Community partnerships spawn salmon education for local park 

As any good outdoor enthusiast knows, the first rule of exploring nature is: “Leave no trace.” There are, however, the occasional exceptions to this principle — such as when small, human-made additions to wild places raise awareness about conservation and other environmental issues. 

When Ash Putzke spent their summers as a kid catching salmon fry at the mouth of Denny Creek in Kirkland, Washington, they never imagined they would someday leave their own mark on the park. 

Now, as a senior double majoring in Earth System Science and in Biology at the University of Washington Bothell, Putzke recently played an instrumental role in developing several new features for Kirkland’s O.O. Denny Park — including signage to educate visitors about salmon as well as geocaching tours. 

“O.O. Denny Park is my favorite park in Kirkland. I’ve spent so many hours wandering around there and catching fry there as a kid,” Putzke said. “Salmon work is so important, and I’m thrilled to be part of it. To have these signs here and know that I helped put them there is a really cool feeling.” 

Neighborhood collaboration

Denny Creek runs through the heart of Kirkland’s Finn Hill neighborhood and empties into Lake Washington through O.O. Denny Park. With 46 acres of trails and dense forest featuring some of the oldest trees in the area, it’s one of several parks and green spaces that the Finn Hill Neighborhood Alliance is working to connect through a continuous woodland pathway. 

The new signage, unveiled to the public in July 2025, is the latest project to come out of the Finn Hill Green Loop initiative. With funding from a “Get Active, Stay Active” grant from King County, FHNA commissioned the signs from one of its longtime community partners — UW Bothell. 

“The Finn Hill Neighborhood Alliance is committed to connecting our community with the woodlands and wetlands that we’re lucky to have in our area,” said Scott Morris, FHNA president. “We want walking through our parklands to be interesting and fun for kids and adults, so we were excited to work with UW Bothell on these projects.” 

Faculty and students from UW Bothell have been collaborating with FHNA on research projects in the area for years. More recently, this work has taken place under the umbrella of the Collaborative for Socio-Ecological Engagement — a university-led research and learning unit that formally launched last year. 

CoSEE operates out of the Environmental Education & Research Center in Saint Edward State Park — just up the road from O.O. Denny Park. The neighboring organizations have a shared vision for the research and conservation potential of the area. 

Shared passion for salmon 

An ichthyologist, a teaching professor in UW Bothell’s School of STEM, Dr. Jeff Jensen is known throughout the region for his research on salmon. When considering what projects might enhance the park, he wanted salmon conservation to be the driving force. 

“It’s altogether fitting that we’re celebrating salmon in this place next to this lake with a sweet little stream,” he said. “We tend to think of salmon as needing rivers and larger streams, but it’s little creeks like this that were historically the lifeblood of the salmon — and it was the salmon that was in many ways the lifeblood of the people who lived here before.” 

Native kokanee salmon, in particular, would have spawned abundantly through these tributaries, he said. Although the species was believed to no longer exist in the region a couple decades ago, DNA testing later confirmed they still maintained a presence here. 

Thanks to various conservation efforts, the species has made a significant comeback. A reported 8,300 adult kokanee returned from Lake Sammamish to spawn during the 2023-24 season — a major increase from the fewer than 20 that returned the seven years previous, according to King County Department of Natural Resources. 

For the O.O. Denny Park project, Jensen envisioned a series of trail signs to educate the public about salmon and promote conservation efforts. An advisory board member for CoSEE, he then recruited Putzke, an intern, to help see his vision through and develop the signage. 

Across the finish line 

Putzke’s first research project had been under Jensen, doing survey work for kokanee in Lake Sammamish. Putzke had also been serving as a program assistant and an intern at the EERC and was already connected with FHNA through another project doing wildlife camera trap research. When Jensen reached out, Putzke eagerly jumped on board. 

“The salmon research I did with Professor Jensen got me hooked,” Putzke said. “The Green Loop project met with my own hopes for the neighborhood as a resident, and I was excited to take this project across the finish line.” 

Putzke worked on design and content for the signs — drawing from Jensen’s work and tailoring it for a public audience — and updated or created geocaching tours. 

“The community loved them, but they needed a little bit of a facelift,” Putzke said. “We wanted to make them a little more informative and really highlight different aspects of connection to nature, to remind us that we are animals and part of this ecosystem.” 

While Putzke did much of the writing and research as well as some of the design work, they noted that both projects were made possible through collaboration with a number of faculty and staff. Their work was also supervised by Madeline Iem, CoSEE program manager, who launched the collaborative’s internship program when she joined UW Bothell last year. 

“Ash turned out some of the most beautiful content I’ve ever seen written by an undergraduate,” Iem said. “They really did most of the work. Everything was really well researched and well done. Ash is an incredible worker and a high caliber intern.” 

The value of outreach 

The four new signs and the new geocaching tour were launched in July at a community event called “FishFest!” Also unveiled was a salmon mural created by artist Austin Picinich and painted by community members at the DennyFest 2024. Picinich, a senior majoring in Marketing at the UW, has worked with Jensen for several years as part of the North Lake Washington Salmon Watchers, a program managed by Jensen where community members volunteer to observe a section of a local stream and submit their observations. 

“This is a very moving experience because what we’re doing is bringing together science with learning, with art and with conservation — and what a great combination that is,” King County Councilmember Rod Dembowski said at the event. “It’s magical when it comes together, and it comes together right here in Finn Hill and in O.O. Denny Park and the connected trails and waterways and parks that make up this area.” 

For Putzke, this project was also an opportunity to dip their toes beyond research and into science communications, and to see firsthand the value that outreach can bring to a cause. 

“This project really opened my eyes to just how broad and important being able to communicate with everybody about science is. People care about local research if you tell them to care. They love to hear about what’s happening in their backyard. It’s just a matter of letting them know,” Putzke said. 

“I’m so proud and grateful to have had the opportunity to work on this project. It took a lot of time and work, but we got there in the end — and now the community can enjoy these resources, and everyone can get involved.”