Dear Friends,

Friends of Miller Bay will hold their Annual Meeting at the Cowling Creek Center on Saturday, November 5, at 3:00 pm.  Prior to the meeting, at 2:00 pm, we will guide a tour to view returning Chum salmon at the new Cowling Creek viewing platform.

Here's a synopsis of the FOMB 2016 activities:

1) The Great Peninsula Conservancy has wrapped up the Grovers Creek Capital Campaign for now, but volunteers from FOMB have been monitoring the stream flow both within the protected forest and downstream at the Tribe's new Grovers Creek outmigration trap.

We're measuring water quality, quantity, and the fish and wildlife using it. The Grovers trap, in place from February through early July, documented the downstream migration of steelhead, coho, cutthroat, brook lamprey, stickleback, plus an assortment of native crawdads, frogs, and large stream insects. We'll be looking for volunteers to monitor the trap in 2017, please contact us if you are interested.

2) The FOMB hosted Puget Sound Restoration Fund's Olympia Oyster Workshop last April for interested Miller Bay landowners. Over 30 enthusiastic landowners interested in restoring this important resource, the only native oyster to the Pacific Coast of North America, attended the workshop held at the Cowling Creek Center. The oysters were depleted from Miller Bay by the 1850's by overharvest.

3) FOMB volunteers and student interns run the Cowling Creek Center's salmon incubation and rearing educational facility from January through June under the guidance of a tribal biologist. This effort provides the salmon fry that imprint on Cowling Creek and return as adults. For over 30 years Suquamish Elementary third graders have also been releasing their classroom aquaria-raised salmon into the stream. This year the third graders will be hiking from Suquamish Elementary through the Cowling Creek Forest Preserve to view "their" salmon returning on November 4th. You are welcome to join them around 2 pm.

4) Thanks to FOMB, adult chum have returned by the hundreds for the past few years to spawn in Cowling Creek. These salmon will be the stars of the annual 2016 Friends of Miller Bay meeting Saturday, November 5th at the Cowling Creek Center. To enhance visitor enjoyment, Trout Unlimited, with funding from the Poulsbo Rotary Club, built a viewing platform during the summer for visitors to watch the salmon negotiate the fish ladder. Stop by for coffee and refreshments, talk with your fellow FOMBies, and enjoy the return of the salmon.

5) In the spring of 2016, work parties were hosted by FOMB to plant trees, remove invasive vegetation, and keep the educational trails open for the enjoyment of visitors. Work parties will be scheduled before the end of the year for brush clearing and additional tree-planting events will be held in the New Year. Notify us if you would like to participate!

We would like to thank FOMB members and others in the community who have supported our efforts and would like to ask for your continued support.  Please use our renewal membership form to join FOMB or to renew your membership.

Sincerely,

Paul Dorn - President of the Board