An enormous joint effort to “restore” wetlands by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers revives some serious questions about the future of Marshland and the Snohomish tidal floodplain. (Nov. 4 article, “Wetlands future is muddy.”) The proposed flooding of north Marshland for salmon conservation would cost over $300 million, as one of 11 projects totaling $1.1 billion.
The projects’ relative secrecy to date was rightly questioned by lowland owner Pete Landry at South Lowell. A quiet profile with heads down is well justified by Fish and Wildlife’s record here. Plans to enhance salmon by farmland flooding on Drainage District No. 6, Ebey Island and Smith Island have failed outright or aroused severe criticism from experts actually knowledgeable of those areas. Fish and Wildlife planners have never demonstrated with research that salmon smolt can thrive in warmed shallow waters of flooded lowlands. Blind planning that destroys farmland and historic legacies has few friends among lowland farmers, residents and regional leaders with vision of the future.
Realistically, some part of what the agencies seek through “restoration” could be attained through precepts of environment-integrated agriculture. As a floodplain landowner myself, and a lifetime ag researcher, I believe that the options of integrated fish/farmer co-prosperity for the entire Puget Sound venue could be researched at less than 1 percent of the project’s $1.1 billion.
Future planners for north Marshland wold be wise to investigate the conservations efforts already made there. A bright point in Lowell’s recent history was a multiple-use farmland project on the late Elwin Anderson property near Pete Landry’s farm. Certain community garden plots there were Cornell-textbook examples of soils care and vegetable production. To my knowledge, the Lowell project was the first among Everett’s neighborhoods — and indeed in Snohomish County — to include plots directed specifically to research on atmosphere conservation, water conservation and biomass energy production.
Alex G. Alexander
Everett
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