Forage Fish Habitat Restoration

Removing a large boulder from the beach – Contributed photo

Local shoreline habitat restoration actions support marine food webs

It was an exciting week for local forage fish and out-migrating juvenile salmon as Friends of the San Juans and the Salmon Point Community have successfully restored priority shoreline habitat along their local beach.

At the south end of Lopez Island, two areas of failed rock armoring and rock fill were covering portions of a documented surf smelt spawning beach, negatively impacting the habitat available for forage fish to lay their eggs on. The beach is also in a priority area for out-migrating juvenile salmon, which feed on forage fish along with many other critters such as insects that benefit from a natural shoreline. Our endangered orca, of course, rely on healthy salmon populations.

Michael Budnick, of Northwest Concepts, implemented the project, which was designed by Coastal Geologic Services. Approximately 42 cubic yards of medium to large boulders along with four large toxic creosote logs were removed from the upper beach, along the forage fish spawning habitat zone. Last winter, to complement recent beach restoration actions, Flower Mountain Tree Service planted 220 native trees and shrubs along the shoreline. Restoration efforts were supported by a grant from the Washington State Salmon Recovery Funding Board and the Salmon Point Community Association.

“The Salmon Point Community Association was thrilled to partner with the Friends of the San Juans to restore our community beach. Every beach matters in this fragile ecosystem and we’re so happy to do our part” noted Mark Pearson, Salmon Point Community Association.

To learn more about Friends’ shoreline habitat and salmon recovery projects please visit our restoration webpage at: https://sanjuans.org/shoreline_restoration/

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