Barbara Greene, owner of Delandé Dan Farm in Belfair, was one of three Hood Canal farms in 2005 to earn the “Salmon-safe” label. She poses here with her small herd of Scottish Galloway cattle. / Toni Droscher, Action Team

Barbara Greene can now add the Salmon-safe label to her organically raised eggs and vegetables.

Greene, owner of Delandé Dan Farm in Belfair, was one of three farms in the Hood Canal Watershed to be certified “Salmon-safe” in late 2005 for using fish-friendly farming practices. Stewardship Partners, a non-profit organization, established the Salmon-safe program to recognize farmers who protect habitat, water quality and overall watershed health while managing their agriculture property. There are nearly two-dozen Salmon-safe farms throughout Puget Sound . How farms manage and use water is one of several criteria scrutinized on the way to becoming Salmon-safe. Greene’s five-acre farm sits on a hill above Hood Canal ’s south shore. The property slopes down and Greene knows what runs off her property may run into the canal. “The name of the game is to keep water on your property as much as possible,” Greene said.

Some of her water strategies are downright simple. At the lower end of her property she lets shrubs—even blackberries—grow alongside the road so that their root systems will absorb a lot of the runoff. She also prevents erosion by covering the bare ground where her cattle feed with straw or mulch.To cut water use, Greene uses drip irrigation instead of overhead sprinklers, and she keeps her orchard and garden irrigation systems well mulched to prevent evaporation.

The two other Hood Canal farms that were certified Salmon-safe in 2005 are Nicholas Browne and Jonathan Pavley, High Water Agriculture, a 10-acre farm in the Skokomish Valley, and Katrinka Hibler, Giggling Goats Gardens, a 40-acre farm in Shelton.

Learn more about the Salmon-Safe label at www.stewardshippartners.org.

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