road.
“I feel so blessed and lucky to be
here. It seems so random that I ap-
plied for a job here, and love it.”
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