News + Resources
Ecological Impacts on the Kitsap Peninsula: Culverted Creeks
by Waterman Mitigation Partners
Ross Creek funnels into an aging culvert as it meets Sinclair Inlet.
“Culverts are where creeks go to die.”
AN ESTUARY is the naturally formed land feature where the freshwater, like a creek or river, meets a body of saltwater. Often times the natural shape of an estuary fans out as the freshwater system meets the saltwater. This zone is rich with life and nutrients - thousands of species of mammals, fish, birds, mollusks depend on estuaries to sustain them. The sheltered water of an estuary provides spawning and rearing habitat for innumerable creatures including our salmon populations.
The Kitsap Peninsula and the Hood Canal watershed is home to a tremendous number of rivers, creeks & streams that make their way inland towards the vast saltwater network of bays, inlets, coves and passages into the Salish Sea. Estuaries have always been vitally important to the health of our home. Without healthy estuaries, marine ecosystems degrade and can eventually collapse. Unfortunately, this is what we observe today across the Peninsula.
As a result of human impacts over the last 150 years, as a whole, Kitsap County’s estuaries are not healthy. Notice the next time you drive along the waterfront how often a creek or stream flows into a culvert, under the road, to emerge as narrow spillage. What wants to be a wide and wild estuary supporting dozens of species of marine animals is reduced to mere drainage. Our freshwater salmon-supporting systems are too often choked at the vital point where they meet the Salish Sea and forced into a narrow culvert.
Culverts are where creeks go to die.
That may sound harsh, but the reality is harsh. The Kitsap Peninsula’s estuaries need saving. Too many freshwater systems have been culverted and too many estuaries have been destroyed as our forbearers developed their homesteads, towns, and cities over the last century and a half. This destruction was not malicious, the science and understanding of the natural world was not nearly as sophisticated as ours is today.
They may not have known better, but we do.
It is one of the goals of the work of Waterman Mitigation Partners on the Kitsap Peninsula and Hood Canal watershed to restore and protect our precious estuaries. The goal of restoring and protecting natural estuarine features is paramount to improving the marine health of our region. Waterman Mitigation Partners is uniquely positioned to respond to this need by working with public and private organizations and individuals to a clear path to an ecologically and economically sustainable future. A future that includes healthy waterways as well as healthy cities.
Coordinating culvert removal and replacement is one important aspect of restoring estuaries. Other tactics may include removing fill, removing hazardous materials and restoring natural features. By removing these threats we allow the shape and ecosystems of a natural estuarine system to once more take place and eventually strengthen marine species health and populations.
In time, our work may play a role in rewinding the clock on Kitsap’s degraded estuaries and prove pivotal to restoring the natural abundance that makes this corner of the PNW so special.
Excerpt from the Kitsap Sun
Marsh habitat restoration project planned at Point No Point aims to help salmon.
HANSVILLE — A 32-acre area at Point No Point will undergo a habitat restoration led by the Mid Sound Fisheries Enhancement Group that aims to restore critical salmon habitat.
The nonprofit, which was created by the Legislature and partners with groups on salmon restoration, is working with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, Kitsap County Parks and the Hansville community on the restoration project that will reconnect the Point No Point marsh to Puget Sound. Mid Sound has been reaching out to various groups to get their input on the project.
Juliana Tadano, Mid Sound’s nearshore project manager, said the "tide gate" in the area is failing, allowing the freshwater in the marsh but not letting fish back in. This is creating an area that functions more like a bathtub, not a dynamic marsh.
After the project is complete the area should drain better because backed-up channels will be unclogged and a two-way system will be created, Tadano said.
“We’re working with an amazing coastal engineer who’s looking at doing a salt marsh restoration by connecting those tides into the park, which is what actually traditionally happened,” she said.
The freshwater stream will be connected to the marsh and nonnative invasive plants will be replaced with native and salt marsh habitat plants. The flushing out of nutrients to the nearshore habitat is good for forage fish, Tadano said. That in turn will help the birds, marine mammals and salmon that feed on forage fish. The diversity of plants will increase, and the water will be able to move around hills and valleys.
In 1800 when the Point No Point lighthouse was built, the marsh was diked, turning it into a freshwater marsh, which it remains.
“Over 80% of estuary habitat has been lost around Puget Sound and that habitat is critical for juvenile salmon of all kinds but especially chinook,” she said. “Juvenile chinook pull into these little estuaries like rest stops on the highway so they’re safe from predators."
As they go through, they experience a physiological change through gradients of freshwater to saltwater, their bodies adjusting as they go.
The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe is one of the partners in the project.
“It cannot be overstated how critical the early marine period is for the growth and survival of juvenile salmon," the tribe said in a statement it issued regarding the project. "The integrity of nearshore ecosystems and the capacity of these habitats to provide prey can influence overall salmon returns.”
“It’s the most critical piece of restoration we could do for chinook in this area,” Tadano added. She said it will benefit more than just salmon.
In 1855 the Treaty of Point No Point was signed, where 47 S’Klallam members had a part in confirming the tribe’s right to harvest fish at their accustomed areas, including Point No Point.
“All those years ago, this tidal area was an open tidal wetland, rich and abundant," the tribe's statement said. "Unfortunately, several man-made changes, like the installation of a tide gate in more recent years, have hampered some of the functionality of this important tidal pocket estuary.”
There’s a lot of work to be done, Tadano said. The project is currently in the feasibility stage to gather data. After that, design will take a couple of years. Assuming funding and permitting can be secured, construction could happen as soon as 2025.
The project is being funded by grants, including one from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Mid Sound receives operational grants from the state, and other grants are sought from local and federal government agencies as well as private and public sources.
The Point No Point project will receive $196,426 from the state’s Estuary and Salmon Recovery Program, which will go toward data collection and coordinating with tribes and landowners. When this project was evaluated in 2016 for funding, it ranked No. 1 out of hundreds of restoration projects in the West Sound area.
Mid Sound is also working on a similar project south of Point No Point at Rose Point, near Eglon. The restoration will create a tidal connection, returning a creek to the estuary. This will help to create a series of rest stops for the fish traveling through the waters, Tadano said.
Mid Sound Fisheries Enhancement Group is a nonprofit that was created by the Legislature and is funded by grants. Tadano said the Point No Point project has been on the group's radar since at least the 1990s.
Dustin Haydock is a Waterman Mitigation Partners Site Assessment Specialist who holds a Masters Degree in United State Environmental History, here is his commentary and analysis of the topics covered in the above article:
“Habitat” may prove to be the buzzword of our era. I hope this comes to be, because the word seems to be more descriptive than just saying “the environment” which is a rather banal label and lacks a meaningful spine. “The environment” could mean anything. But, “habitat” means a place to live and grow and prosper.
Salmon, like all living creatures, need habitat. This is especially true when they are young. Young salmon live in fresh and saltwater. Their time spent in freshwater areas allows them to grow strong and healthy before they venture out into the dangerous waters of Puget Sound, the west coast, and the open ocean. Ultimately, salmon spend most of their lives out at sea. However, they begin and end their lives in creeks, rivers, ponds, lakes, estuaries, marshes, and swamps. Because of this dual-lifestyle that sees them traveling upstream, we call them anadromous fish.
For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, the need for salmon habitat was ignored. Instead, massive efforts and resources were put into the salmon-hatchery system. This merely elongated the crisis all the while marine and riparian wetland areas were filled in, clearcut, paved, and left to sit in a degraded state. This has had profoundly negative effects on not just salmon, but all forage fish, birds, and land animals that rely on salt marshes and estuaries for their livelihood.
These negative effects go beyond large, and mostly cute animals though. When an estuary or marsh is cut off from significant tidal influence, the nutrient cycle is severely disrupted. This has damaging effects on the freshwater and marine area and all the crustaceans, mollusks, insects, and marine invertebrates on the surrounding nearshore. In summary, when an estuary or salt marsh is filled in or closed off, a ripple of biological scarcity is sent in all directions and up and down the food chain.
Even though the large wetland is present and visible to Point No Point visitors, we should not assume it to be functioning properly.
For all these reasons, the restoration of the salt marsh at Point No Point is a fantastic idea. Point No Point Park is approximately 60 acres and features a well maintained lighthouse, built in 1879. When the lighthouse and adjacent buildings were constructed, the large natural salt marsh was cut off from tidal influence by a dyke. Channels were also dug into the marsh to drain the water. This was all common practice in the 18-20th centuries. There is now a small culvert that drains the large marsh, and at high tides sends some marine water into the marsh via tidal pressure, though this hardly counts as tidal influence.
Opening up the dyke to allow for the tidal fluctuations will not put the lighthouse at risk, as it is a very popular place to visit. Opening up the marsh could also solve seasonal flooding issues the residents of the area face. Also, restoring the marsh fully will supercharge the ecosystem which will be a benefit to park visitors and residents. Point No Point is quite popular for its sandy beaches, tide pools, and impressive wildlife. There are many grey herons, eagles, and countless other birds in the park. Just offshore there are often orca and sometimes large pods of porpoises. There are always seals and river otters along the shoreline. I have even seen the very rare sea otter and her young pup.
The suggested restoration is clearly a crucially important one. WMP is proposing similar restoration efforts in other parts of the county where priority habitat is at risk or needs a great deal of help to be ecologically productive once again. We are not alone in this battle as there are many organizations, companies, and public task forces engaged in an effort to re-establish and enhance nearshore and wetland environments of Puget Sound. But websites and fundraisers will not solve the problem, the populous must understand the details, then they will see the issue everywhere and the call-to-action will get louder.
So when you are out driving around our lovely peninsula, and you see an estuary, or major marsh or wetland that has been degraded, filled in, or hydrologically cut off, don’t say, “We need to help the environment…” Instead, see a meaningful habitat and say, “We need to re-establish, enhance, and preserve priority habitats and critical ecologic and hydrologic systems, NOW!”
We are not faced with a simple problem. Therefore we cannot respond with simple slogans and actions. The problems facing the Kitsap peninsula are multi-faceted. It is going to take a lot of work, consideration, and resources, but failure to step up and face the great challenge of our time will be to the detriment of all.
Excerpt from the Kitsap Sun
'Herculean effort' will build new Highway 3 bridge over Chico Creek to help salmon passage.
BREMERTON — Two years of construction work that will remove box culverts under Highway 3 and build a bridge over Chico Creek is set to begin this fall, according to the state's Department of Transportation.
Transportation officials say the $58.3 million project will improve salmon habitat and migration in perhaps Kitsap County's most abundant salmon stream. But the complex work to help fish passage makes for a tricky balancing act to ensure human passage remains as smooth as possible during construction.
A vast network of creeks and streams, which stretch and meander westward throughout the peninsula, coalesce at the mouth of the creek into two concrete box culverts that have run under the highway since it was built more than a half-century ago.
While millions of dollars have already helped to remove barriers to help fish migrate upstream from Chico, no single project has the potential to benefit salmon and other species as much as removing those two box culverts, local biologists say. The Kitsap Sun first reported about plans for the bridge in April 2019. Tom Ostrom, salmon recovery manager in the Suquamish Tribe's fisheries division, called it a "monumental project" for the peninsula.
State officials estimate that up to 15% of the migrating fish don't make it because of the culverts…
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Dustin Haydock is a Waterman Mitigation Partners Site Assessment Specialist who holds a Masters Degree in United State Environmental History, here is his commentary and analysis of the topics covered in the above article:
The cultural and economic importance of salmon recovery is growing in the public and governmental consciousness.
Tribal peoples of Washington consider salmon a birthright and an integral part of their heritage. Anyone who is economically tied to the salmon industry also is concerned with declining runs. And obviously anyone who enjoys a perfectly cooked salmon fillet should also be worried. But, emerging research and ecological theory is elevating salmon to even higher importance within the entire biotic community.
In recent years there has been a substantial increase in research and analysis on the positive effects spawning salmon have on the larger ecosystem. It has always been well-known that migrating salmon supply large animals and humans with important seasonal nutrition, however, the extent of salmon influence goes well beyond the surface, literally.
For millennia, west coast rivers and creeks supported billions of migrating salmon. Some salmon would travel up to 1000 miles upstream to spawn and then die. This created an annual conveyor belt of much needed nutrients, especially nitrogen, from the ocean to the land. The salmon spawn and die and their decaying bodies then become nutrient supplies to the plants and animals. This effect is not limited to the areas immediately near rivers and creeks.
Mammals and birds scavenge or hunt the salmon and carry the nutrients within their own body until they defecate, and release nutrient bombs all over the forest. For countless generations native peoples would migrate to the rivers and creeks for the salmon runs. Then, whether by immediate consumption or by preserving the salmon and transporting it back to permanent inland villages, the valuable salmon nutrients were dispersed across the entire landscape.
It is not at all an exaggeration to say that, up until very, very recently, migrating salmon was possibly the most important source of natural fertilizer for the forests and lowlands of the Pacific Northwest. Recent studies in the Great Bear Rainforest of Canada, the largest temperate rainforest in the world, found that up to 80% of the nitrogen utilized by the trees and other plants came from salmon.
Forests are a major economic force in the Pacific Northwest, and they safeguard our supply of clean water and air. Therefore, if a person is concerned for the health of Washington forests, be it for economic, ecologic, practical, or poetic reasons, they should be extremely concerned with the health of salmon populations.
Hatcheries and limits on fishing are band-aide responses. Those actions will have a positive impact for sure, but consistent hatchery production for over 100 years has only produced an elongated crisis, and limiting fishing has obvious economic, recreational, and cultural impacts. Furthermore, those actions and restrictions do not attack the true problem, that of habitat. Environmental historian Joseph Taylor III, wrote extensively on this subject. In his book, “Making Salmon” he supplies interesting data comparisons for Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. His findings were that fishing was not the most damaging practice against salmon, rather it is the loss of habitat and spawning areas that have led to the extreme decline in salmon within the WA, OR, and CA. Alaska, which has not seen the sort of development that limits salmon spawning and rearing territory has not seen the same drastic rate of salmon declines as the southern states, despite the colossal fish harvests every year in the northern state. In summary, it does not matter how many juvenile salmon are produced by the hatchery system if there is nowhere for them to live and grow, and it will make little difference how strict fishing practices become if those adult salmon do not have a spawning habitat to begin with. Habitat is of paramount importance, this is why the WSDOT in collaboration with Tribal governments, local governments, conservation organizations, resource companies, and WMP are racing to restore, enhance, and preserve important habitats.
So, one might look at a project like that of Chico Creek, and initially say,
“What? 53 million dollars to improve salmon migration by 15%. Not with my tax dollars!” But one must consider that encouraging 15% more salmon every year could result in the birth of many millions more salmon over the next two decades, each of those juvenile salmon will either support the oceans and Puget Sound or they will return to the forest as a 5-25 lb. swimming bag of fertilizer and meal for hundreds of species of plants and animals, including humans.
When we consider the universal impacts at hand, 53 million is actually a bargain. Investing heavily in salmon recovery will result in a healthier landscape in general. Neglecting salmon further will undoubtedly result in further degrading the health of our land, our water, our culture, and our economy.
This should concern EVERYONE.
Excerpt from the Kitsap Sun
Talk grows of billions for revamp of Puget Sound, nation's shipyards
BREMERTON — On a recent tour of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, and Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Harker stopped to chat at the concrete edge of one of its six dry docks. In around a decade, the bathtub-shaped dock, closest to the downtown Bremerton waterfront, could become useless to the Navy.
Or, if a push for billions of dollars to overhaul the shipyard is successful, the aging structure could become the Navy's most advanced and versatile dry dock in the world.
"It is very much the case that as we look into the 2030s, there's the real concern of obsolescence there," Kilmer said of the dock. "I think there is increasing recognition by lawmakers that these investments in our shipyard infrastructure are really important."
Amid talk of a bill to invest trillions into the nation's highways, railroads and other infrastructure, members of Congress this week expressed a desire that the Navy's four public Navy shipyards — including Puget Sound, as well as those in Maine, Virginia and Hawaii — be brought into those discussions.
Kilmer, who has pushed for such funding since his election to Congress in 2012, feels it's a good fit as part of President Joe Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure overhaul.
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Dustin Haydock is a Waterman Mitigation Partners Site Assessment Specialist who holds a Masters Degree in United State Environmental History, here is his commentary and analysis of the topics covered in the above article:
Since its inception in 1891, the Naval shipyard in Bremerton has been a major source of development and incoming capital for Kitsap and Mason counties. The COVID crisis re-affirmed this fact. As many communities’ economies came to a screeching halt, or all-out collapse, Kitsap County’s largest employer, slogged through the shutdown as it has for 130 years.
Another major economic and ecologic force in Kitsap was the historical logging industry. Kitsap, like much of the Pacific Northwest, has been a hinterland since its initial settlement in the 19th century. The timber industry has and continues, to extract natural resources for export. Much of the profits from natural resources have been exported as well. This is even more the case now that Pope Resource Company was recently purchased by Rayonier Resource Company, headquartered in Florida. This pattern of capital export goes back over two hundred years to the fur trade boom and continues to the day (though now the economy of the PNW is far more diverse and classifying it as an “export economy, rather than “extraction economy” might be more accurate).
The Naval presence on the peninsula has had a different effect. The Navy is the largest employer and pays thousands of private contractors in addition to being a major driver of infrastructure. This has come at a cost though, that of the local ecology and critical habitats. But, we now have an opportunity to use market forces, state and federal legislation, renewed tribal influence, and the Navy’s need to upgrade their facilities to re-establish, enhance, preserve an unprecedented amount of important habitats.
WMP is developing a plan to use county-wide needs for wetland mitigation to restore, enhance, and preserve thousands of acres of priority habitats throughout the county. We are using an ecosystem and watershed model for mitigation banking. This is recommended by ecologists and wetland biologists over the old practice of using small one-off mitigation projects. We are attempting to enhance entire watersheds and eco-systems rather than creating a patchwork of small restoration projects, that, due to their isolation and small size, usually fail in the long term to be ecologically functional.
A common worry is that the establishment of an umbrella mitigation bank will simply allow for needless impacts on the environment and make it easier to create such impacts. This is not true. The same strict regulations are in place, and they are continually being advanced to keep pace with contemporary science. A mitigation bank does not allow for impacts, rather, it creates a much more ecologically sound path of mitigation for unavoidable impacts that have been approved by the Department of Ecology and other governing bodies.
The federal rule is described as a “No Net Loss”, basically meaning, for example, an acre of category 2 wetland impact requires an acre of category 2 mitigation. It is a 1-1, zero-sum, no-net-loss idea. Establishing an umbrella mitigation bank has the potential to increase that 1-1 calculation to actually add to the ecological total in direct and indirect ways. This boost to the ecology will not be at the expense of the economy. In fact, if we zoom out our perspective we see that the economic forces can enhance the ecology, and the ecology can support the economy. This is easier said than done, and WMP has been working for 7 years to gather momentum, money, public and private support to get the project going.
The Kitsap peninsula is going to grow and see impacts. This may come by way of President Biden’s infrastructure plan, the Navy’s needs to upgrade and stay relevant, or by the migration of citizen populations seeking the natural beauty of our land and waters. However, we Kitsap peoples have the opportunity in the coming years to direct the incoming capital and energy in a way that can make Kitsap County a model of sustainable community development.
Excerpt from the Kitsap Sun
Wildfire danger prompts closures of Kitsap forests
Kitsap Sun, SEPT 10, 2020
Swaths of forestland in Kitsap have closed to public use because of wildfire concerns.
The Kitsap County Parks Department announced Thursday that the 3,500-acre Port Gamble Forest Heritage Park would close because of "significant" wildfire risk.
On Friday, Craig and Nicole Ueland announced their 2,200-acre tree Ueland Tree Farm west of Kitsap Lake would also be closing.
"We apologize for the inconvenience this causes to our many local trail users and greatly appreciate everyone’s cooperation in protecting the safety of our community," the Uelands said in an email to the Kitsap Sun. "We plan to reopen Ueland Tree Farm once fire hazard conditions improve, most likely following significant rainfall."
On Wednesday, the timber company Rayonier, which owns swaths of forests in Kitsap, Mason and Jefferson counties, said it would close all access to its properties in Washington, Oregon and California until further notice. The closure applies to properties owned by Rayonier, Pope Resources and Olympic Property Group, as well as those managed by Olympic Resource Management. Port Gamble, also owned by the company, remains open.
"The closure will remain in effect until significant rainfall occurs and / or the fire hazard conditions improve," Rayonier said in a press release. "Our primary concern is for the safety of our employees, contractors, customers, neighbors, and those who enjoy our properties. We regret the inconvenience this may cause and appreciate everyone’s cooperation to ensure the safety of everyone that may be impacted."
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Dustin Haydock is a Waterman Mitigation Partners Site Assessment Specialist who holds a Masters Degree in United State Environmental History, here is his commentary and analysis of the topics covered in the above article:
The Kitsap Peninsula is beautiful, we all know that. But there are some major ecological and economic threats on the horizon. As I sip my early morning coffee and write this, I browse current and historical precipitation data from the Nation Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center (NWCC), and the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS). I already know what I will find, because it has been obvious for the last 5-10 years, but my academic training insists that I do my due diligence and find the evidence. Washington is getting dryer and more drought-prone, fire-season is not just getting longer, but is spreading in its range.
Furthermore, there is an increasing realization that our forests are not healthy due to the forestry practices of the 20th century and the first 20 years of our current epoch. When a forest is clear cut, the land loses the ability to hold onto moisture and create shade to cool the understory. Walk out of a mature forest on a hot day and into a clear cut and this is strikingly obvious. Clear cut regions also lose the ability to capture rainfall and store it away, the organic topsoil washes away, and the aridity of the area increases. The clear cut areas are replanted, but usually with a single species, of a single age range, and often nearly genetically identical. Without a mature forest to guide the young trees, they grow too quickly and too close together. In a few decades, the forest is dense, with genetically similar, poorly developed, and weak trees. These monoculture mono-generational forests, as we are learning every summer, are prone to intense fires, pests, and disease outbreaks.
Combine less rainfall and unhealthy forests with the salmon/fertilizer depletion described in the previous commentary, and we find ourselves in a spiral going the wrong direction. This concerns everyone, not just salmon enthusiasts, the timber companies, and park visitors, but anyone who lives in Kitsap county. Small forest fires happen every fire season in Kitsap, but a large fire could happen in the future and be utterly devastating. I grew up here, and the smokey haze that veils the landscape every August and September was something we used to only expect from eastern Washington and Idaho. Forest fires are natural and have sculpted the landscape for thousands of years, but we are no longer dealing with natural forests and cannot rely solely on slow natural forces to restore balance. The fires are at our doorstep, and we must act, for ourselves, our economy, our culture, and countless other animal and plant species.
The solution to this growing crisis requires many groups, businesses, and governments to collaborate and evolve in our thinking. WMP has a lot to offer in this regard. Our forests need much more than protection, they need help, contemporary science, and community buy-in. WMP is pursuing the acquisition of timberlands throughout the Kitsap Peninsula with the goal of improving them. We plan to thin silviculture forests that have grown too densely and plant a diverse array of native species. We will also decommission unneeded logging roads and remove culverts that have disrupted the natural hydrology. Where there are upland wetlands we will promote their development so they can sequester water for times of drought. Invasive species will be removed and native vegetation planted in their place.
WMP is also seeking out recently clear cut areas that have been replanted with a monoculture and where invasive species have moved in and topsoil has been depleted. All of the mitigating actions mentioned above will be applied in these areas as well. We plan to develop a model that can be scaled up and applied to many thousands of acres of timberlands around the Kitsap peninsula, and beyond. We are planning to take environmental restoration and enhancement to levels well beyond anything our region has seen, and managed timberlands will play a large role.
Forestry has a prominent history in our region, and it should have a prominent future as well. But we need to advance our ideas of forest products to include not just trees, but also water, fish, air, topsoil, and a bevy of other species and ideas. We must advance our treatment of our forests in order for them to remain a productive ecological and economic commodity. Healthy forests will grow healthier, stronger, and more desirable trees.
I am a pragmatic person, and I know there is very little I can do about the increasing drought conditions in the PNW. However, it is within my control, all of our control, to prepare our land for such conditions and improve our ecosystem where possible.