Narwhal Boats

01/16/2018

QUILCENE FAIR NEWS: No Quilcene Fair, Parade for 2018; No Brinnon Shrimpfest, either

The Quilcene Fair and Parade traditionally staged in September has been cancelled for 2018 due to a lack of volunteers for the key time-consuming positions. The Quilcene Fair Board decision was announced Jan. 13.
The decision comes on the heels of the Emerald Towns Alliance board’s decision to cancel Brinnon Shrimpfest on Memorial Day weekend. Shrimpfest was the largest public event in South County, and the Quilcene Fair was the second largest. Both volunteer organizations hope the events can remerge in the future (the events have each taken a hiatus in the past) under refreshed leadership.
The Quilcene Fair’s non-profit status is being maintained, along with a bank account with “seed” money for a future fair, reported Greg Brotherton, Fair Board president. The event has gone on “hiatus” from time to time over the last 35 years, as it is always dependent upon donations and volunteer support. In 2017, the event was expanded to cover two days (Sept. 16-17).
In recent years, the event included a parade, car show and “burn out” demonstration (but not in 2017), carnival rides, arts and craft booths, food booths, a contest for homegrown vegetables, etc., music, and children’s activities. The fair provided a path to recognize community leaders: Citizen of the year, parade grand marshal, Quilcene Pioneers, etc. etc.
The 2017 event was nearly derailed by board member discontent and resignations. The Fair Board in late 2016 and early 2017 had discussions about relocating the fair from the school grounds to Worthington Park, but decided against the move. Those discussions included whether there would be enough volunteer support to host a fair at all. There was, in 2017, with three new volunteers in key positions.
But now, the Fair Board decided there were not enough volunteers and not enough time to stage an event in 2018 – the hope is that the fair board may reorganize and try again in 2019.

MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT
Here is the full message posted on Facebook and the Quilcene Fair website by Greg Brotherton, Quilcene Fair Board president”
“The Quilcene Fair Board is sad to report that there will be no Quilcene Fair and Parade in 2018. It takes a lot of work from a few people or a little work from many people to make the fair happen. We as a board, collectively and individually, have been searching for new blood to shore up fatigued volunteers for years, and while we have some great new volunteers, we don’t have enough to mount a fair this coming year.
We appreciate the opportunity we’ve had to continue this long tradition, but frankly until the next generation steps up and decides they want the fair enough to make the fair, there won’t be a fair. We still have a set of volunteers who are eager to bring the fair back in following years, but we will need a new core of committed volunteers (including a President, a Treasurer, one or two people to run the raffle, someone to run promotions, manage parking and more) before we take up the mantle again.
We’re proud, this year, to leave enough money in the account to run another fair, as well as donate this year to Dollar’s for Scholars in Quilcene (our main mission), as well as the 4-H for their wonderful contributions to the Quilcene School, the Quilcene Food Bank (we are rushing this money over to help with their worthy mission of making sure Thanksgiving is a holiday of abundance not hunger in Quilcene), and the Quilcene School itself. Our non-profit status is safe. The Fair and Parade are going into hibernation but will return when Quilcene wants it enough to help make it happen. Or maybe a phoenix is a better analogy. We’ve burned out, but with a new core, the fair can rise from the ashes again.”
People can contact Brotherton at [email protected]
PHOTO CAPTION: The Quilcene Community Portrait is typically photographed on U.S. Highway 101 during the Quilcene Fair.

QUILCENE OYSTER HALF-MARATHON
The Quilcene half-marathon, 10K and 5K races were staged Sept. 17, 2017, one week ahead of usual, to better coincide with the Quilcene Fair. The run’s website (as of Jan. 15) had not been updated one way or another about plans for a 2018 fun run.

01/14/2018

Unbelievable...

SHRIMPFEST NEWS: Brinnon’s biggest festival – Shrimpfest – canceled for 2018

The largest festival of the year in Brinnon – Shrimpfest – won’t take place in 2018, due to lack of volunteers including an overall organizer.
Phil Thenstedt, president of the Emerald Towns Alliance, has announced via Facebook that while support emerged in 2017 to stage the Memorial Day Weekend event, the small group of volunteers does not have the ability to pull it off for 2018.
Brinnon Shrimpfest started in 1994 as a way to raise money for allocation to community groups. It attracts an estimated 10,000 people, the largest festival in South Jefferson County and one of the top-five largest public events in Jefferson County.
“We’ve got a really good playbook which was built on a foundation created by those who preceded us in running this great event. We successfully refined organization of the event which, to be honest, could grow into something much larger,” Thenstedt posted. “Shrimpfest has been a great fundraiser event which has put a substantial money back into our community, supporting local students, our schools, the food bank and a host of other areas.
“Our 501(c)3 non-profit (Emerald Towns Alliance) is an extremely small group who have been very dedicated to helping the community. While we have fresh ideas and desire to continue, we’ve discussed this year’s event and have come to agreement that we lack the manpower to organize and lead the event. For the event to continue, it would require the addition of individuals (or a group) who have the time and drive to take over leadership of the event,” Thenstedt posted.
Shrimpfest was started in 1994 by “Friends of Brinnon” – which later changed its name to Emerald Towns Alliance – as a way to raise money to donate to community organizations. It featured live music, vendor booths, belt-sander races, and a variety of fresh Hood Canal shrimp for sale.
The event was cancelled in 2012 due to the need for a new location, and re-emerged in 2013 at the Yelvik General Store property north of town.
Unfortunately, Shrimpfest is not the only volunteer-led festival, event or special project in Jefferson County to suffer from a lack of volunteers.

01/12/2018

One extreme to another.

HOOD CANAL BRIDGE NEWS: ‘Long Live the Kings’ focuses on steelhead mortality, water circulation issues

Long Live the Kings, in partnership with the Hood Canal Coordinating Council, tribes, and state and federal agencies are working to pinpoint the cause of high steelhead mortality and to gauge the Hood Canal Bridge’s effect on water quality.
Long Live the Kings’ Hood Canal Steelhead Project results show 65% of juvenile, ESA-listed steelhead that reach the Hood Canal Bridge do not make it north to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, with strong evidence that the bridge is acting as migration barrier, driving this mortality. Also, computer modeling suggests the bridge’s pontoons may reduce water circulation in and out of Hood Canal by 12 percent.
The entity’s “independently reviewed assessment plan” has been completed and through 2019, the group hopes to identify: where and how the bridge pontoons slow steelhead migration, heighten fish densities, and increase the susceptibility of salmon and steelhead to predation; whether light, shade, and noise impacts from the bridge affect fish and/or predator behavior; and whether structural voids in the bridge may aggregate plankton, attracting salmon and increasing their susceptibility to predation.
The Hood Canal Bridge Assessment project is earmarked for $750,000 in the 2017-2019 Washington State budget, along with other support from tribes, federal and local entities.
The group says: “To this end, we plan to develop short and long term solutions to mitigate the impacts of the floating bridge while avoiding interference with the functionality of the bridge as a transposition corridor.”
Learn more at:
https://lltk.org/project/hood-canal-bridge/

01/12/2018

We recently captured 43 more elk in the Mount Saint Helens area for radio-collaring to monitor them for survival and productivity and check for treponeme-associated hoof disease and body condition, all as part of our ongoing elk study in southwest Washington. Learn more about what we’ve been doing to better understand this disease at our newly updated webpage at https://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/health/hoof_disease/.

01/09/2018

Awesome

From 2013 to 2014, Sea Star Wasting Syndrome hit sea stars from British Columbia to Mexico. The starfish would develop lesions and then disintegrate, their arms turning into blobs of goo. Now, the species is rebounding and being spotted in Southern California and elsewhere.

01/05/2018

Beach view

01/03/2018

PORT COMMISSION NEWS: Port of Port Townsend leaders charge into ‘retreat’ to plan for 2018, and beyond

The Port of Port Townsend commission goes into “retreat” before it fully attacks a new year full of important decisions.
The commission conducts a special meeting at 9 am Wednesday, Jan. 3 at the Old Alcohol Plant, 310 Hadlock Bay Road, for the sole purpose of signing warrants. The commission then goes into a “commission/staff retreat” from 9 am to 4 pm, at the Old Alcohol Plant. The “retreat” is to continue the following day, Jan. 4, also from 9 am to 4 pm.
The Port Commission’s first regular meeting of 2018 is Wednesday, Jan. 10. A workshop is set at 9:30 am, with a regular meeting at 1:30 pm, both at the Port Commission Building 333 Benedict St., Port Townsend.
Incoming Commissioner Bill Putney joins the re-elected Commissioner Pete Hanke and Commissioner Stephen Tucker to form the new board.

01/03/2018

01/02/2018

It’s been five years since Washington first launched a strategy to tackle ocean acidification. A new report from the state says it’s still getting worse,

12/21/2017

Go for it!

Tokul Creek will open early for hatchery steelhead and other gamefish this Saturday, Dec. 23. Usually it doesn’t open until Jan. 14 to allow winter steelhead broodstock collection at the Tokul Creek Hatchery, but we’ve met our steelhead egg take goals already so we can expand this fishery. See all details on location and rules at
https://fortress.wa.gov/dfw/erules/efishrules/erule.jsp?id=2080