STANWOOD — The state Department of Fish and Wildlife has decided to remove most of the dikes around Leque Island, a slice of former farmland between Stanwood and Camano Island.

The 300-acre island is a popular spot for hunting and bird-watching. It’s surrounded by levees built more than a century ago to protect crops. Many of the levees are failing. Removing them will let saltwater flood the area during high tides and hopefully create habitat for salmon, according to the department.

Officials started looking at options for either removing or repairing Leque Island’s levees in the early 2000s, and the Salmon Recovery Funding Board supported the effort with grants in 2004 and 2007. A plan that would have removed levees around half the island and repaired the rest was in the works in 2005 when concerns about saltwater intrusion into a Camano Island aquifer stalled the project.

The Environmental Protection Agency ruled that removing the levees doesn’t pose a threat to the freshwater aquifer, and the Department of Fish and Wildlife returned to the project in 2013. Planners formed a 31-member volunteer advisory committee and held public meetings to gather questions, concerns and suggestions. The committee had representatives from groups that have repeatedly opposed removing dikes around the island. Opponents include the Washington Waterfowl Association and Camano Water Systems Association.

The advisory committee narrowed the list of possibilities for Leque Island to six designs. Among the options were leaving the failing levees alone, rebuilding them, removing them or breaching them in select spots.

“Now we have our preferred option to move forward with, but that’s at a conceptual level,” project coordinator Loren Brokaw said. “It removes the majority of the levees but leaves a linear stretch.”

The design is considered a full restoration of the island, allowing saltwater to flood almost all of it during high tides. A stretch of levee on the east side of the island, along the Stillaguamish River, would be repaired rather than removed under the current plan, but that may change if more detailed design work suggests that levee should be removed, as well, according to an analysis and design report.

More studies are needed of the soils, water flow, topography and tides before a final design is put together, Brokaw said. Then permitting could take up to a year.

At the earliest, work will start on removing the dikes in summer 2017, he said. The initial cost estimate for the project is $3 million, but that’s a very rough calculation, Brokaw said. It’s one of the least expensive options the department considered. Cost estimates for the six alternatives ranged from $2 million to $11 million.

In the coming months, the Department of Fish and Wildlife plans to seek ideas from the public on possible recreation features for the island once the levees are removed. There could be elevated trails and boardwalks, hunting and photography blinds and information kiosks, according to the report.

The department plans to form another volunteer advisory committee for the recreation features, similar to the one they brought together for the levee removal decision. For more information, people can visit www.wdfw.wa.gov.

“We’re not sure yet what is most feasible and what the expense would be,” Brokaw said. “There will still be lots of things to see and do out there.”

Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com.