Inmates working to save salmon

BELFAIR, Mason County — It was the state budget cut with a silver lining.

The state Department of Natural Resources last year cut funding for an inmate firefighting crew based at Belfair's Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women. Fifty of the approximately 180 inmates at Mission Creek were left with a lot more time on their hands.

"It was a struggle to think, 'what are we going to do with 50 women?' " said Wanda McRae, Mission Creek's superintendent.

They then looked locally.

Mission Creek officials had already established a community-service crew, so they basically expanded it, McRae said. And the partnerships have blossomed.

In one of the most successful partnerships thus far, inmates have teamed up with the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group, which works to restore salmon habitat.

Each Monday, groups of eight women are taken to rivers and streams around the Hood Canal, where they work all day spraying knotweed, a noxious weed that can destroy salmon habitat.

The inmates from the minimum-security prison get training, pay of $1 an hour and a chance to venture beyond the prison walls for a short time. The salmon group gets an enthusiastic cadre of women who can complete half-mile eradication efforts in a day.

"One day with a crew of eight can do so much," said Julie Easton, the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group's volunteer coordinator.

The inmates can also take a test to become licensed at handling and spraying pesticides.

"It's another thing I can get my license for," said Stephanie Humphreys-Bennett, a Tacoma woman serving 43 months for possession of stolen property.

The mother of five has taken every opportunity while incarcerated to gain experience that might help her get a job when she's released.

"The blessing in this is we were able to find a program that helps the Hood Canal, as well as the offenders," McRae added.

The women on the crew must have a track record of good behavior and have worked their way through jobs inside the prison walls before being considered for a community project.

As a reward, they get to work on such a job "outside the gates," said Devina Taylor, a Seattle woman serving 29 months for identification theft and drug possession.

Knotweed, a plant native to Asia that escaped from area gardens, invades the habitats of native plants.

Because its roots are shallower and weaker than the native vegetation, knotweed makes the banks of streams and rivers much less robust, said Michelle Myers, education outreach coordinator and research assistant for the salmon group.

That can lead to the banks collapsing and the spreading and mixing of sediment, which impedes the salmon from swimming upstream.

Mission Creek Corrections Center inmates are also helping set up the Kitsap County Fair and are building a greenhouse and doing maintenance work at Harmony Hill, a nonprofit retreat center for cancer patients in Union.

More projects are in the works, according to prison officials.

Despite the loss of DNR funds, an inmate crew also remains trained to fight local wildfires.

Lisa Hurde, a Port Orchard resident who has worked as a waitress much of her life, has focused on learning new trades while serving a 57-month sentence for ID theft.

She said that when her time is up, she's keeping her options open, thanks to the new skills she's learned on the inside, including the restoration of salmon habitat.

"You never know," she said of what the future holds.

Michelle Gustafson of Shelton admitted that she never held a job for very long before prison, but she is enjoying the chance to work along the river.