LYW Episode 22, Sept 12 2024: Whatcom Watershed Information Network

Cheryl Niles & Whatcom Watershed Information Network, and the Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend

This week, Susan Lindsay sits down with Cheryl Niles from the Whatcom Watershed Information Network to discuss the nuances of how our water system works here in the region, as well as the ecology, concerns, and projects that the WWIN tracks, and Dan Tucker visits the Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend. 

Cheryl Lovato Niles is the Water Resources Educator for WSU Whatcom County Extension and a collaborator in the Whatcom Watersheds Information Network which organizes the annual Whatcom Water Week festival of events. Cheryl has a master’s degree in Environmental Science Policy and Management from UC Berkeley. She has worked in the water resources realm in Whatcom County since 2005, and public education is her favorite type of work. When she’s not helping to organize outreach events like Water Week, Cheryl loves hiking the trails with her family and friends, getting on the water, and cooking delicious foods including seafood!

The Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend is a gathering annually on the first weekend of September for wooden boat enthusiasts from all over the world. The Northwest Maritime Center helps to host the festival, with dozens of vendors, thousands of attendees and over a hundred boats on display.

Dan walks the festival to highlight a few of the long-standing participants, and this episode features two of those short interviews with Belinda Joslin of Women in Boatbuilding, from the U.K., and Loni Greninger, Vice Chair of the Tribal Council for the Jamestown S'Klallum Tribe.

Stay tuned to "Love Your Waterfront" for a special edition of the show airing later this month, including even more excerpts from the Wooden Boat Festival!

The Jamestown S'Klallum Traditional Canoe. Photo courtesy Jamestown S'Klallum Tribe

Cheryl Niles, Water Resources Educator, WWIN