Get Busy, Get Muddy

• Get muddy while making friends and restoring salmon streams, planting native trees and doing battle with invasive plants, all in the name of helping Puget Sound. You just need boots, gloves, rain gear (depending on weather), a bagged lunch, a water bottle and a great attitude. Events take place around the region. Check dates at EarthCorps.org and MudUp.org.
• Become a citizen soundkeeper. Sue Joerger has an amazing job title--she is THE Puget Soundkeeper, a job that finds her weekly patrolling PUget Sound and the Duwamish River in search of signs of oil spills, peculiar smells and discoloration of the water. Her nonprofit group does its own policing to look for illegal pollution. Interested in helping out? Three or four times a year, her Puget Soundkeepr Alliance offers "citizen soundkeeper" training to teach the public how to identify and report pollution. Whether you ride a bike, walk, boat or kayak, the alliance says it needs your help to monitor shorelines. Get info at PugetSoundkeeper.org.
• Join "O2," an outdoor expedition-level program for Seattle teens (ages 14-19). Each month, it provides youths the opportunity to participate in two overnight excursions, environmental service-learning projects and weekly workshops. Get info at www.seattle.gov/parks/teens/02/default.htm.
• Fall in love with the Sound. Learn about the marine environment under the guidance of volunteer beach naturalists from the Seattle Aquarium this summer during low tides. Check events at SeattleAquarium.org.