Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Noelle Richards lives near the headwaters of the Newauken Creek-- her farm tucked in the Cascade foothills on the edge of Enumclaw. She owns 10 square acres -- half forested and half pasture. The forested part is kept that way to protect the salmon bearing stream. And the pasture is lush and green with lots of grass for her horses.

Noelle owns two horses that hang out in the pasture across from her home and the Newauken Creek right now-- but specializes in hosting race horses who board on her pasture.

Richards has loved horses since she was a kid. "Ever since I was 4 years old I have wanted to ride horses."

Her property hosts a grand snag of a tree left over from the logging days of Weyerhauser. "We planted lots of native conifers, maple other shrubs and plants there to give the land a chance to do what it is best at-- grow trees." Richards has found some real benefits to keeping the trees on her property.

"The horse runs we have used to be covered in water -- no fun for horses or for me. When I planted a dozen conifers between my two horse runs from the barn to the field, I haven't had a problem since. The trees act like a sponge and soak up all the water. Of course I have a few inches of gravel down on the path, too. That helps a lot."

Richards found her home through a friend. "An old friend of mine came over here to visit a horse over 30 years ago, and I fell in love with the place. I told the owners if they ever wanted to sell their house to let me know." Well -- 30 years ago I was 26 and it was quite a bit of work to get mortgage and ownership set up for this parcel. But I did it.

And I have been taking care of this creek and the horses around it ever since. I love this place."

"Back in the 80's after I bought this farm, the King Conservation District called to see if they could stop by and walk around the property. I think the fellow who stopped picked my place because we are right up against the hills here-- kind of the headwaters for the Newauken Creek. He taught me to see the difference between the side of the creek that was full of native plants and good banks, and the side of the river near the horses that has been worn down by livestock.

They showed me how to fence the horses off, and the District plant sales have been a steady source of new plants to keep greening up this part by the creek that I want to be wild."

Salmon have been running ever since: "Chinook and coho spawning right here in our front yard. Here in end of September you won't see them, but after the rains start up in October the water levels will rise. The fish that are hanging out down in the Green River waiting for a little more water before they are going to make their way up here. "

"It takes them about a month for them to make their way up here to spawn under this Big Leaf Maple" Richards points to 100 year old tree that shades the creek and has a spawning area next to its roots. "Someday next month I will be working on the yard next to my home and hear splashing in the creek. I'll walk over and their they are-- making their nests and spawning. It is really something to behold."

The hills around her home are the upper watershed for the Newauken, which is one of the last best places for salmon coming in from Puget Sound and the Green River.

"The hills had been owned by Weyerhauser when I got here. And the land has been through some ups and downs. One year W clearcut all the forests on one swath of land above us -- and you wouldn't believe the problems. We had flooding -- the run off from the mountain side they cleared was too much. So we organized a meeting with Weyerhauser and they improved somewhat." The next cut wasn't quite so hard on those of us living downstream in Enumclaw.

But then Weyerhaueser sold their land to Hartford Insurance Co. and you wouldn't believe the mess they've made up in the hills here. And worse than Weyerhauser-- they won't meet with us to talk about our problems with them ruining our water. The flooding is bad and not being a good neighbor doens't help. They shouldn't be cutting here if they aren't going to do it sustainably."

Bad corporate neighbors or not, Noelle has worked with the facts on the ground -- in her case a lot of water-- and made the best of it.

Noelle has set up her paddocks for race horses -- they are longer and narrower so the animals can run. And she has contributed a lot to current understanding of how to care for horses and pasture management.

Conservation district efforts in the 80's was all based on dairy cow manure lagoons- and educating farmers and dairymen about what it took to care for the land while raising their livestock.

"The Conservation Districts and the NRCS were great at developing environmentally sensitive livestock -- but they didn't have know what to make of horses out here. But they knew enough to get started. It is amazing what some education has done to the way I see the world. I learned so much I started teaching people about ways to develop chore efficiency, how to care for their pastures, and of course their horses, too."

" I started teaching other people about how to care for their horse responsibly -- and I have a passion for teaching people how to be better horsemen and women."

"We started the King Co. Model Horse Farm project back in 1990. Since all the best management practices in those days were based on dairy cows, people came out on farm tours, showing people what we had learned about keeping horses, and how to care for them in a way that is efficient for the horse owner. There is no point in getting someone so much information that they get overwhelmed-- because then they won't do anything. The key is to make the environmentally responsible thing also the easiest and most efficient. And that's what the district staff has taught me."

Noelle teaches small groups of farmers -- and has seen several thousand people a year for some time now. "We teach people to grow healthy strong relationships with their horses and other farm animals."

These days Noelle is more interested in research. "When we teach now-- I work to teach using livestock procedures that are natural for the animal. We teach people to rotate their fences, to let an animal graze one area and then come over to the next section, and work across the pasture for the summer."

"The Conservation District teaches to grow grass for 10 inches and when they eat down to 3, then pull them off. If you don't you turn your pasture into deserts. Pastures that are low grass-- eaten down to far are a danger to the horses, because clover and other weeds can outcompete the grasses the horses like to eat. But even then, the pasture is susceptible to weeds at 3 inches."

"What do you do about it? I think even eating down to 3 inches is part of the problem now. My research show that if you grow a pasture out to 14 inches and then move the animals when they get down to 7" you get a lot sturdier grass in the field, and fewer weeds. We want the pasture to last and not get overworked."

Richards research is not accepted wisdom of the conservation districts -- yet. But she is confident once the results she has seen are known to more horse people, better pasture management for horse owners is right behind.

Noelle Richards home is proof positive that salmon and livestock can get along-- even thrive together with some thoughtful planning and planting and persistent work.

And Richards is rich in the ways we usually don't measure -- whether it is the sound of a fish tail splashing as it nests, or horses that love her gentle attention. Her attention to land and plants and animals living on it, her teaching and research have all contributed to wealthy and healthy life on her own terms.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Pat Cosgrove
43017 234th Pl SE
Enumclaw WA

Pat Cosgrove
43017 234th Pl SE
Enumclaw WA

Newauken Creek's Chinook, coho, sockeye, and chum salmon as well as winter steelhead have been observed spawning through it.

The Enumclaw plateau stretches below Mount Rainier's belly, a sprawling mass of rural homes on farms, and dense housing in Enumclaw and Auburn. And salmon find there way home here every year.

Long before white settlers invaded Indian land, the Newauken Creek and its main tributaries that empty into the Green and Duwamish Rivers carried salmon. Newauken means "gently flowing waters" according to one translation.

Before logging, salmon ran up hill, through deep forest, to the headwaters in the Cascades where they spawned and created one of the richest salmon habitats in mid Puget Sound.

The Newauken Creek still carries some salmon, but the trees are all gone. Once the logging companies had clearcut the plateau, farmers moved in and started settlements. Dairies grew and prospered. The milk flowed, the buttern churned, cheese made. Manure flowed, too. And the creek life suffered.

Salmon are running strong still-- in large part thanks to public salmon restoration projects. Education campaigns to clean water in rural areas has helped as well.

One of the Newauken Creek's best neighbors is Pat Cosgrove, horse owner and nature lover. She has improved her small piece of land for salmon's benefit, through proper drains around her horse barn, native plantings, and encouraging wildlife to prosper.

Pat Cosgrove has bought 5 acres from a farmer in Enumclaw fourteen years ago. She moved from a neighborhood in north Seattle to get some fresh air and raise horses. The land is filling in with houses after all that time, but Enumclaw still has a rural feeling where Cosgrove lives.

Her family includes a Lusitano horse named Rosa, a little pony to keep her horse company, and her ever present fetching border collie "Name"

Pat's small barn would whistle it is so clean. She has big French drains that collect rainwater around the barn and keep the area dry.

Her 30' x 60' big fenced area has a bed of gravel. "Sand pulverizes under the horse's foot and begins to hold water-- which is the biggest problem here on my land. A good part of the back is a winter wetland. "

For some people this winter wetland would be a pain to work woith, or better fill in so that she could use it all year. But Pat has always had two goals for this land.

I've wanted horses, and to promote wildlife. We planted dogwood, spruce, other trees along the property line to encourage cover for birds and little animals. Bald eagles fly by daily. They are scavenging this big green space for food. And my next door neighbor has a pond in the wettest part of the year-- so I see lots of ducks, vultures, and hawks. " Cosgrove points out the big swales on the eastern edge of her land that serve as a buffer to filter water and keep it clean.

"My neighbor's got Neuwauken Creek running along the edge of my property . There are salmon coming up that creek still, and I like to think they'll keep coming if we take care of this land."

Middle of winter when Seattle is at her grayest and wettest, or so it seems after months of the same all winter, Cosgrove anticipates the return of frogs. "It is quiet now, -- but in the past in February is a big chorus. And you have to watch it coming out of my home-- I'll have frogs on every window, flowerpot and door. I even get them hanging out under the towel I keep by my back door to wipe the dog off with-- they hop up and hold on at night.

"This past year has been different. I've seen less than ten frogs all year." Cosgrove and many other people are concerned about what that means. " Is it a seasonal problem? Or did something happen to their habitat around here to diminish the number of frogs so quickly?"

In the mean time, Cosgrove says she has lots of other company. "I have possum, skunk, and as you can see from the little hills and holes in the gorund-- lots of voles. The voles bring coyotes, and the raptors overhead for lunch. I bought a hawk plattform in the back along the edge of my pasture, but so far have seen mostly crows roosting there. They hang out there and in the big cottonwood. One of my favorites is visits from violet green swallows that follow me on my walks with my horse. They love it when we are out in the pasture because it stirs up bugs."

Her big field is full of native plants and plenty of blue sky in summer. Of course there have been disruptions. Cosgrove and her husband split up years ago. I looked at this place -- the barn, the house, animals and felt overwhelmed. But staying here was the best decision I made. I just knew if I sold the farm, I would be living in a crappy slum in Auburn, suffocating from being back in city living. Out here I can breathe, and enjoy all that nature provides. It isn't fancy, but this is home. "

Looking through Cosgrove's bird list, it is easy to see her home is shared by many: American bitterns, Great Blue Heron, the requisite Canada goose, mallard, American widgeon, black turkey vultures, black shouldered kites, California quail, Anna's Hummingbird, common snipe, Downy woodpecker, northern flicker, common raven, lots of ring necked pheasant and northern bobwhite are a few of the diverse birds that call Cosgrove's five acres home. " I even have a merlin on my list" - Pat says with a hint of one who know the magic of being one with nature.

"I've seen two skunks fighting out here. That isn't pretty."

Today, she takes Rosa along with her friend's pack mules and goes on hikes into backcountry around Mount Rainier and a number of weekend hikes. "I love living here in the country-- and being so close to that big mountain. It is so peaceful -- and our horses love packing into the back country."

Life is a good mix right now. And Pat's grateful everything has worked out so well.