Habitat Restoration in the Commencement Bay Nearshore

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Habitat Restoration in the Commencement Bay
Nearshore Tidelands Area
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Citizens for a Healthy Bay (CHB)

• Founded in 1990 to provide community oversight
  into the superfund remedial action.
• Over 900 members representing the commencement
  bay community and south Puget sound.
• Works cooperatively with all stakeholders
• Communities, neighborhoods and other public
  stakeholders.
• Potentially responsible parties.
• Economic development and other business
  interests.
• Local, regional, state and federal agencies.

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Commencement Bay Circa 1994
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Commencement Bay Circa 1894
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(No Transcript)
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Historical Landscape Structure

• Extensive tidal freshwater floodplain of a
  meandering Puyallup river accompanied by
  extensive off-channel sloughs and wetlands.
• Prograding delta with numerous distributary
  braided channels.
• Well- developed system of dendritic channels in
  an emergent marsh zone.

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Historical Landscape Structure

• Extensive estuarine transition zone between
  upland habitats and emergent marsh zones.
• Broad, expansive mudflat habitat.
• Extensive system of cross-delta migration
  corridors.
• Regular inputs of wood, cobble and sand from
  adjacent hillslopes.

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Current Landscape Structure

• Less that 1 of historical estuarine habitat -
  disconnected and isolated
• No cross delta migration
• Puyallup river channeled
• Steep armored banks

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Commencement Bay Habitat Restoration Efforts

• Superfund
• Natural resource damage assessment (NRDA)
• Endangered species act (ESA)
• Landscape scale restoration vision
• Watershed restoration

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Superfund

• 4 Tacoma domes of contaminated sediment
• Metals, PCBs, dioxins, PAHs, organics
• Nearshore and tidelands a biological desert
• Commitment to combine cleanup with habit
  restoration

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Natural Resource Damage Assessment

• Goal is to restore coastal and ocean resources
  that have been injured by releases of oil or
  hazardous substances and to obtain compensation
  for the public for their losses.

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Watershed Restoration

• Recovery efforts must also address Commencement
  Bay as the saltwater estuary of the Puyallup
  River.
• Mixing zone between salt and fresh waters
• Exceptionally high productivity
• Estuarine 800 3500 grams/m2/year
• Tropical forest 1000 3500 grams/m2/year
• Area where most plankton production takes place
• Cornerstone of healthy marine ecosystem

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1999 - Endangered Species Act (ESA)

• Puget sound Chinook and bull trout
• Superfund vs. ESA
• Engaged more entities city, county, region,

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Commencement Bay Restoration Vision

• Emphasis on baywide restoration through an
  ecosystem or landscape approach rather than
  creating isolated fragments of habitats
• Mudflat and salt marsh restoration
• Foundation for the future

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Commencement Bay Restoration Sites
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YOWKWALA

• Enhance intertidal area for juvenile salmonid
  migration.
• Maintain marsh vegetation.
• Protect the site for natural resources.

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SKOOKUM WULGE BEACH

• Design and construct intertidal habitat
  enhancements,
• Capture high quality, year-round freshwater
  runoff from uplands and incorporate it into an
  intertidal marsh,
• Restore subtidal areas to productive benthic
  habitats where impacted by wood debris from log
  storage operations,

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Squally Beach

• Establish backwater ponds
• Create interstices for invertebrates and juvenile
  salmonids
• Establish areas for salt marsh vegetation
• Protect the site for natural resources

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Sqaully Beach
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Mowich

• Enhance fish habitat for juvenile salmonids
• Establish backwater pools
• Establish areas for salt marsh vegetation
• Protect the site for natural resources

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Middle Waterway

• Enhance intertidal area for juvenile salmonid
  migration.
• Establish marsh vegetation.
• Possible fresh water connection channel to/from
  Puyallup River

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Upcoming Projects

• Hylebos marsh
• Olympic view
• Sha-dax
• St. Paul
• Swan Creek
• Tahoma salt marsh

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Overview

• Baywide restoration
• Ecosystem/landscape approach
• Provide corridors and connections
• Salt marsh and off channel habitats
• A work in progress for the future

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What Can You Do?

• CHB provides many hands-on opportunities to get
  involved in habitat restoration
• Planting
• Site maintenance
• Site stewardship
• Site monitoring