NISQUALLY NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE – Saltwater rushed back into a 100-acre expanse of pasture land last month that tides hadn’t touched since it was diked for agricultural use more than a century ago.
On the other side of the Nisqually River, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is poised to pull back similar dikes to restore 700 acres of estuary in the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge.
Such large-scale dike removal projects aim to restore some of the Puget Sound’s richest biological reserves – estuaries where rivers meet the sea and provide habitat for hundreds of species of aquatic plants, invertebrates, fish and sea birds.
“We’re taking the dikes and levees off the rivers in a smart way, giving them a chance to breathe,” said Jim Kramer, co-director of the Puget Sound Partnership, appointed by Gov. Chris Gregoire to come up with a recovery plan for Puget Sound.
Over the past several decades, much of Puget Sound’s major river estuaries have succumbed to population growth and development. Estuary restoration projects like the one led by the Nisqually tribe appear to bear fruit quickly.
“We’re learning a lot about how quickly the vegetation, salmon and other marine life are drawn back to the area,” said Polly Hicks, restoration ecologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division.
Once the dikes go, salmon and other sea life start using the areas almost immediately, and the populations grow more plentiful and biologically diverse with the passing tides, said Jeanette Dorner, the tribe’s salmon recovery program manager.
Studies suggest the estuary restoration could double of the number of naturally spawning salmon in the river.
“Everybody’s been amazed at how successful the project has been,” said Tom Schreiber, an employee with RG Forestry Consultant, a contractor that continued restoration work this summer on a farm the Nisqually tribe purchased in 1999.
Ron Gold, the company’s owner, said he has gladly made the transition from logging and road building to working on about 100 habitat restoration projects over the past two decades.
“Instead of taking away, we’re putting back,” he said.
Most major river estuaries in Puget Sound are home to ports and industry, which make large-scale estuary restoration work very costly, if not impossible, Dorner said.
The Nisqually restoration project came about after conservationists, the tribe and others fought to ward off plans for a major industrial port 40 years ago, Doner noted.
On Hood Canal, the Skokomish Tribe has partnered with the city of Tacoma and the Mason Conservation District to remove dikes, access roads and tide gates at the old Nalley Farm in the Skokomish River Delta.
That project, set to begin in the spring of 2007, would eventually restore about 300 acres of estuary.
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