Summer Chums and supporters group photo at H.J. Carroll County Park.
Move over, Mariners! Jefferson Land Trust staff members, along with their assorted partners and friends, plus a few Land Trust volunteers, are having a ball this summer on the Summer Chums softball team! The Chums are one of seven teams in Jefferson County Parks and Recreation’s 2025 co-ed adult softball league.
Coach Devon going over the game plan.
Starting in April, the Summer Chums began meeting regularly to practice, with the aims of having fun, building friendships, and getting outside while honing softball skills. Each practice, scrimmage, or game ends with the Chums’ team cheer: “One, two, three, UPSTREAM!”
They’ve now eagerly splashed into the official season, which started in early June and runs through mid-July. Games are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays at H.J. Carroll County Park in Port Hadlock or Memorial Field in Port Townsend.
What’s the Summer Chums’ record so far? Let’s just say the other teams are always happy to see them! And the Chums are always happy to see fellow Land Trust staff members and supporters cheering them on from the stands. We hope you’ll drop by to catch a game — see the full season schedule here.
The Chums’ Head Coach is Land Trust Education Coordinator Devon Buckham, who founded the team, brings the equipment, sets up the roster on his whiteboard, and gives the pep talks. Devon humbly downplays this role, but further suspicion is roused by the fact that his daughter is the team scorekeeper and his wife plays on the team, too.
“One, two, three, UPSTREAM!”
The championship tournament kicks off in mid-July — and we hope to see you there! Until then: upstream all the way! Go Summer Chums!
About the name: Summer chum are one of the species of native salmon found in our local waters — and their connection to the Land Trust is of particular significance.
The Land Trust can trace its founding back to the grassroots effort to save summer chum in Chimacum Creek after high waters washed out a culvert and a road upstream in the late 1980s. Chimacum Creek was filled with so much sediment that its summer chum population was completely wiped out, but community members came together to meticulously clear the creek of sediment and reintroduce the summer chum to the creek.
Realizing the power of working together for conservation, many of the people involved in this effort went on to help establish the Land Trust. Three decades on, the chum salmon are coming back, and Jefferson Land Trust is proud to be part of large-scale regional efforts to restore Chimacum Creek and the Chimacum Creek watershed for the benefit of summer chum as well as other salmon and wildlife, and our local community.
