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.

COVID-19 has and continues to take a tough toll on all of us. It’s impacted not only our health and well-being, but our economy, our schools, and disrupted every aspect of our day to day lives. Pierce Conservation District is doing everything we can to continue providing our core services to the community during these challenging times. Despite restraints brought on by the virus, we continue to deliver projects and services that improve food access, water quality, soil health, environmental education, and restore vital habitat for fish and wildlife.

It’s with these core services in mind and the uncertainty of how deep the economic impact of COVID-19 will be, that we have been thinking through cost savings approaches to help maintain the services Pierce County residents need most during these difficult times. To that end, we are phasing out the print version of our Tahoma View newsletter, which will save us thousands of dollars in print and mailing costs. The Tahoma View quarterly newsletter will live on, just not in print format.

We will also continue to improve our communications through our digital platforms to bring our community news on our progress and upcoming events and are now able to deliver more focused communications on specific topics that appeal to you.

Please visit our website at PierceCD.org/341/Sign-up-forour-mailing-lists and select as many of the topics as you’re interested in:

• Tahoma View Newsletter (Monthly) 
• Harvest Pierce County (Monthly) 
• Water Quality Improvement (Periodic) 
• Habitat Restoration (Periodic) 
• Environmental Education (Periodic) 
• Farm Assistance (Periodic) 

The December issue of the Tahoma View will be the last print version so please sign up for our email lists by then!

Incumbent Board of Supervisor member, Cindy Haverkamp recently won reelection over Mark Mauren 369 votes to 119. A Parks Planner for the Resource Stewardship Division of Pierce County Parks, Cindy has served on our Board since 2018 and her term is now extended until 2023. In this capacity she has advocated for conservation districts in Olympia, attended area and state-wide convenings, volunteered with her family at numerous events and strengthened relationships with our many partners. Our Board also recently elected Cindy to serve as Vice Chair. We are grateful to have passionate people like Cindy and Mark who want to help deepen the impact of our organization and guide our efforts to improve our local communities!