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

Ecology secures $5 million in federal grants to help partners conserve five coastal wetlands

Barnum Point on east side of Camano Island in Island County. Photo courtesy Benjamin Drummond.

May is American Wetlands Month. To highlight the vital ecological, economic, and social health benefits wetlands provide Washington state, we are pleased to announce Ecology has been awarded $5 million in federal National Coastal Wetlands Conservation grants to help protect, restore and preserve five crucial coastal wetlands in Clallam, Island, Kitsap, and Skagit counties.

The federal program, managed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USF&WS), provides up to $1 million in funding for individual wetland conservation projects located in our coastal and Great Lake states as well as U.S. territories. The program is funded in part through taxes paid on equipment and fuel purchases by recreational anglers and boaters.

While only states can apply for the coastal wetlands grants, we work in close partnership with land trusts, local and tribal governments, and other entities to identify conservation projects in Washington and develop wetland restoration and protection proposals for consideration by USF&WS.

With five $1 million individual federal wetland conservation awards, Ecology received more program grants in 2018 than any other state agency in the nation. In past decade alone, we have helped secure federal funding and provided technical assistance for projects totaling nearly $86 million to conserve more than 10,000 acres of coastal wetlands in Washington.

‘Kidneys’ of our watersheds

Sometimes referred to as the “kidneys” of a watershed, wetlands are renowned for improving our water quality by removing excess nutrients, toxic substances, and sediments from the water that flows through them.

Wetlands help safeguard the overall health of our community water supplies by helping filter and slowly recharge our underground sources of water. Wetlands help reduce flood damages by soaking up rain and storing flood waters. These ecosystems provide critical habitat for plants, wildlife, and fish, including salmon. Wetlands are an effective and economical way to enhance community safety while improving quality of life.

Restoring coastal wetlands in Clallam County



Elwha River delta. Photo courtesy Jamie Michel.

We were awarded a $1 million grant for the Elwha River Delta Acquisition and Restoration project. We are working in close partnership with the Coastal Watershed Institute to conserve and restore critical coastal wetlands at the mouth of the Elwha River in Clallam County. The project will:

• Protect and restore 3.25 acres of coastal wetlands at the site of a former delta channel in the Elwha River.
• Complete the restoration of 2 acres of marine shoreline that was part of a previous conservation project to remove derelict shoreline armoring.

This conservation effort will help maximize the environmental benefits associated with removing the Elwha River dams and is part of a broader effort by local partners to protect the river corridor, from its headwaters to the estuary. 



Lower Dungeness floodplain.

Another $1 million grant will be used for the Lower Dungeness Floodplain Restoration project. We are working with Clallam County to reconnect the lower Dungeness River to its historic channels and floodplain, ensuring the perpetual conservation and restoration of wetlands, floodplain, and shoreline along one of the most important river systems on the Olympic Peninsula.  This first phase effort will benefit more than 100 fish and wildlife species currently using the site, including four salmon species.




Protecting estuarine and freshwater wetlands on Hood Canal



Big Beef Creek; photo courtesy

Brandon Palmer

After securing a $1 million grant for the Big Beef Creek Estuary Acquisition, we are working in partnership with the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group to acquire and protect 126 acres of estuary, freshwater wetland and riparian habitat in Kitsap County. This property on the lower Big Beef Creek feeds into Hood Canal on the west side of the Kitsap Peninsula. The project will result in the conservation of a complex, functional, and truly connected coastal wetland ecosystem critical to many salmon species. 


Preserving, enhancing coastal wetlands in Island and Skagit counties


We are using a $1 million grant for the Barnum Point Phase 2 Acquisition project and working in close partnership with Island County to acquire 30 acres of Puget Sound waterfront property on the east side of Camano Island. The project is located in Port Susan Bay, within the greater Skagit and Stillaguamish river delta. This area is considered one of the most important places on Washington's northwest coast for estuarine and nearshore conservation due to its biodiversity and key role in supporting dozens of important estuarine-dependent species.


Guemes Island coastal acquisition project.

We will provide $1 million in federal coastal wetland grant funding toward the Guemes Island Coastal Acquisition project and are working in partnership with the Skagit Land Trust to acquire and permanently protect 143 acres on Guemes Island in Skagit County. This project will conserve:

• More than 4,000 feet of marine coastline – including nearly 30 acres of feeder bluffs and associated coastal forest uplands.
• About 116 acres of marine shoreline and the largest coastal wetland ecosystem on the island including freshwater wetlands, meadows, and creeks.

Wetlands tools and resources

Want to know more? We provide technical assistance and develop tools for local governments, consultants, and developers regarding the responsible management, regulation, and stewardship of our wetlands.