EVERETT —The area is prime for fish and wildlife restoration, but the expense to do so is staggering.
It would take between $44 million and $63 million to restore hundreds of acres of wetlands on the city’s southeastern fringe. Some people know the area, on the banks of the Snohomish River, as the marshlands.
Those figures come from a new environmental report by a Seattle consultant that specializes in shoreline restoration.
The area was once part of more than 10,000 acres of tidal marsh. For the past century, the area has been diked and farmed and protected from daily tides.
The $200,000 study by Anchor Environmental was launched to determine the potential for recreation and salmon habitat restoration on the land, which could one day be Everett’s largest park with open space for picnics and miles of trails.
The work is part of a 2004 legal settlement among the city, state Department of Ecology and a coalition of environmentalists.
The joint Planning Commission and Parks Board meeting is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the study on Tuesday.
More than a decade ago, Everett paid $1 million for more than 300 acres of the marshlands to build a park. Early plans called for soccer and baseball fields, a climbing rock and a children’s golf course.
Those plans were tabled, however, after the Everett Shoreline Coalition and the Washington Environmental Council successfully challenged the city’s master shoreline plan before the Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board.
The environmental groups argued more should be done to restore fish and wildlife habitat. Developing a park was premature and could get in the way of restoration, they said.
Rather than appealing the decision, Everett officials met with the environmental groups for a year and negotiated a compromise that requires the city to conduct restoration studies before developing the Marshlands.
Joint meeting
A joint Planning Commission and Parks Board meeting is scheduled to discuss the marshlands study. The meeting is 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Everett Station’s Weyerhaeuser Room, 3201 Smith St.
For more information, call 425-257-8736 or go to dkoenig@ci.everett.wa.us.
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