Spring is in the air.  Look up.  Around Mother’s Day you will see one more sign of spring.  Kingston’s annual flower baskets hanging from 120 light poles in and around town.  The colorful display from the Kingston Community Beautification Committee returns for 2021.  And with it the Committee has a new parent organization, the Kingston North Kitsap Rotary Club. The Rotary Club will provide the needed organizational and banking support.  Hanging and watering the baskets will resume through the work of local volunteers.  And “the Gator” returns, thanks to the Port of Kingston, to help the watering efforts, formerly coordinated by Rotarian Dan Martin, currently by Rotarian Mary Jane Gilbreath.

     The basket program began around the year 2000, thanks to the Kingston Revitalization Committee and Karen Ross.  It was an effort to spruce up “Tiny Town.”  Run the numbers, and that is 2400 baskets over the years.  In the beginning, until just a couple years ago, the baskets were curated by Foxglove Nursery, as the program was the brainchild of Nursery owners Gail Halsaver and her late husband, Dave.  They are being prepared this year by Valley Nursery, and carefully hanged, according to Beautification Committee member Kris Libby,  “thanks to Dave Wetter and his magnificent truck and ‘hangers’ from the high school sports teams.”

    But, help is needed.  To support the program, money is raised through individual basket sponsorships.  With 70 sponsors to date this year, some sponsoring multiple baskets, more are needed.    Sponsors will not see their name in lights, or on the basket, but they will know.  They will know they are part of the “crowd.”  The one that made it happen.  

    Sponsorship of a basket costs $100, plus a $30 annual maintenance fee.  Sponsors are needed.  Watering volunteers are needed.  To sign up for either - or both - contact Shannon Castillo at Thistle Floral and Home: 360-930-2843 - or - flowers@thistlefloralandhome.com.  Better yet, go see Shannon at her shop in Kingston. 

     Kingston North Kitsap Rotary Club supports its community with ongoing grants to local organizations.  One such operation is Stillwaters Environmental Center in Kingston.  Stillwaters is an environmental science and education center in the Carpenter Creek watershed.  Under the direction of Stillwaters Program Director Melissa Fleming, community citizens are joined by interns and graduate students from local universities in conducting field research and monitoring and preserving the estuary, salt marsh, and the watershed.  

    Dr. Fleming spoke to KNK Rotarians at their Apr 7 Zoom meeting.  She explained the impact of replacing small culverts on West and South Kingston roads in recent years.  Those small culverts, she said, restricted young salmon going out to the ocean to become adults.  Estuaries help the salmon adjust from fresh to salt water in the journey to the sea.  

    Since 2001 Stillwaters has done monthly stream water quality monitoring as Carpenter Creek empties from Carpenter Lake to Puget Sound.  Additionally, Stillwaters volunteers accomplish bird and vegetation surveys.  Interestingly, they have noted more herons and bald eagles in the estuary, concluding it is becoming a richer feeding ground for the birds.