Western professor works to revitalize clam gardens

Hatch awarded Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation
May 9, 2023 at 10:51 a.m.



Marco Hatch is a member of the Samish Indian Nation, a professor at Western Washington University and recent recipient of a Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation. His work centers around clams and sea gardens, and their role in Indigenous communities and culture. (Photo courtesy of Marco Hatch)

By HAILEY HOFFMAN
Staff Reporter

For the better part of the last 20 years, Western Washington University environmental science professor Marco Hatch has had his hands in the muddy shores of the Pacific Northwest and Canada, digging for clams.

Specifically, Hatch has dedicated his life's work to clam gardens and the cultural importance to the Indigenous people of the region. For centuries, they would place heavy rocks at the low tide line to build a short wall. The high tide would deposit sediment, creating the ideal habitat for clams to grow and thrive, and for other small marine species, like crabs and young fish, to find safe harbor. They managed and harvested the gardens, before colonization.

Hatch, a member of the Samish Indian Nation, said the remnants of sea gardens can be found up and down the coast, from Washington to Alaska.

"Still now in many spaces, Indigenous people are thought of as passive in the environment, that our roles in shaping terrestrial and marine systems were nonexistent, that we were simply enjoying the Eden-esque bounties," he said. "The more we listen to communities and the more we understand, we see all of these examples that environments were cared for."

More:
https://www.cascadiadaily.com/news/2023/may/09/western-professor-works-to-revitalize-clam-gardens/