Restoration News
Partner Organizations
Reflections on the Water: Conversations About the Salish Sea . July 22, 2010. The waters of Puget Sound, Georgia Strait and the Strait of Juan de Fuca define the natural boundaries of the maritime Pacific Northwest. Known collectively as the Salish Sea, it also defines the people who’ve lived in this place from centuries past to the present. [Link]
Tides rechanneling Nisqually River The News Tribune. February 08, 2010. The tides are back and change is afoot at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. No one knows that better than Jean Takekawa, who manages the 3,000-acre refuge southwest of Tacoma. She is in charge of returning 762 acres of the refuge to a saltwater marsh or estuary after more than 100 years as farmland and freshwater wetlands. “Water is really taking over,” she said this week as higher-than-normal tides flooded into the refuge. “Nature and tides are very effective at this – better than we are at restoring the estuary.” [Link]
Northwest Now - Puget Sound and Nisqually Restoration KBTC Public Television Tacoma. February 07, 2010. The tide is moving back in to the Nisqually delta. After more than 100 years without saltwater, historic farming dykes have been removed and the waters of the Puget Sound are moving in to recreate a fertile estuary for fish, birds, plants, and mammals. As we splash around in the waters of the Puget Sound, it's disheartening to realize that the Sound is one of the five most polluted waterways in North America. Every year, roughly 52-million pounds of toxic chemicals wash into the Puget Sound. Five types of salmon and the orca are listed by the federal government as endangered species. Over all, one-thousand Puget Sound species are in decline. The price tag to clean up our famed waterway now sits at seven to eight billion dollars. One clean-up project that is well underway is the restoration of the Nisqually delta estuary. After one hundred years of farming. The dikes surrounding the delta are coming down and salt water is returning to this important breeding and feeding ground. [Link]
Video: The Nisqually Estuary Returns . January 05, 2010. Diked and dammed for more than 100 years, the tide is returning to the Nisqually estuary. Conservation partners gathered at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge to celebrate the largest estuary restoration in the Pacific Northwest. After spending 12 years and nearly $10 million, experts have reconnected some 762 acres of estuary with the tides of Puget Sound. [Link]
Puget Sound returns to Nisqually Delta King5.com. November 12, 2009. OLYMPIA, Wash. - With the rhythmic beat of Native American drums providing a sound track, Puget Sound tidal waters crept slowly into hundreds of acres of the Nisqually Delta that were taken away more than a century ago. [Link]
Return of the Nisqually Estuary: Celebration and Public Ceremony November 12, 2009 . November 01, 2009. You are invited to a very special event at Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge on Thursday, November 12, 2009 to welcome the return of the Nisqually Estuary. The event will highlight the restoration of 762 acres of the Nisqually Estuary, the largest estuary restoration project in the Pacific Northwest. We hope you can join us for this important celebration. The Nisqually Estuary from I-5. [Link]
News Release: Celebration Event to Welcome the Return of the Nisqually Estuary to be held at Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge Complex. October 29, 2009. A celebration welcoming the return of the Nisqually estuary will be held at Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) on November 12 from 1:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. This event will highlight the largest estuary restoration in the Pacific Northwest. Nisqually NWR, Ducks Unlimited and the Nisqually Indian Tribe worked tirelessly for more than 12 years with the help of many partners to restore 762 acres of estuary – reconnecting it with the tides of Puget Sound. This celebration will include speakers and a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open a portion of the new Nisqually Estuary Trail for public viewing of the estoring estuary. This one-half-mile trail will be part of a longer estuary trail, which will include a boardwalk to be built directly in the estuary in 2010. This will allow visitors to experience the wonders of a restoring estuary up close. The event will also include the naming of the longest historical tidal slough in the restoration site Leschi Slough, in honor of Chief Leschi of the Nisqually Indian Tribe. [Link]
Waters flow again at Nisqually estuary The Olympian. October 01, 2009. Blocked more than 100 years by man-made dikes, the waters of Puget Sound returned to the Nisqually River estuary Wednesday, creating a watery landscape few if any people alive today have ever seen. Five of the seven sloughs that braid their way through the river delta filled with water at high tide after decades as empty, muddy channels. The remaining two will be opened up by construction crews to tidal flows by the end of the week, said Jean Takekawa, refuge manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “I think it’s so special to see the tides moving in,” Takekawa said as she stood on a new, 10,000-foot-long dike, watching Shannon Slough glisten in the afternoon sun with water from the Nisqually Reach in South Puget Sound. “It’s hard to describe how ambitious and challenging this project has been.” [Link]
20th Annual Nisqually Watershed Festival Nisqually River Council. September 23, 2009. The 20th annual Nisqually Watershed Festival will be held on September 26th, 2009 from 10am to 4pm at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. This year’s festival includes numerous exciting entertainment, activities, and exhibits for kids of all ages. The main stage will feature reptiles and birds, music, and dancing. The Red Salmon story tent will be back along with the Thurston County Storm Drain Trailer. There will be activities and exhibits from many conservation minded agencies and organizations included fish printing, plywood fish painting, a touch tank, and many, many more. You should of course bring your appetite; the famous Nisqually Salmon Bake will again be available. It will be a great festival this year and we look forward to having you there! [Link]
Nisqually refuge interpretive programs continue. The Olympian. September 04, 2009. Interpretive programs at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge continue through September. There is no charge for the programs, but participants must pay the entrance fee for the refuge, which is $3 per family. [Link]
Nisqually restoration: Back to nature. Despite a recession, millions of dollars pour in to restore fertile delta. The News-Tribune. July 12, 2009. The back-up beeps of heavy equipment are drowning out the calls of songbirds at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge this month. After 12 years of planning and preparation, excavators, dump trucks and bulldozers are resculpting the Nisqually River’s vast delta, turning back to nature what was destroyed by industrial agriculture a century ago. The flurry of activity is partly because of good weather. This summer’s near-record streak of dry days has enabled the earth movers to proceed at maximum efficiency. [Link]
Refuge project wins federal aid. Nisqually: $3.4 million in stimulus money completes funding for tidewater restoration work. The Olympian . April 28, 2009. The budget is complete for a $12 million project to restore 762 acres of estuary at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. The U.S. Department of Interior announced today that the project will receive some $3.4 million in economic stimulus funding, refuge, manager Jean Takekawa said. The money, combined with an additional $1.45 million for the project in the 2009 refuge budget, is enough to complete construction of the project in 2010, Takekawa said. Refuge managers still seek some $3 million for a multi-year monitoring program to see how the estuary restoration works, she said. [Link]
Kim Larsen, Fisheries biologist, USGS Western Fisheries Research Center, receives USGS/USFWS Science Support Partnership funding. . April 20, 2009. Fisheries biologist Kim Larsen, USGS Western Fisheries Research Center, received USGS/USFWS Science Support Partnership funding to continue work on otolith microstructure as a tool for assessing residence and growth rates of juvenile Chinook salmon in estuarine habitats. [Link]
USGS Geologist Eric Grossman to be honored. . April 19, 2009. USGS Geologist Eric Grossman, Western Coastal and Marine Geology, will be honored for his partnership work with native tribes to study water quality in Puget Sound. The awards ceremony, hosted by the US Department of the Interior, will take place on May 7, 2009 in Washington D.C. [Link]
Brown Farm Dike Trail at wildlife refuge in final days. Trail will close May 3 for $15 million project to restore estuary. The Olympian. April 16, 2009. NISQUALLY NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE — Refuge managers implementing a $15 million estuary-restoration project 12 years in the planning soon will remove the dike at Nisqually. With it will go the Brown Farm Dike Trail, which today provides a 5.5-mile walk along the outer perimeter of the refuge. A farewell walk for the trail will be hosted for the public Saturday, and the trail will be closed May 3 in preparation for a summer of heavy excavation to take out the dike and welcome back the tide, sometime this fall. [Link]
Restoring Nisqually estuary to close popular trail. Seattle Times . April 15, 2009. NISQUALLY NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE — The Nisqually River gnaws away on big rocks pushed into place the last time it took a chunk out of this dike, trying to reclaim its natural route. Pretty soon, it will get its way. Refuge managers implementing a $15 million estuary-restoration project 12 years in the planning will take the dike out for good. With it will go the Brown Farm Dike Trail that today provides a 5.5-mile walk along the outer perimeter of the refuge. A farewell walk for the trail will be hosted for the public on Saturday. [Link]
State seeks millions in grants - Money would help salmon, habitat. The Olympian. April 07, 2009. OLYMPIA – The state submitted 52 projects totalling more than $101 million in the competition for federal grants earmarked for salmon recovery and marine habitat repairs under the federal stimulus package. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has $170 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for coastal and marine habitat restoration projects nationwide. [Link]
Climate Change, Natural Resources, and Coastal Management Workshop, San Francisco, CA. USGS.gov. January 29, 2009. The following researchers presented during the workshop and a video is available online. Patty Glick, National Wildlife Federation, Seattle: Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Habitats in the Pacific Northwest: Application of a Model (Video 7). John Takekawa, USGS Western Ecological Research Center San Francisco Bay Estuary: Estuary-Nearshore Climate Change Effects and Relationship to Migratory and Listed Species (Video 8). Eric Grossman, USGS Coastal and Marine Geology: Forecasting Response of Large River Deltas and Nearshore Ecosystems to Sea-Level and Climate Change in Puget Sound: “Estuary Squeeze” (Video 8). [Link]
Nisqually Tribe recognized for salmon work. The Olympian. January 03, 2009. A new exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's Natural Museum of History in Washington, D.C., shines the spotlight on Northwest salmon, American Indian tribes and the leadership role that the Nisqually tribe has played in bringing Puget Sound chinook back from the brink of extinction. It's a fitting tribute for the Nisqually to be recognized at the national level for their work to restore salmon habitat in the Nisqually River watershed, a watershed that serves as a model for Puget Sound chinook salmon recovery. [Link]
Bringing back the saltwater marshes to Nisqually Refuge. McClatchy. July 23, 2008. Bulldozers and other earth-moving machines began gouging into a beautiful green meadow near the entrance of the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge in Washington State on Tuesday. "It's such a big change," U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refuge manager Jean Takekawa said. "It's jarring to see heavy equipment out there, but it is how we are bringing back the saltwater marsh." The refuge is on its way to becoming the largest restored saltwater marsh in Puget Sound. The $12 million project, about 10 years in the making, will restore 762 acres of saltwater estuary near the mouth of the Nisqually River. It will provide habitat for chinook salmon, which are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. [Link]
The Nisqually watershed is getting some help from its neighbors. Northwest indian Fisheries Commission. December 14, 2007. Four neighboring watershed organizations are chipping in nearly $1 million toward a 700-acre estuary restoration project on the Nisqually River. The restoration project at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge will be the most extensive salmon restoration project in Western Washington. “Juvenile salmon from all across South Sound use the Nisqually estuary, so restoring it would mean healthier salmon populations for all of our watersheds,” said Amy Hatch-Winecka, salmon recovery coordinator for the Deschutes and Kennedy/Goldsborough watersheds. [Link]
Nisqually project helps reverse decades of decline. The Olympian. January 12, 2007. The Nisqually River Delta is where the action is when it comes to estuary restoration work in Puget Sound. Just last month, the Nisqually tribe welcomed back the saltwater to a 100-acre expanse of pasture land that hadn't seen the tides flow in and out since it was diked for agricultural use more than 100 years ago. On the other side of the 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. [Link]
Dike removal restores slice of Nisqually River Delta. AP Wire - Washington / KGW.com Portland . October 08, 2006. 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. [Link]