EDMONDS — As visitors stroll the 944-foot fishing pier on the city’s waterfront, it’s hard to draw your attention away from the views of Puget Sound and snow-capped peaks in the Olympic Mountains.
But at several points along the pier are large color posters about the birds, fish, orcas and other creatures living nearby. The sun-bleached informational signs, though, are showing their wear.
So when a project was first announced to temporarily close the pier this spring to allow reconstruction of its foundation, Edmonds-Woodway students saw it as an opportunity to also consider what types of new informational signs and other improvements could be made on the pier.
The project began during the 2014-15 school year by two members of the school’s Students Saving Salmon club, Rondi Nordal, 18, now a senior, and classmate Patrick Matulka, now a University of Washington student.
Club adviser Val Stewart, who also serves of the city’s planning board, suggested that students should interview people who use the pier, Nordal said.
One of the pier’s current signs on the salmon life cycle “looked busy and didn’t have a very effective method of explaining the information,” Nordal said. Her suggestion was to make one sign a little simpler with more detailed information posted on a second sign.
She said she would also like to see another sign, which lists fish commonly caught in Puget Sound, have more specific information on the types of sea life caught in the nearshore areas of Edmonds.
Nordal is working with Jen Leach, the city’s environmental education and sustainability coordinator, on recommendations for new informational signs when the pier is scheduled to reopen in June.
Leach said the students also noted that while it’s good to have depictions of fish that might be caught in Puget Sound, there was no information about the current signs on the conservation status of the fish. “It’s information, but no action is associated with it,” Leach said. “It doesn’t have the opportunity to influence people’s decisions.”
Nordal and Matulka also interviewed people who were fishing on the pier about other topics, such as the need for electrical outlets. People who fish for squid do so at night and use generators to light the water to attract the creatures, Nordal said. Now they use gasoline generators.
At first, Nordal said she was little nervous about walking up to ask questions of someone she didn’t know. “After the first couple of people, it’s nothing too scary,” she said.
The students also heard that there was no place for fishermen to access the most up-to-date fishing regulations, Leach said. “It’s definitely been a real help to have the high school students take a look at what’s out there.”
Stewart, who suggested the project to Nordal and Matulka, formerly worked for the city as a beach ranger. The two students took a look at steps taken by other cities with piers to improve the experience of everyone using them, she said.
Nordal’s not the type of person to take all the credit for the project, Stewart said. But the leadership she showed “really kept it moving forward.
Her diligence in getting the information and working as a team with Matulka “has been the reason the project has been so successful,” Stewart said.
“Her leadership skills are shining through,” Stewart said. “I’ve witnessed it.”
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.
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