Last Wednesday, a few dozen people representing several organizations, agencies and government entities boarded a tour bus at the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino in Ocean Shores.

The Grays Harbor Conservation District then conducted a three-stop tour that included the Hoquiam Boat Launch, the Mt. Olympus microbrewery in Aberdeen, and a farm at the confluence of the Satsop and Chehalis rivers.

Tourgoers included Grays Harbor County Commissioner Rick Hole; representatives of The Whitener Group, “a native-owned consulting group dedicated to the advancement and sustainability of tribes;” staff from the Washington State Conservation Commission, including Executive Director James Thompson; staff from the Pacific County Conservation District; and more.

In recent months, the Grays Harbor County Conservation District, which is a non-regulatory agency, has dispatched representatives to give presentations at city council and county commissioners meetings.

European green crab

The first stop was the 28th Street Landing and Boat Launch in Hoquiam, which provides direct waterfront access to the Chehalis River on the Grays Harbor Navigation Channel. Marine Resiliency Program Manager Olivia Britain gave a detailed presentation on invasive European green crab, their destructive impact on the area’s ecosystem, and their proliferation in local waterways.

Six tour group members had the opportunity to take a boat ride and retrieve crab pots while the rest stayed on the dock and separated European green crab from Dungeness from pots that had already been pulled, and helped log what they found.

According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, “The European green crab is a globally damaging invasive species that poses a threat to native shellfish, eelgrass, and estuary habitat critical for salmon and many other species. … Potential impacts include destruction of eelgrass beds and estuarine marsh habitats, threats to the harvest of wild shellfish and the shellfish aquaculture industry, salmon and forage fish recovery, and a complex array of ecological impacts to food webs. Research is ongoing regarding potential impacts on juvenile Dungeness crab and crab fisheries.”

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s European Green Crab Quarterly Progress Report — Winter 2024 covering the period of Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2024, stated, “During Winter 2024, the collective effort of all organizations resulted in approximately 372,631 green crab removed from Washington state marine waters, with 370,664 from the Coastal Branch and 1,967 from the Salish Sea Branch. Since January 1, 2022, approximately 1,696,190 green crab have been removed from Washington state marine waters, with 1,604,161 removed from the Coastal Branch, and 92,029 removed from the Salish Sea Branch.”

Grays Harbor County District 2 Commissioner Hole said the tour was a great way to conceptualize what the county commissioners had only seen in a PowerPoint slide deck.

“I think it’s really important to see the good work the Conservation District is doing, this is really informative because the invasive green crab really hurts the whole economy of what we are trying to do here,” Commissioner Hole said. “Everybody should have an opportunity to see this; it would be good for the whole community to see. I also think it’s important for people to come and present to the commission. It’s good information for everybody to have. There’s a lot going on.”

Grays Harbor County Conservation District Executive Director David Marcell said attending city council and county commissioners meetings helps get more people interested in what the District does and expand the District’s reach.

“It’s really important because it essentially opens up the population that is eligible to use our Natural Resource Conservation Technical Assistance Service. If folks aren’t residing in our District boundary they can’t utilize our technical assistance, they can’t run for our board, or vote in our elections,” Marcell said. “Going to those council meetings, doing the outreach, yes, it’s to get the name of the district out there and explain what we do. But it’s also to try to get the area that lies within the city limits annexed into our district so we can work and respond to calls with those people too.”

The tour group collected more than 100 European green crab in just over an hour’s time.

The Grays Harbor Conservation District’s website states, “The European green crab program is actively trapping, removing, and documenting the abundance of the invasive European green crab within Grays Harbor. These continued efforts are being executed with the goal of protecting the native ecosystem.”

Marcell said that conducting such tours is critical to educate stakeholders and interested parties about the District’s work and how it can help.

“I think it’s really important, because the bulk of the people here, they interact with our district and our programs through paper, through reports they see once a year,” Marcell said. “So, getting people out here to see what we’re doing, hands-on, I think it brings a really good perspective to some of the folks that represent the agencies that are funding our projects, kind of a tangible receipt of our work.”

Mt. Olympus microbrewery

The next stop on the tour was Mt. Olympus microbrewery in Aberdeen for refreshments and a presentation.

The tour group munched on charcuterie and ordered from the craft beer menu before Natural Resource Program Manager Nate Jackson and Education and Outreach Project Manager Kelsey Hunter took the floor.

Jackson and Hunter detailed a partnership between the Grays Harbor Conservation District and Mt. Olympus that started in late 2023. The district plants a tree for every River Roots beer sold at Mt. Olympus. So far, more than 1,200 trees have been planted at various locations, including the Kurt Cobain Memorial Park.

The Chehalis River

Then, it was on to farmland at the confluence of the Satsop and Chehalis rivers, where Herculean efforts have been made to slow erosion, prevent major flooding, and preserve wildlife habitat. In 2022, The Chronicle penned an in-depth article about what was happening to Steve Willis’ farm.

Watershed Restoration Program Manager Anthony Waldrop led a comprehensive discussion of those efforts and their importance for landowners and the ecosystem. He described the purposeful logjams placed in the rivers and telephone pole-esque pilings that have been driven into the river bank to slow the detrimental effects of erosion.

According to the Grays Harbor Conservation District’s website, “The Watershed Restoration Program partners with landowners in the local community to enhance their natural resources. The program encompasses a range of initiatives, including fish enhancement, erosion mitigation, invasive species removal, and the establishment of native trees and shrubs.”

The Grays Harbor Conservation District staff consists of people who bring numerous different disciplines to bear — finance, operations, education, natural resource management, forest stewardship, agriculture, watershed restoration and marine resiliency — to “conserve and enhance the natural resources of Grays Harbor County. Grays Harbor Conservation District offers a range of services aimed at supporting landowners in their conservation efforts.”

“Everyone who works with us is local, they live in the area, they’re from the area, they’re in tune with the resources, very smart people, they have to be versatile, they have know their natural resource field and craft, then they have to be a budgeting and grant writing expert on the side,” Marcell said. “I think we have Swiss Army knife type employees who do a little bit of everything really well.”

Tourgoers brave the elements as they listen to Watershed Restoration Program Manager Anthony Waldrop explain the Grays Harbor Conservation District’s efforts at the confluence of the Satsop and Chehalis rivers.

Grays Harbor County District 2 Commissioner Rick Hole, left, chats with Grays Harbor Conservation District Supervisor Rick Boyer at the 28th Street Landing and Boat Launch in Hoquiam.