Nearshore Mitigation Bank
SINCLAIR INLET SITES OVERVIEW
We are currently in the Public Notice phase of the Nearshore Mitigation Bank - please use these resources to better understand what this Mitigation Bank is and what benefits it will provide.
Please consider submitting a positive comment to the Public Notice in support of this important environmental restoration & preservation work.
PLEASE SUBMIT A COMMENT
Waterman Mitigation Partners is proposing a nearshore umbrella mitigation bank on the Kitsap Peninsula with multiple shoreline sites in consideration for restoration, enhancement & preservation.
ABOUT Kitsap Nearshore Umbrella Mitigation Bank
Multiple sites throughout the Kitsap Peninsula shoreline will be restored, enhanced and preserved to offset unavoidable impacts to important nearshore aquatic resources.
Mitigation is required by law to offset any permitted adverse effects to aquatic resources (shorelines, estuaries, swamps, creeks, etc.).
Mitigation banks preserve, enhance, restore or create high-quality habitats. Banks provide habitat restoration on a scale that is typically not achievable through permittee responsible mitigation that are often too small and poorly maintained to function properly.
The Nearshore Umbrella Mitigation Bank will be the first of its kind on the Great Peninsula and will provide mitigation for permitted impacts including Federal shoreline projects, infrastructure improvements, commercial and residential developments, small businesses, and private homeowners.
This bank will support the sustainable economic development of our communities, while keeping environmental restoration and preservation a priority.
It will ensure that ecologically important shoreline habitats are permanently protected and conserved for critical species and our community’s future generations.
Nearshore Mitigation Bank proposed sites
A nearshore umbrella mitigation bank for the Kitsap Peninsula is a critical need because:
This is a unique opportunity to aggregate capital and resources will accomplish an otherwise unachievable scale of environmental restoration on the Kitsap Peninsula. This bank will provide the necessary framework to continue to meet the unavoidable mitigation associated with responsible growth and development.
▪ Permittee-responsible mitigation (PRM) has a low success rate. Governing agencies often do not have the resources to ensure performance standards are met. PRM is complicated by the limited land availability on the Kitsap Peninsula. A mitigation bank offers solutions to these issues.
▪ Future unavoidable impacts are anticipated in this developing region from public and private projects and especially in proximity to multiple federal defense-related industries and bases.
▪ The region has intertidal habitat, estuarine wetlands, and interconnected inland sub-watersheds that have restoration potential suited for a mitigation bank with multiple sites. Existing efforts to restore such habitats are limited do to the immense financial burden. Mitigation banking is equipped with the financial mechanisms to support expensive restoration projects.
▪ Improved and restored fish habitats.
HOW IS A MITIGATION BANK CREATED?
Waterman Mitigation Partners works with Washington state’s Interagency Review Team to create the Mitigation Bank Instrument.
Nearshore MB site: Ross Creek
The Ross Creek Bank Site (Ross Creek) is located west of the city of Port Orchard and empties into the south side of Sinclair Inlet.
The creek and uplands have been logged and residential development has begun encroaching, and plans are emerging for more development and construction.
After 150 years of activity and impacts Ross Creek is in need of a collaborative effort to restore, preserve, and protect this vital salmon and wetland habitat perched amid growing suburban activity.
Ross Creek estuary - currently blocked with fill with a small culvert restricting fish passage
Ross Creek is considered a valuable nearshore bank site for the following reasons:
▪ Locates a mitigation bank in critical shoreline & estuary habitat for salmon and other aquatic species;
▪ Provides both in-kind replacement of functions for freshwater impacts and out-of-kind replacement of functions for ESA-only habitat impacts;
▪ Preserves and protects high quality shoreline & estuary habitats under threat of on-going degradation in absence of mitigation bank activities; and
▪ Augments ecologically but does not earn credits for a planned WSDOT culvert replacements under SR 16 and SR 166 to improve estuary function and fish passage.
Ross Creek shoreline AFTER restoration concept image
Aerial footage of Lower Ross Creek.
ADDITIONAL SINCLAIR INLET SITES
GORST SHORELINE + GORST CREEK HEADWATERS + OLD MILL POND
GORST SHORELINE
Mitigation and restoration efforts for Gorst Creek and the Gorst shoreline include:
Remove creosote pilings along the shoreline.
Replace culvert to Old Mill Pond to promote natural tidal flow.
Restore and enhance areas north and south of the pond.
Remove hazardous debris along the shoreline and stabilize and revegetate beach.
The pond that forms a barrier lagoon is hydrologically constricted from the original estuary by a submerged culvert under the PSNS railway. The current Mill Pond inflow / outflow create a difficult passage for fish.
OLD MILL POND
Restoring the properties and removing impacts from prior uses would protect highly valuable intertidal and estuarine habitat from further degradation and development pressure.
Gorst Creek is considered a valuable bank site for the following reasons:
Locates a mitigation bank in critical estuary habitat for salmon and other aquatic species;
Addresses ecological concerns in watershed analyses conducted by local tribes and regulatory agencies;
Provides both in-kind replacement of functions for nearshore impacts and out-of-kind replacement of functions for ESA-only habitat impacts;
Preserves and protects estuarine and shoreline habitats under threat of on-going degradation in absence of mitigation bank activities.
Aerial footage showing the ‘Viking’ Pond (Old Mill pond) on the Gorst shoreline.
WRIGHT CREEK
Wright Creek drains into Sinclair Inlet between Gorst and the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
The creek estuary was partially filled during the mid-20th century and the estuary fill area is at risk to be developed again if restoration efforts do not move forward soon. Removing the fill dirt and existing structures, regrading and revegetating the estuary would substantially improve the functions of the estuary, including fish and wildlife habitat.
The Wright Creek Subwatershed extends upstream approximately 1.5 miles north and northwest from its mouth at Sinclair Inlet in an intertidal habitat with a small estuary bisected by all lanes of SR 3 and W. Sherman Heights Road. The nearshore area, in which the proposed bank site is located, lower segment, and south half of the upper segment are in Kitsap County jurisdiction and the remainder of the upper segment is within the West Bremerton UGA
The bank site is proposed on a privately owned residential parcel and a section of public right-of-way where there is opportunity to remove fill, remove garbage, and re-establish portions of the estuary shoreline on Sinclair Inlet. Restoring this site and removing impacts from prior uses would protect highly valuable intertidal and estuarine habitat from further degradation and development pressure.
Wright Creek is considered a valuable bank site for the following reasons:
▪ Locates a mitigation bank in critical intertidal and estuary habitat for salmon and other aquatic species;
▪ Provides in-kind replacement of functions for nearshore impacts;
▪ Preserves and protects intertidal and estuary habitat under threat of on-going degradation from adjoining land uses in absence of mitigation bank activities; and
▪ Augments ecologically but does not earn credit for a planned WSDOT culvert replacement under SR 3 to improve estuary function and fish passage.
Aerial footage showing the flow of Wright Creek into Sinclair inlet.
PORT WASHINGTON NARROWS
The Port Washington Narrows Bank Site consists of three nearshore sites that lie along Port Washington Narrows’s shoreline: the coal dock at Lions Park, Pat Carey Vista, and the Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority properties. The properties comprising this bank site are tidally connected.
These properties provide opportunities for restoring nearshore functions along a heavily used marine corridor by removing overwater and in-water structures and enhancing intertidal habitat.
Pat Carey Vista shoreline BEFORE restoration
Pat Carey Vista shoreline AFTER restoration concept image
Lions Park Coal Dock shoreline BEFORE restoration
The Narrows Site is considered a valuable bank site for the following reasons:
▪ Locates bank site along a major marine corridor and enhances Dyes Inlet’s capacity to support federally listed and keystone species;
▪ Provides in-kind replacement of function for intertidal impacts;
▪ Preserves and protects high quality nearshore habitat and subwatershed under threat of on-going degradation in absence of mitigation bank activities; and
▪ Augments ecologically but does not earn credit for existing restoration work in Dyes and Sinclair Inlets to improve nearshore function, tidal flows, and fish passage.
