Ecology partnership, federal award save coastal wetland habitat

Washington State Department of Ecology

Department of Ecology News Release - February 2, 2010

10-016

Ecology partnership, federal award save coastal wetland habitat

OLYMPIA – The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) has secured five federal grants worth a total of nearly $4 million to help return 1,100 acres of coastal wetlands and connected freshwater and upland habitat areas in Jefferson, Pacific, Thurston and Whatcom counties back to natural conditions.

Ecology is working in close partnership with the Lummi Nation, Columbia Land Trust, Capitol Land Trust, Jefferson County Land Trust, Cascade Land Conservancy, and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to ensure the acquisitions will be restored and protected.

Details about the five wetland restoration and preservation projects on Washington’s outer coast and in Puget Sound are available at: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/wetlands/stewardship/nwcgp.html .

Wetlands provide crucial economic benefits because they naturally help control floods, filter drinking water and keep erosion in check.

Washington’s near-shore estuaries and interconnected upland freshwater wetlands also provide vital habitat for waterfowl, shorebirds and other wildlife species and are vital nurseries for salmon and other marine life. Coastal wetlands help sustain clam, oyster and mussel beds as well as other shellfish species – an industry worth more than $80 million annually to the state economy.

Ecology’s Gordon White, who oversees statewide wetland restoration and protection activities, said during the past 125 years Puget Sound shorelines have lost nearly 70 percent of its marine wetlands and near-shore habitat areas due to residential, commercial and industrial development.

White said obtaining, restoring and preserving critical wetland areas are a high priority for Ecology – and a cornerstone of the Puget Sound Partnership’s Action Agenda to recover and protect Puget Sound by 2020.

“These projects demonstrate if we all work together on the federal, state, tribal, private, non-profit and local levels, we can identify, invest in and make the most of these rare opportunities to benefit our economy and environment,” White said.

He added the federal money is also helping the tribe and conservation groups leverage additional state and private funding that will expand each wetland restoration and protection project. Ecology is using the $4 million National Wetland Conservation Program Grants for these investments:

$1 million to acquire 125 acres of coastal wetlands, streamside areas and mature and old growth forest as part of Island and Loomis Lakes conservation project on the Long Beach Peninsula in Pacific County. Ecology is partnering with the Columbia Land Trust, which is adding an additional $476,000 in cash and other lands to protect a total of 890 acres for the project.
$1 million to protect 705 acres of salt marsh, eelgrass meadows, mudflats and freshwater forested wetlands as part of the Stanley Point / South Willapa Bay conservation project in Pacific County. Ecology is working closely with the Cascade Land Conservancy, which is adding $559,000. As a result, five miles of pristine estuary shoreline in south Willapa Bay will be permanently protected.
$701,250 to protect 76 acres of the lower Donovan Creek ecosystem in upper Quilcene Bay on Hood Canal in Jefferson County. Ecology is working in partnership with Jefferson County Land Trust, which is adding another $318, 750. The project will restore almost a mile of stream habitat, 15 acres of streamside habitat, and acquire 43 acres of coastal wetland, streamside and upland habitat.
$700,500 to permanently protect 160 acres of Nooksack River estuary wetlands and restore tidal wetlands adjacent to the Smuggler’s Slough restoration project in Whatcom County. Ecology is working in partnership with the Lummi Nation, which is adding another $467,000 toward the project.
$531,745 to acquire 20 acres of forested and coastal wetland habitat along the eastern shore of Totten Inlet in Thurston County. Ecology is partnering with the Capitol Land Trust, which is adding $286,440 to protect the 1,400 feet of undeveloped coastal shoreline and connected forested and estuary wetlands.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service established the National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program in 1990. It is designed to help states acquire, restore and enhance coastal wetlands. Funding for the program comes from excise taxes on fishing equipment and motorboat and small engine fuels.

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Contacts:
Curt Hart, Ecology media relations, 360-407-6990; cell, 360-480-7908 ( curt.hart@ecy.wa.gov )
Jeanne Koenings, Ecology wetland stewardship specialist, 360-407-7258 ( jeanne.koenings@ecy.wa.gov )

For more information:
Project details: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/wetlands/stewardship/nwcgp.html
Ecology wetlands information: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/wetlands/index.html
National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program: www.fws.gov/coastal/CoastalGrants/