On any given day, you might find Brian Scheuch walking the dike of the Port Susan Bay Preserve, scanning the tidelands for birds. “I have the best job in Western Washington,” claims Scheuch, a volunteer site steward at the preserve near Stanwood. “It’s a labor of love for me.”
 
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, when the preserve was owned by a local farmer, Scheuch was an avid duck hunter and fisherman who frequented these tidelands of the Stillaguamish River Delta. As he became more familiar with Port Susan Bay, he developed a deep attachment to the area. He stopped hunting years ago, and now enjoys watching the snow geese, sandpipers, dunlins, and other shorebirds that make the preserve their winter home.

Scheuch spent 21 years commuting from LaConner to his company in Lynnwood. Now retired, he chooses to devote his time to conservation. He especially enjoys sharing the magic of nature with others. One day this winter, Scheuch took a group of Cub Scouts to the preserve and captured their attention with his collection of owl pellets, bird wings and mammal skulls. He got down on his hands and knees to show the boys the tunnels the field mice burrow through the grass. “I get back as much as I give, just by being here,” Scheuch says.