Puget Sound salmon habitat restored with tribes leading the way
MARYSVILLE — Tacky mud clung to Daryl Williams’ black tennis shoes as he walked alongside a freshly dug channel on the east side of Interstate 5 south of Marysville. Nearby, long-billed dowitchers plunged their beaks into the muck in search of bugs.
In the early 1900s, this land was diked and drained to create farmland. Williams, environmental liaison for the Tulalip Tribes, recalls coming here as a kid to pick strawberries.
Now, excavators chip away at one of the last remaining agricultural dikes. Gradually, some of the first flows in a century began to spill into what is now known as the Blue Heron Slough. The last of four breaches on Steamboat and Union sloughs should be done by mid-October, allowing the historical tidal channels, marsh and mud flats to breathe again.
Blue herons are nesting in the willow trees. Silvery feeder fish are finding their way back into the shallow channels. Open these places up, and fish will find their way, said Joshua Chamberlin, research ecologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
https://www.heraldnet.com/news/puget-sound-salmon-habitat-restored-with-tribes-leading-the-way/
= new reply since forum marked as read
