All of us could use some good news these days. We were excited to see recently that Tahlequah, a member of the endangered Southern Resident Orca Whales’ J-Pod, is pregnant again. Many of you will remember Tahlequah for a more tragic reason: her 17-day, 1,100- mile tour of grief with her dead calf two years ago. It’s great news to learn she’s pregnant again. However, it’s a long road ahead for that calf to survive and an even longer road to recovery for the Southern Residents. It is more important than ever that we keep up our efforts to recover the Southern Residents.

Rebecca Crust has been our Conservation Education Specialist on the Environmental Education team for the past year. Rebecca jumped right into programs like our after-school garden clubs and Envirothon, and made the change to virtual programming with us this spring during the school closure. We wish Rebecca the best of luck with their next adventure!

Our Shore Friendly Program, launched in Fall 2019, was recently featured by the National Association of Conservation Districts for our participation in the #DistrictsConserveCoasts campaign. The campaign, as a part of National Ocean Month, highlighted efforts by districts around the country to conserve and restore coastal areas facing a diversity of challenges. According to NACD, of the nearly 3,000 conservation districts across the United States, over 300 are located on the coasts and Great Lakes. Districts are tackling local challenges from habitat and species loss, to harmful algal blooms, to shoreline erosion and sea-level rise.