By Davy Clark

Originally published in The Flyway, the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually and Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuges’ newsletter in winter 2020.

In March of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic made school field trips to the Refuge come to a grinding halt, we knew that this would be one of the few times that the Environmental Education Center would remain empty. We have missed the excited school groups visiting us on field trips to discover the wonders of wildlife, and in their absence we decided to make a unique improvement to this facility.

Friends of Nisqually NWRC commissioned a local artist, Carrie Ziegler, to paint a large mural portraying the Nisqually Watershed, from glacier to sound. At over 24 feet wide and 14 feet tall, this mural, pictured, celebrates the grandeur of the whole Nisqually Watershed.

Carrie is an experienced artist, naturalist, and environmental educator who knows the Refuge well. Painting this mural was truly a home-coming to Carrie, as her story and the Refuge are intertwined. She held an internship here while in college in 2002, painted another mural at the Refuge in 2013, and has been visiting the Refuge for many years.

Throughout all her projects Carrie works to connect art and science, and aims to be as realistic as possible while still taking artistic license to make her depictions of nature exciting and interesting in new and different ways. Her challenge was to capture the entire scope of the watershed, including the forests, the estuary, the river, and Mount Rainier all in one image. This required condensing elements of a huge space into something that felt natural. To do so she employed an artistic bending-of-reality that resulted in a beautiful depiction that captures many important elements of the Nisqually Watershed. And this was also what Carrie stated her favorite part of this project was. She appreciated the chance to focus on a whole landscape, and the movement of water, from the mountain where the river is born, through the hills where water drains to the river, to the estuary, and out to the Salish Sea.

This watershed mural will be used as a teaching tool. It was created in the room where large groups of school-aged students gather to be welcomed to the Refuge. It’s here that students learn what a National Wildlife Refuge is, what an Estuary is, and how we fit into the watershed as a whole. The mural will serve as a visual language to reinforce these concepts. As Refuge educators describe the narrow-fast flowing river emerging from the snout of the glacier, students will be able to look to the mural and see this. They will see the green forests of the middle watershed where creeks and streams gather water and join the river. And they will see the river’s end that has been protected as a National Wildlife Refuge, where fresh and saltwater meet and mix to form the Nisqually Estuary.

This time spent alongside the watershed mural is all to provide context for the experiences that students will have while exploring Refuge trails. Once out of the building, it is then that students explore the habitats of the Refuge and see wildlife thriving here at the end of this special watershed, reminding us that we all live downstream.

This mural was made possible through an outpouring of support and generosity by Friends of Nisqually NWRC members, the Nisqually Indian Tribe, and other community members who generously donated to this project. Our heartfelt thanks goes out to each and every donor! We set a goal of raising $10,000 and are thrilled to announce that we met our goal. Friends of Nisqually extend our heartfelt thanks to all who contributed towards this project. This support will serve students learning about the Nisqually Watershed for years to come. To find out more about Carrie Ziegler’s amazing murals and community-based artwork that focuses on environmental and social justice, visit her website at: carrieziegler.com

Visit the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge website to learn more about the refuge.