Partners Restore Fisherman Bay Coastal Wetland

Tim Clark, SJC Land Bank; Tina Whitman, Friends of the San Juans and land owner Jim Falconer - Contributed photo

Out­dat­ed and unnec­es­sary dikes, berms, and ditch­es that once clogged a marine wet­land along Lopez’s Fish­er­man Bay were removed last week through a col­lab­o­ra­tive effort led by Friends of the San Juans, in part­ner­ship with the San Juan Coun­ty Land Bank and two pri­vate water­front prop­er­ty owners.

“The flow of tidal water, habi­tat for juve­nile fish and oth­er species, nutri­ents and woody debris are now improved through the restora­tion of the nat­ur­al grade, veg­e­ta­tion, and con­nec­tiv­i­ty between the salt marsh and the waters of Fish­er­man Bay,” said Tina Whit­man, Sci­ence Direc­tor with Friends of the San Juans.

Jim Johannessen, Coastal Geologic Services; and Carson Sprenger & Gaelen of Rainshadow Consulting - Contributed photo

Next steps include replant­i­ng native trees and shrubs to enhance the wet­land buffer and instal­la­tion of an inter­pre­tive pan­el on the val­ue of con­nect­ed coastal wet­lands at the pub­licly acces­si­ble Fish­er­man Bay Spit Preserve.

Friends of the San Juans worked with Coastal Geo­log­ic Ser­vices of Belling­ham on project design. Local con­trac­tors Rain Shad­ow Con­sult­ing, based on Orcas, and Midnight’s Farm, based on Lopez, imple­ment­ed the restora­tion actions. Fund­ing was pro­vid­ed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice, the Rose Foun­da­tion for Com­mu­ni­ty and the Envi­ron­ment, a par­tic­i­pat­ing landown­er, and Friends of the San Juans’ members.

Friends of the San Juans works to pro­tect and restore the San Juans for peo­ple and nature. Friends pro­vides tech­ni­cal assis­tance to landown­ers, iden­ti­fies and imple­ments habi­tat restora­tion projects through­out the islands. For more infor­ma­tion con­tact Tina Whit­man, Friends’ Sci­ence Direc­tor or vis­it our web­site www.sanjuans.org.

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