Our work at NSEA is to be a voice for every stream and tributary that sustains our region.

I am a small tributary; a sister connected to the North Fork Nooksack River.

I am alive, and I am an important life-giver to everything and everyone on our planet.

For more than 30 years, a human-installed fishway and an undersized culvert blocked my salmon friends from returning home. I remember when the glistening salmon once swam in great numbers from the Salish Sea to my waters. Without them, I felt empty. I have been dredged and reshaped. Invasive plants crowded out my native kin. I was broken.

But I never lost hope. One of my human neighbors wished to see me healed and protected forever.

NSEA, Whatcom County, the Whatcom Conservation District, and the Whatcom Land Trust combined forces to help me recover. Together, they removed the barriers that blocked my salmon friends and helped me find my original path back to my sister, the Nooksack River.

Now, I can meander free again—and oh, how good it feels to give life once more.

Our work at NSEA is to be a voice for every stream and tributary that sustains our region.

Stories like this one remind us why we do what we do. Every stream, every tributary, every salmon returning home is part of a larger story of connection—and of hope restored.

Kenney Creek was blocked, its salmon gone, its life interrupted. But thanks to community partnerships and support from people like you, the barriers were removed, native plants were restored, and salmon now have access to miles of cool, clean spawning habitat once again.

This is what your generosity makes possible. When you give to NSEA, you help heal broken streams, remove fish passage barriers, and bring life back to the waterways that sustain us all. Each project reconnects salmon with their ancestral homes and strengthens our shared future.

We can’t do it without you. Your gift—no matter the size—helps ensure that salmon can always find their way home, and that our streams can continue to meander free and full of life. Please make your year-end gift to NSEA today. Together, we can keep the water running wild and the salmon coming home.

With gratitude and hope,

NSEA