A unique effort to help juvenile salmon brings together the Navy, environmentalists, university researchers and Oak Harbor school children.

These groups gathered Tuesday, May 28, to begin a salmon habitat restoration project at Crescent Bay salt marsh and the shores along Crescent Harbor on the Seaplane Base at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. The project is part of a three-year grant Island County received from the Salmon Recovery Fund Board.

The third- and fourth-graders came out to the base shoreline to help determine what kind of salmon are present as well as “to determine what’s going to happen when we restore the marsh,” said Charles Simenstad, a research associate professor with the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Services.

The marsh is located just yards from the shoreline on the Seaplane Base and the area in between the two is set to be restored so baby salmon can enter the marsh from the shallow water along the beach. The tiny salmon, some only about an inch long, are vulnerable in the open water.

“That’s why the marsh is so important,” Simenstad said.

Simenstad retrieved several of the young salmon from the shallow water along the beach and placed them temporarily in a five-gallon bucket, so the students could examine them. Simenstad also assisted the children in briefly picking up the baby fish, which gave the kids first-hand experience in understanding the species they are helping to save.

The outdoor adventure fit in well with the curriculum the children have been studying in the classroom, said one third-grade teacher, who was out there with her class.

“We study Whidbey Island as our third-grade curriculum,” said teacher Donna Smith. All year long her students have been learning about environmental stewardship.

Smith’s students, with the help of a representative of Island County Beach Watchers, dug up a small area of the sandy beach to see what kind of life forms are present. Then the kids were taught to always fill any holes they dig on the beach.

Some of the children stumbled upon a few large crabs. With the help of parent volunteers, including U.S. Navy Cmdr. Chuck Lutrell, the children were allowed to handle the crustaceans and learned how to tell the difference between types and gender.

The naval air station welcomed the students to the base for the “applied learning” opportunity, said Jim Keisel, a U.S. Navy senior chief and the base coordinator for Partnership in Education, a program that has been in place between the naval air station and the Oak Harbor School District since 1990.

The partnership has a two-fold purpose, said Keisel.

“It is important for the children,” he said. “It helps the Navy community help the kids.” It also augments what the teachers do in the classroom, he said.

Second, Keisel said that being partners in the education of the community’s children helps Navy members as well.

“For our Navy members, it’s fulfilling,” Keisel said. “It helps them grow as people.”

Speaking specifically of the kids’ involvement in the salmon habitat restoration project, one base civilian employee said that this is an opportunity for the base to share its natural environment with the community’s children.

“They’re just trying to bring up their knowledge of environmental restoration and their knowledge of the ecosystem,” said Art Foley, an environmental protection specialist with the naval air station’s environmental department.

The outing on Wednesday lasted from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., but the involvement of Oak Harbor students will continue through mid-June. By that time as many as 300 students are expected to have participated in the research process that precedes the restoration of the marsh.