Enhancing and preserving wetlands large and small making critical difference

Washington Conservation Corps AmeriCorps members team up to plant native trees and shrubs throughout 9-acre wetland restoration site in the city of Monroe, recently renamed Foothills Wetlands Preserve. Photo courtesy Nikki Johnson.

With just a few days left in May, American Wetlands Month is winding down. We wanted to share our role in protecting, restoring, and managing Washington’s wetlands resources.

In Washington, wetlands cover about 2 percent—or 938,000 acres—of the state’s local land area. That may seem like a lot but in the past 230 years, Washington has lost about 31 percent of its wetlands, the places where water covers the soil, or is present at or near the soil surface either permanently or seasonally.

Filtering water, controlling erosion, and offering habitat refuge

Wetlands provide tremendous environmental and economic benefits. They help control flooding and erosion caused by stormwater runoff. Wetlands filter our water, keeping pollutants such as nutrients and heavy metals from our streams, rivers, lakes, and underground sources of drinking water.

These areas provide habitat for salmon that our endangered orca need to survive, and offer refuge for other fish and wildlife species. We depend on wetlands for fishing, boating, swimming and other recreation activities.

Ecology is committed to protecting the quantity and the quality of the state’s remaining wetlands, especially through the 1974 state Shoreline Management Act designed to protect and manage development along Washington’s 28,000 miles of freshwater and marine shorelines.

Programs focus on large-scale wetland restoration

While we work diligently to protect our remaining wetlands using strategies to avoid, minimize, and compensate for adverse wetland impacts, we are also investing in large-scale restoration projects such as Floodplains by Design, Wetland Mitigation Banking, and the Chehalis Basin Strategy. These programs are designed to restore, enhance, and protect our floodplains, watersheds, and wetlands, boost aquatic habitat, and reduce flood-related damages to our communities.

Washington Conservation Corps restoring, enhancing wetlands in Snohomish County

WCC AmeriCorps member plants native shrub at Jennings 

Memorial Park in Marysville. Photo by Bethany McAuliffe.

Smaller projects to restore, enhance, and preserve state wetlands are also critical. Through AmeriCorps, our Washington Conservation Corps (WCC) program offers young adult and military veteran members a wealth of hands on experience, field skills, and training opportunities—including helping restore, enhance, and protect local wetland resources.

To complete trail and environmental restoration projects, WCC collaborates with a wide range of sponsors from around the state including local and tribal governments, state and federal agencies, and public-benefit nonprofit organizations.

Restoring Jennings Memorial Park wetland

For the past six years, Snohomish Conservation District has sponsored a WCC crew to support habitat restoration projects on private and public spaces throughout the county. Among the 2019 projects our crew has been focused on includes restoring a wetland area at Jennings Memorial Park in Marysville. These activities are funded through an Ecology grant through the Centennial Clean Water Program.

The 30-acre city park features walking trails, picnic areas, shelters, and ballfields. There is also a 16-acre wetland area dominated by invasive plant species including reed canary grass and bittersweet nightshade. Allen Creek, part of an 11-mile watershed that drains to Ebey Slough in the Snohomish River estuary, runs through the park. The creek’s wetlands offer important habitat for chum and coho salmon as well as other fish and wildlife species.

Jennings Memorial Park is the centerpiece of the city’s parks system where the public can enjoy nature and other outdoor recreation activities. In winter 2019, our six-person WCC crew planted more than 10 acres of trees in the park’s wetland area—a total of 16,500 willow stakes! On Earth Day 2019, the city and conservation district hosted an event in which volunteers planted another 1,500 native trees and shrubs to help restore and protect the wetland.

This summer, our crew will evaluate the site and take care of the 18,000 new plantings. And for the next two years, our AmeriCorps members will also continue planting native trees and shrubs at the wetland.

Kelli Sheldon, supervisor for the WCC crew serving Snohomish Conservation District, said: “This wetland restoration project is especially rewarding because so many members of the public approach us to ask questions and give their gratitude.”

North end of Jennings Memorial Park is now home to thousands of live staked willow trees, marked with flags to aid teams returning this summer to maintain the wetland site. Photo courtesy Kelli Sheldon.

Enhancing Monroe's Foothills Wetlands Preserve

The WCC crew serving the conservation district is also supporting another wetland restoration efforts at a 9-acre Foothills Wetlands Preserve in Monroe. Cripple Creek, a tributary to French Creek in the Snohomish River basin, runs through a portion of the wetlands serving as habitat for coho salmon and beaver. Unfortunately, invasive reed canary grass and bittersweet nightshade also dominate the wetlands park.

In 2016, our WCC crew began their wetland restoration effort at the park by installing beaver exclusion fencing along Cripple Creek. The fencing surrounds the majority of the project site in order to prevent beaver damage. In the three subsequent winters, AmeriCorps members have planted a whopping 25,025 native trees and shrubs and removed more than 8,000 square feet of bittersweet nightshade from the area.

“Due to its visibility from very busy State Route 2, this wetlands project has been very important to show what active restoration looks like to all who pass through the area,” Sheldon said.

This year, the city and Snohomish Conservation District worked together to rename the wetlands park through a contest for children age 9 to 14. The top suggestions were submitted to the Monroe City Council to make the final decision, and the park was officially renamed Foothills Wetlands Preserve on May 14!

By Kelli Sheldon, WCC AmeriCorps, and Curt Hart, Ecology communications

We oppose federal proposal to redefine 'waters of the United States'

Salmon leaping from the water at Port of Tacoma's Upper Clear Creek wetland mitigation site. Washington's streams and wetlands offer important habitat for fish and wildlife while helping clean our water, and control flooding and erosion.

Today, we sent our official response to the Trump administration opposing its draft rule to redefine the scope of “waters of the United States” that would be protected and regulated under the 1972 federal Clean Water Act. As the primary federal law governing water pollution, the Clean Water Act is instrumental in protecting Washington’s water.

We are gravely concerned the draft rule, proposed jointly by EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, will eliminate federal protection for classes of streams and wetlands highly valued by Washingtonians. In Thurston County alone, we estimate the federal proposal would remove between 2,000 and 11,000 acres of wetlands from federal protection.

The rule change, if finalized, would remove federal protections for:

• Streams in upland ditches as well as water in most ditches.
• Wetlands behind dikes with no surface connection to a river, as well as wetlands along irrigation canals.
• Wetlands close to, but not touching, marine waters.
• Streams that only flow in response to rainfall—also called “ephemeral” streams.
• Wetlands in a floodplain that receive floodwaters on a less than annual basis and lack a surface connection to a stream.
• Prior converted croplands, wetlands under agricultural production when they are proposed to be changed to non-agricultural uses.

Healthy streams and wetlands = healthy Washington

These waters help our state maintain a healthy, safe and vibrant economy and environment by:

• Providing and supporting important habitat for salmon that southern Puget Sound resident orca need to survive.
• Filtering and cleaning our drinking water.
• Controlling flooding and erosion.
• Offering habitat and refuge for fish and other wildlife.
• Providing places for boating, fishing, and other recreation activities.

Coweeman River Wetland and Conservation Bank in Cowlitz County, a year after being established in 2016. Wetland mitigation banks help private and public developers restore and preserve wetland functions in river basins across the state. 

Federal proposal too flawed to be adopted

According to the proposed rule language, the federal government is seeking to change the definition of waters of the United States to increase the predictability and consistency when implementing the Clean Water Act and reduce the scope of federally-protected waters.

We find this approach to be significantly flawed because it:

• Would put Washington’s water quality at risk. Federal protection would be rolled back to cover only certain stream reaches instead of the entire water body.
• Creates an artificial divide between state and federal waters, allowing the federal government to shirk its responsibility to protect the physical, chemical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters under the federal Clean Water Act.
• Ignores years of science, upheld by numerous court decisions, that Washington’s surface streams and wetlands are often directly connected to underground sources of water. Surface water pollution puts state drinking water aquifers at risk.
• Creates a need for a new state permitting program. Public and private developers seeking to build projects that would impact certain classes of wetlands now file a single state/federal application. We currently apply state requirements as part of the federal permitting process. Without federal involvement, the state would need legislation to create and fund its own wetland permitting process. Without such a program, projects could experience delays and economic losses. 

Washingtonians expect their waters to be protected

Time and again, Washingtonians have been clear about the importance of protecting, restoring, and conserving state waters and wetlands. They demand safe drinking water, expect healthy places for recreation, and support a vibrant natural resource economy supported by clean water.

Our state laws reflect this mandate:

• Water Pollution Control Act, passed by the state legislature in 1945, outlines the state’s interest in controlling pollution and protecting water quality in all state waters and wetlands.
• Shoreline Management Act, passed by voter referendum in 1972, protects and manages development along the state’s 28,000 miles of stream, river, lake, and marine shorelines.
• Growth Management Act, passed by lawmakers in 1990. Under the act, local governments protect all wetlands and streams by adopting critical areas ordinances.

Rule would negatively reshape relationship with federal partners

Chehalis River swamps Centralia and Chehalis during 2007 catastrophic flood.

The proposal to change the definition of waters of the United States will need to go through the federal rule-making process before it can take effect. We are concerned the rule could:

• Significantly reshape the working relationship we have with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and EPA to help protect our waters.
• Sow confusion among local communities seeking help from our federal partners.
• Mean more work for communities and state agency partners like us.
• Result in accidental violations of local and state laws.

While we don’t know what the final changes will be to the federal proposal, we will continue to protect all Washington waters and wetlands from being lost or degraded.

By Curt Hart, Ecology communications

Commemorate World Wetlands Day by hiking Renton's Springbrook Creek Trail

 

Springbrook Trail boardwalk crossing Springbrook Creek in Renton, Wash. The public trail is part of the 130-acre Springbrook Creek Wetland and Habitat Mitigation Bank. The critical urban wetland corridor helps control floods, filters drinking water, provides fish and wildlife habitat, and offers residents a chance to relax outdoors.

Wetlands are essential for a sustainable urban future. Nearly half the world’s population –
4 billion people – live in cities, a number that will continue to increase. In Washington state, the population in the 12 counties contiguous to Puget Sound alone is expected to increase by a million more people during the next 20 years. 

World Wetlands Day highlights importance of wetlands

While we take time today to commemorate World Wetlands Day, Feb 2 also highlights the importance of conserving and using our wetlands wisely. This is especially true in our urban areas. As our cities grow and demand for land increases, we’ve seen how urban centers have encroached on the critical way wetlands function.

Wetlands help make our cities livable because they protect water quality, reduce flooding, help recharge our underground sources of water for drinking and other uses, and provide critical habitat for fish and wildlife. 

More than a decade ago, the Washington State Department of Transportation and the city of Renton embarked on a project that demonstrates how our urban wetland habitats can be protected and restored.  

Renton mixes comfortably with its wetlands

Renton is a thriving city in the middle of the busy Puget Sound region. Yet, take just a few steps away from the Renton’s busy arterials, and one becomes immersed in the sounds, sights, and smells of a wetland. 

The Springbrook Creek Trail is part of the city's trails plan, providing area residents and their families with a quiet place to break away from Renton's urban center and enjoy the peace and tranquility of an urban wetland environment.

As the forested trail dampens the sounds of cars, trucks and buses, users are greeted by the songs of red-winged blackbirds and the sights of salmon fry swimming in Springbrook Creek and great blue herons fishing in an open wetland.  

State, city team together to restore, protect urban wetlands

The Springbrook Creek Wetland and Habitat Mitigation Bank (Springbrook Bank) is part of a larger environmental corridor connecting the Springbrook Valley wetlands to Renton’s 93-acre Black River Riparian Forest. In the future, the trail will become part of the larger regional trail system that will link up with the Interurban, the Green River and the Lake to Sound trails in King County.

And the Springbrook wetland serves a multitude of other uses for Renton residents. In 2006, WSDOT worked in partnership with Renton to develop the 130-acre Springbrook Wetland and Habitat Mitigation Bank.  The bank is designed to offset adverse environmental effects that urban development can have on our wetlands and environment.



Map depicts land parcels set aside in Renton to create

Springbrook Creek habitat and wetland mitigation bank.

The Springbrook Bank permanently protects some of the last large undeveloped parcels in the lower Green River basin providing habitat for various wildlife species including coyotes, red tailed hawks and other birds, frogs, salamanders, as well as different types of fish including salmon. 
As WSDOT moved forward with plans to widen Interstate 405, a major corridor in the Puget Sound basin, the department also need to make improvements to offset wetland impacts. Because the road project was located in the core of one of the fastest urbanizing areas of the United States, suitable large mitigation sites in the area were limited. 

At the same time, Renton was planning for development and looking for solutions to address city growth and flood issues. 

WSDOT worked closely with Renton to develop a wetland preserve within the city limits. This was an early project, designed to help meet the I-405 program goal of leaving the environment better than it previously was.

Urban wetlands like Springbrook Bank offer multiple benefits

The preserve provides multiple benefits beyond successfully mitigating the impacts of expanding the freeway and providing flood storage. The bank provides a place for the community to get close to nature, observe plants and animals and learn about them from the interpretive signs posted along the boardwalk. The project:

• Provides a habitat corridor for a range of different birds, fish and other wildlife.
• Re-establishes, enhances and reconnects the wetlands to Springbrook Creek for fish habitat and flood protection.
• The project enhances the City’s resilience to flood events by providing space for flood waters to move and vegetation to disperse flows.
• Expands the city’s trail system that will connect to three other urban trails in the Seattle area.
• Offers the community a place to get close to nature, observe plants and animals, and learn more about the environment from the interpretive signs along the boardwalk.

As a wetland habitat and mitigation bank, the Springbrook Bank site has met and even exceeded its requirements. Within seven years of construction, the bank has successfully established a critical wetland habitat in the middle of Washington’s largest urban area and has served as a mitigation bank for other road projects.

So next time you are in the Renton area, swing on by Oakesdale Avenue and stroll along the Springbrook Creek Trail.