VOTE on March 21, 2023!

Polls are open from 12:00 to 8:00PM

at our office in Port Angeles!

Ballots will Still be Accepted Through March 31, 2023

Dear Voters,

Under WAC 132-110-800, as of March 20, 2023, I am declaring an emergency due to the timely return of absentee ballots. It has been brought my attention that mail service is slower than usual in many areas throughout the district. This is in addition to the fact that they were mailed from the printers four days later than planned due to unforeseen circumstances. Clallam Conservation District will continue to receive ballots via mail or drop box through March 31, 2023. Absentee ballots will not be available after polls close at 8:00PM on March 21, 2023.

Sincerely,
Judy Minnoch, Election Supervisor

In-person voting will be held on March 21, 2023 from 12:00PM to 8:00PM at our office located at 228 W. First St, Suite H in Port Angeles.

2023 Native Plant Sale Summary

Thank you to everyone who ordered native plants this year. Over 33,000 plants found new homes throughout the Olympic Peninsula! These plants will provide decades, and in some cases centuries, of benefits to wildlife, fish, and pollinators.

A special word of appreciation goes out to our 31 wonderful volunteers who donated 155 hours of their time to help us unload, sort, package and distribute 375 orders. Without the help of these amazing volunteers the plant sale truly wouldn’t be possible for our small staff of five, three of which are part-time employees. Thank you to Steve Johnson as well, for the continued use of his facilities at Lazy J Tree Farm.

If you missed purchasing plants this year, we will begin taking preorders for our 2024 plant sale around September 2023 for large orders (100 or more of the same species), and November 2023 for our smaller order sales of plants (bundles of 10 to 25 plants).

Soil Testing Probes Available for Loan

It’s not too late to get a soil test for your pasture, hayfield, cropland, or garden. The Conservation District has soil testing probes available to check out, free of charge, to make soil sampling easier. We recommend calling ahead to ensure a probe is available before you stop by our office.

We accept soil on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month from 9:00AM to 4:00PM. Soil tests cost $28 per sample, and results can take up to three weeks to return. For more information and instructions on taking a soil test visit the Soil Testing Page.

Manure Share Program

The Manure Share Program is a free service Clallam Conservation District developed to connect livestock owners who have extra manure with gardeners and farmers seeking manure for their crop growing needs. Using this service is easy, visit the Manure Share Program Page to receive the “Supplier List” for contact information of farms with horse and livestock manure, or to be added to the Supplier List if you have extra horse or livestock manure you would like to get rid of.

The long-awaited Spring 2023 Native Plant Landscaping course is here! The course will be held over three weeks beginning in mid-April, and will consist of three webinars and one field trip. The course will cover planning and designing your backyard landscape to be beneficial to all.

Since our landscaping choices have direct impacts on our natural world, native landscapes can be used to help restore ecosystems. Using native trees and shrubs in your landscape will help to create habitat, enhance biodiversity, conserve water, build soil and much more. The numerous benefits of natural landscaping will be explored during the course, while you design and plan landscaping for your own yard.

Native birds and pollinators need native plants and the insects that have co-evolved with them. Most landscaping plants available in nurseries are exotic species from other countries. Many are poor food sources for native birds and pollinators. By choosing to plant more native plants you can help provide refuge and food sources for our native birds and pollinators.

In the Native Plant Landscaping Course, you will learn how to evaluate the unique site conditions for your properties, develop landscape plans, and identify native plants appropriate for your site conditions. You will also learn some planting and maintenance techniques as well as learn about common pests and invasive weeds.

Course schedule:

Wednesday, April 19, 1:00-3:00pm - WEBINAR: Native Plant Landscaping Design and Benefits
Friday April 21, 1:00-3:00pm - FIELD TRIP: Peninsula College, ADA Accessible, Native plant ID and descriptions
Wednesday, April 26, 1:00-3:00pm - WEBINAR: Right Plant for the Right Place
Friday, April 28, 1:00-3:00pm - FIELD TRIP: Sequim, Dungeness Recreation Area bluff trail.
Wednesday, May 3, 1:00-3:00pm - WEBINAR: Planting techniques, common pests and invasive weeds

Please sign up for only one field trip. Click to be linked to REGISTRATION.

Free Workshop: Farm Tour in Carlsborg

Clallam Conservation District is excited to hold a workshop on a 5-acre farm located near Carlsborg that raises several mini and standard donkeys. Learn about the mud-free farm paddocks they have installed, techniques used to regulate their donkey’s grass intake to try to keep them at a healthy weight, their use of native plants to encourage pollinators and help screen farm activities, and their manure storage system. Conservation District staff will also be on hand to provide technical guides and advice to help participants implement all the techniques used by this farm.

When: April 14 (Friday) from 10:00AM to 11:00AM
Where: Carlsborg area, address will be provided to registered attendees
Registration: Space is limited, so REGISTRATION is required.

Free Workshop: Spring Pasture Management
and Goat Kidding

Join farmers Mark and Nancy Bowman of Bowman Farms in Port Angeles for an on-farm tour. Nancy will be sharing their expertise on spring pasture management and goat kidding. Washington State University Extension and Clallam Conservation District staff will be onsite offering best management practices for spring pasture management.

When: April 18 (Tuesday) from 1:00 to 4:00PM
Where: West Port Angeles, address will be provided to registered attendees
Registration is through WSU, click to be directed to WSU’s REGISTRATION PORTAL.

Washington State University’s Regional Small Farms Program provides Dirt Talk Farm Walks for farmer-to-farmer education to promote the exchange of ideas and innovations related to sustainable and organic farming in our region. This farm walk is open to all beginning and current farmers.

Free Workshop: Weed Identification
and Control for Farms

Learn how to identify and control poisonous and noxious weeds, and how to manage pastures and hayfields to reduce, and in some cases eliminate, weed infestations. Feel free to bring weeds from your farm for identification. Presenters include Clallam County Noxious Weeds Coordinator Christina St. John and Conservation District staff.

When: May 10 (Wednesday) from 1:00PM – 2:30 PM
Where: Robin Hill Farm Park in Agnew (between Port Angeles and Sequim)
Registration: Space is limited, so REGISTRATION is required.

Spring is around the corner and soon pastures will be kicking into high gear. Are your pastures ready to feed your horses and livestock? Follow the tips below to maximize the health and productivity of your pastures:

• Do not turn livestock onto pastures until the soil is dry (livestock should not leave hoofprints) and stubble height is at least 6-8 inches tall.

• Test your soil! This is the foundation of good pasture management, literally! A soil test will tell you exactly what your soil needs to grow the best crop of grass. Learn more about our soil testing program.

• Take Half, Leave Half – Rotate livestock through pastures using the “take half, leave half” principle. Graze grass down to 3-4 inches and then rotate livestock into a new pasture while that unit rests and regrows.

• Clip (mow) and harrow (drag) your pastures once you remove livestock. This evenly spreads manure piles and encourages even regrowth of grasses.

• Do not overgraze pastures. Grazing grass plants below 3-inch stubble height gives weeds an opportunity to invade and push out struggling grass plants.

• Be diligent about weed management – Tackle weed infestations as soon as possible. Not sure what the best method is for tackling your weed problem? Register for a FREE workshop on May 10th.

• Check out the Managing Healthy Pastures in Clallam County technical guide for more details on how you can manage healthy, productive pastures.

Our partner, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, is seeking volunteers to help them with installation of smolt traps on various Joyce area streams, including Salt Creek, Deep Creek, East Twin River and West Twin River. Volunteers are needed from 9:30AM to 2:30PM various dates from April 18 - 27, 2023. Carpooling may be available.

Smolt traps are very important to help fisheries staff determine the amount of emigrating smolts to study trends in fish numbers and monitor the health of local river systems. The smolt traps consist of a fence weir to help funnel smolts into a box that holds them until fisheries technicians count and identify them daily then return them to the waterway. They are left in place from mid-April through mid-June.

Assisting with installation of fence weir traps is physically demanding, so the Tribe asks that volunteers are comfortable lifting heavy sandbags to help put them in place in the river. This a very rare volunteer opportunity, so for those who are able to join, it will be a great way to learn more about monitoring fish populations in Joyce area waterways and get to work alongside the wonderful habitat technicians from the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. Please visit our Volunteer Events Page for more details and registration.

Request for Proposals

Clallam Conservation District is seeking proposals to replace well meter registers in the Dungeness Water Rule area in eastern Clallam County. This job is a part replacement job and not an installation. The replacement would be on previously installed water meters. Here is a video of similar work that we are needing. All meter equipment is provided by Clallam Conservation District. Click to view the FULL PROPASAL.

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