Fall means we get the chance to gather together to celebrate KLF and, most importantly, the individuals and groups that make our conservation and restoration work possible – from grants to on-the-ground work in Hidden Valley – at our annual Fall for Fish “fun-raiser.”
If you haven’t joined us for this event, here is what you can expect:
- A social hour featuring salmon safe wines coupled with a silent auction of environmental-friendly items such as handmade goods, excursions, natural products and more.
- A local farm-to-table dinner paired with salmon-safe wines.
- Keynote speaker Tim Lehman, Northern Arapaho Landscape Designer and Urban Planner. Tim has lived in the Seattle area for over 30 years and has been passionately working with Indigenous communities across the United States for 15 years. Tim feels it is his job as a planner and designer to help empower the citizens and communities he works for on current social and environmental issues. Planners and designers are a means to an end of acutely impoverished urban communities, environmental degradation and social injustices that are a result of misappropriated urban development and a current planning system that are not working for disadvantaged communities. Tim’s work reflects who he is, and he wants to turn the communities he works for into places that citizens are happy to call home. Tim has a Master’s in Landscape Architecture, a Master’s in Urban Design and Planning and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Geography, all from the University of Washington. He is currently the Indigenous Planning Strategist for the City of Seattle’s Office of Planning and Community Development. Tim is also a Lecturer, reviewer, researcher, and mentor for the University of Landscape Architecture Program.
- A project update. This year’s Fall for Fish will feature a Norm Winn Conservation Grant recipient, Inland Northwest Land Conservancy (INLC). INLC Stewardship Director Rose Macaulay will share the work being done on the Little Spokane River, a spring-fed tributary that sustains native fish, beaver, moose, and bald eagles, and feeds directly from the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, the sole source of drinking water for more than half a million people in that part of our state. She’ll share why this section of river is one of the last of its kind: cold, clear, and largely undeveloped, with intact floodplain and wetland habitat supporting the Spokane Tribe’s ongoing effort to restore salmon to the river after more than a century of absence.
- The presentation of the annual Chico Champion Award. This year we are honoring Briana Faxon, a Bremerton High School Advanced Placement Environmental Studies teacher. Her classes use the Rhododendron Preserve as an outdoor classroom and laboratory. Her work embodies our mission and vision. Through her efforts, students are connected to this incredible ecosystem and inspired to work to enhance, protect, and learn from it.
- Good conversation and good fun.
All the proceeds from the event are put right back into our https://ketalegacy.org/grants/programs. If you haven’t purchased your seat at the event yet, there is still time. We’ve made it easy with our online form.
We look forward to seeing you there!
– Jeff Wirtz, Vice President