Announcements
The Mayfly Festival is a free, all-ages, hands-on celebration of watershed ecology and interconnectedness through activities, games, live music, science, and art! It was created by the Coos Watershed Association and other local groups to shed light on the connections between community, the environment, and water.
What makes it special? You can dance to good music, eat some really good local food, make a costume, dip a net into the Mingus Pond to see what lives there, and learn about fish, insects, plants, compost, marine debris, gardening, the connections between human health and environmental health, and so much more! If you are a fan of music, nature, art, good food, and science, this is an event you will not want to miss! For updates, visit https://cooswatershed.org/mayfly-festival/ and follow the Coos Watershed Association on social media.
Check out our annual report, which includes photos and stories from some of our most exciting projects in 2024. This is a great place to learn about the types of work we do (restoration, monitoring, plants, invasive species, outreach, education, art, celebration...), how we are funded, how we use those funds, and who we need on our team to make this work happen.
All of our funds go to on-the-ground needs that tie directly to our mission. A large portion goes straight to local contractors, whether they are building bridges, putting logs into streams, producing videos, or painting murals. Look for the bold text throughout the report to see all of our amazing local contractors, without whom this work would simply not be possible.
Thank you for your support and partnership! We hope to see you around the watershed in 2025!
Native Plant Nursery Volunteer Days in 2025
Native plants, those that are only found here on the South Coast, offer a multitude of benefits, historically, culturally, and ecologically. Whether they’re growing along a streambank in the forest, alongside a parking lot in town, or in your own backyard, native plants offer many benefits:
- Provide shade and cover along streams, which keeps the water cool for salmon and other species
- Prevent erosion on steep banks
- Capture runoff in yards and driveways
- Filter stormwater, especially when used in rain gardens and bioswales
- Provide wildlife habitat (birds, mammals, insects)
- Support ecological food web
Seeking Coho monitoring interns!
Are you interested in the diversity of fish in our waterways? Become a CoosWA intern! We work year-round to monitor fish populations, tagging fish with microchips and noting species, size, and weight. This information is important in monitoring the populations of the federally threatened Coho salmon, along with many others. Depending on the season, interns may help with seining (walking through the water with a big net), spawning surveys (counting adult spawning salmon), or with the operations of a rotary screw trap that collects juvenile fish for us to examine and tag. See our employment page for job description and more info.
