Thanks to Noirin Lynch of Brownie Girl Scout Troop 41169 for sharing the report and photos of their Earth Day project:

Our Brownie GS troop has been learning all about our watershed and the issues we face in terms of stormwater pollution over the past several months.

Their interest began in the fall with a field trip to see Chum salmon spawn, where they learned about salmon’s need for clean, cool water and the link between declining salmon and declining orca populations from the Mountaineers.

They were then lucky to have local West Seattle fish biologist and stormwater expert Jen McIntyre come teach them about green infrastructure and bio retention methods to help keep toxic stormwater out of our streams and sound. They conducted their own experiments to see what materials work best to naturally filter stormwater.

After all this learning they decided to help the area around their meeting place, Alki Elementary. We met yesterday to help clean the streets and label storm drains in an effort to raise public awareness.

We had a lot of people stop to ask what we were doing and even had a resident come out of their house to thank us and ask how he could join the effort.

By the way, you can get a drain-stenciling kit from the city – here’s how.