Community Action Training School (CATS) 2024

Are you ready to make real changes in your watershed? Do you feel more knowledge on key environmental issues would allow you to focus your passions on salmon, orca, or ecosystem protection and restoration?

The Community Action Training School is the place for you! This course seeks to empower community members to be effective at making the change they want to see in the world. The FREE program provides a robust series of classes on important scientific issues including watershed health, clean water, native plants, salmon habitat/population restoration, and more. The program administrators support attendees in designing and implementing stewardship action projects in their communities.

Sound Salmon Solutions is running CATS specifically for residents of Watershed Resource Inventory Area (WRIA) 7 which includes the Snoqualmie/Skykomish/Snohomish Watersheds.

Mid Sound Fisheries is running a CATS program for residents in WRIA 8 which includes the Lake Washington/Cedar/Sammamish Watersheds. If you are in WRIA 8, check out their page here.

If you are unsure of which WRIA you live in, you can look up your watershed area here.

*A watershed is a regional landscape of waterways where snowmelt, precipitation, streams, and rivers make their journey to the Puget Sound

2024 CATS Schedule

Classes will run from May to September, with three intermittent, hands-on, field trips, and a final citizen scientist (you!) led project in your community.

Virtual Class Dates: Tuesdays, 6:00 - 8:00 pm on the following dates: 

  • May 7, 2024

  • May 21, 2024

  • June 4, 2024

  • June 18, 2024

  • July 2, 2024

  • July 16, 2024

  • July 30, 2024

  • August 13, 2024

Field trips: Saturdays on the following dates: 

  • May 11, 2024: Optional field trip in Edmonds. Release some baby coho salmon with us while observing a habitat restoration site from a previous CATS graduate. Timing is TBD but likely in the late morning.

  • June 22, 2024: Field trip with Sno-King Water Council. Location and timing is TBD.

  • July 27, 2024: Field trip with Oxbow Farms in Carnation. Timing TBD.

  • September 14, 2024: Field trip with Beach Watchers. Location and timing TBD.

Final Graduation: October 5, 2024. Time & location TBA.

Stewardship Action Project (SAP)

As a CATS student, you will gain information necessary to create meaningful change as a community leader in your watershed. Students receive the mentoring necessary to create and implement their projects, which in turn will engage other community members in watershed stewardship. For example, projects may include elements of community education and engagement, habitat restoration, water quality monitoring projects, advocacy efforts, and more.

This project is a required component of participation in CATS.

Example SAP project completed by a previous participant where they built a rain garden at their home to improve water quality of stormwater runoff.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Please use the registration form below to sign up. Applications are due on May 1. If you have discovered this program after the application due date, please email us (contact information at bottom of page) to inquire if we still have space. The program is free, although we do ask for a commitment of attendance for at least 80% of the sessions, and completion of a minimum of 50 hours of work towards your Stewardship Action Project. Anyone 16 years old (with parents permission) or older living in WRIA 7 are encouraged to apply!

  • The classes will be held via Zoom. Field trips will be in person. Locations are TBD.

  • We’re lining up experts in their fields to speak at the lessons. You’ll hear from local educators, activists, lawyers, and people who’ve worked in the restoration field for decades. We’ll have community members (like you) who have been in the trenches, fighting to restore the ecosystems in their backyard. We’ll have scientists who are experts in their field cover a variety topics (for example, how rain flowing off the road contributes to a water quality crisis affecting orcas). Most of all, we’ll work to put together all the tangible actions you and your neighbors can champion in your own communities.

  • Giving back takes support! We mentor you through the development of your community project idea, and help you make it a reality. Past projects included: creating a Student Salmon Stewards programs at an Edmonds high school, developing a “virtual field trip” of a Puget Sound dive excursion delivered to a local classroom, conducting a survey of foraging fish at a local beach, and revegetating several local parks and public spaces.

    The projects can be done as individuals, as groups with other participants, and/or in partnership with local organizations.  Our staff will be available to help you in various ways such as helping you make connections with people in your field of interest, assisting with the design of the project, coming up with ideas for funding, or connecting you with local organizations in need of support. 

  • Thanks to the generous funding from WRIAs 7 and the King County Flood Control District, we are able to offer CATS as a free course. All we ask in return is that you volunteer 50 hours towards your Stewardship Action Project and remain active in making your communities a better place — for people, for wildlife, and for salmon.

  • Still have questions?  Great! Give us a call or shoot us an email.

    Sound Salmon Solutions (425)252-6686

    Kaelie at kaelie[at]soundsalmonsolutions[dot]org

    Brittany at brittany[at]soundsalmonsolutions[dot]org  

Ready to sign up? PLease use this form to register:

Registration for the 2025 cohort coming soon!

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Still have questions? Give us a call or shoot us an email.
Sound Salmon Solutions (425)252-6686

Kaelie at kaelie[at]soundsalmonsolutions[dot]org

Brittany at brittany[at]soundsalmonsolutions[dot]org