ARLINGTON — Near the Legion Park gazebo, children raced through the salmon obstacle course.
“I have to let the boys do this each year,” Arlington’s Kelly Rookaird said, as her 11-year-old sons, Reece and Roman, worked their way around simulated predators and fishing nets.
City stormwater manager Bill Blake recalled building the first salmon obstacle course with John Munn 18 years ago. The portable interactive exhibit also has been featured at the Stillaguamish Festival of the River for years.
“John has since passed away, but it’s nice to know that this was one of our ideas that worked,” said Blake, who cited the course’s popularity as one of the reasons why he’s looked into setting up a permanent salmon obstacle course in town.
The ninth annual Arlington-Stillaguamish Eagle Festival drew an estimated 2,500 visitors to town, up from the roughly 2,000 who stopped by last year, Blake said.
“For four hours, the council chambers were just packed with people lining up to see the live birds from Sarvey, and there must have been dozens of kids going through the salmon obstacle course,” said Blake, who’s been part of the Eagle Festival since its inception, along with city recreation manager Sarah Lopez.
Blake acknowledged that birds were scarce during the guided tour of the Port Susan Preserve Nature Conservancy that morning, as well as the walks through the city’s stormwater wetland and Eagle Trail. However, he reported that many participants seemed to appreciate the great outdoors so close to their homes.
“A lot of them hadn’t even seen the new trail going through Country Charm yet,” Blake said. “In just a few minutes, they were out in the wilderness.”
At the City Council chambers, Sarvey Wildlife Center volunteers showed off formerly wild birds that can no longer be released due to debilitating injuries.
“It’s terrible that we have to keep such a magnificent bird because her beak is misaligned, but we can’t realign it, and she’d starve out in the wild,” Kestrel SkyHawk said of Hu Iwake, the Golden Eagle perched on her arm, which has been with Sarvey for 15 of its 16 years. “Normally, Golden Eagles are quite fierce, so that we can show one off to the public is an exceptional opportunity.”
The city’s public parking lot played host to the return of the Country Carvers’ chainsaw carving show Feb. 5-6. Organizers Dave and Debbie Tremko said a dozen carvers participated.
“The fact that they were able to create such intricate, high-quality works of art on the spot is just amazing, and really demonstrates their expertise,” Blake said.
Over in Magnolia Hall, Terry Green took first place in both the eagle and nature categories of the Arlington Arts Council’s annual art contest, while Danilo Carrasco took first in the youth category and Lopez scored first in mixed media.
The council also named the first-place winners of its haiku contest, which included Arlington’s Cadence Roxby in the K-5 category, Lake Stevens’ Carly Bair in the grades 6-12 category for a second year, and Marysville’s Melanie Kreiger in the 19 years and older category.
“This festival is just a good opportunity to educate people about the beauty and wonders of our natural resources, and of the importance of protecting them and ensuring our own quality of life,” Blake said.
