By La Conner Community News staff
The Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Estuary and Salmon Restoration Program (ESRP) is requesting $6.825 million for a number of Swinomish-led projects that would help endangered salmon.
These efforts are among a draft list of 46 projects that will be presented to the governor and the legislature for funding consideration in the 2027-29 budget.
ESRP is requesting $3 million for the Smokehouse Tidal Marsh Restoration, a Skagit River System Cooperative project that would restore over 232 acres of saltmarsh along the Swinomish Channel by setting back a levee built in 1937, excavating and reconnecting channels, planting native species, and more. The Cooperative is a partnership between the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe. Once restored, the marsh — which is entirely located within the Swinomish Reservation — will include roughly 9.4 miles of blind channels that can support more juvenile Chinook salmon and benefit other species as well.
ESRP is requesting the same amount for the Similk Estuary Restoration, another Cooperative project that would reconnect an impaired pocket estuary and coastal stream on the north end of Similk Bay, located on Swinomish Tribal land. The goal is to provide rearing habitat for an estimated 7,922 fry migrant Chinook salmon that would otherwise have very low chances of surviving.
For the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community’s Shore Friendly Program, ESRP is requesting $300,000. The program should improve management of residential shorelines by educating shoreline homeowners; provide guidance on the permitting process, cost-sharing opportunities and design plans for the removal of armors and the use of soft-shore solutions; offer incentives for planting native vegetation, and more.
For the Cooperative’s Tidal Beaver Habitat Use & Home Range Size, ESRP is requesting $183,000. The idea is to use beavers to support the restoration of tidal marsh habitat, as beaver dams can increase low-tide pool habitat, which provide refuge for juvenile Chinook salmon. To inform the project design, the Cooperative plans to trap at least 12 beavers and follow their movements with GPS tags, learning how they use habitats and assessing the size of their territory in the Skagit and Snohomish deltas. The Cooperative also has funds from the SeaDoc Society to trap and tag eight additional beavers. To assess the abundance and distribution of untagged beavers, the Cooperative will rely on thermal drone imagery.
The Cooperative would also receive $342,000 to study how fish predators use different habitats in tidal deltas in order to restore habitats in a way that benefits both salmon and predators.
Beavers are nature’s architects and the Skagit River System Cooperative plans to use about 12 of them to assist in their restoration project.
