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TOUR OF RESTORATION PROJECTSEnjoy an aerial view of the Trustees' restoration projects. Clicking on a project name will bring up a brief description of the project and driving directions. To begin your tour follow these instructions to download Google Earth and the presentation folder. Download the directions for using the Google Earth tour of the Trustees' restoration projects. Download the Google Earth folder to your desktop.
Click on a project title for more details Baywide Project SummariesThe Trustees approved a Baywide Monitoring Program in March 2001. Each project also has an individual monitoring plan associated with it. Citizens for a Healthy Bay (CHB), the Adopt-a-Wildlife Area (AAWA, CHB,) and Friends of the Hylebos (FOH) assist the Trustees with collecting monitoring data on some of the projects. In 2008, the City of Tacoma entered into an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide stewardship for restored natural resource habitats in the Puyallup River Watershed. This agreement and associated Environmental Stewardship Project was undertaken in connection with the settlement of an enforcement action taken by the EPA for violations of CERCLA (commonly known as Superfund). After several years of maintenance and monitoring of the Commencement Bay Natural Resource restoration projects by the potentially responsible parties, there are no longer regulatory or legal requirements to provide additional maintenance, monitoring, or adaptive management at these restored sites. Because active site stewardship is necessary to continue to protect these investments and ensure continued success, the City of Tacoma will be serving as the Environmental Steward for these sites under the environmental stewardship agreement.
The Trustees adopted sediment cleanup goals for active natural resource restoration projects based on the best available information on contaminant effects.
The Trustees contracted with Battelle Marine Sciences Laboratory to conduct a vegetation survey to provide a quantitative description of the conditions under which intertidal wetland plant species occur and flourish in Commencement Bay. The Trustees adopted this report in June 2000 and are incorporating the vegetation planting information into the design of their restoration projects. This survey, along with the baywide monitoring program, has resulted in supplemental vegetation management activities being conducted at some of the projects.
Individual Restoration Project SummariesCompleted: 2005. The Trustees partnered with the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group (SPSSEG), a non-profit conservation and restoration organization committed to restoring South Puget Sound salmon habitat, to implement this project. The four-acre project reconnected the oxbow and associated wetland to the mainstem of the Puyallup River by replacing the 12" diameter culvert with a 72" diameter aluminum culvert and excavating and widening a 190-foot channel. The culvert and roughened channel provides juvenile salmonid access to the oxbow during most flood levels and creates beneficial habitat for juvenile coho and chinook salmon and steelhead and cutthroat trout.
Construction: Pending. This 6.70-acre project site is located in the City of Tacoma along the lower, tidal section of Hylebos Creek. Potential restoration activities include restoring the estuarine salt marsh complex by creating intertidal channels and a vegetated buffer. Under an agreement with the Trustees, Wildlands, Inc., assumed responsibility for managing the acquisition and cleanup of the site and agreed to subsequently transfer the property to the Puyallup Tribe of Indians. The agreement also provides for the potential that Wildlands, Inc. will complete development of the restoration project using funds to be obtained by the Trustees from settling parties or to be provided by third parties. To date, Wildlands has conducted the environmental site investigations, acquired the property and removed all the structures and surface debris.
First Acquisition Completed: 2004. The Trustees is partnering with King County, the City of Federal Way, and the Friends of the Hylebos (FOH) to acquire a series of seven parcels comprising 77.7 acres and to conduct actions to preserve, protect, enhance and restore riparian habitat along approximately 2,600 feet of the West Fork Hylebos Creek located within the parcels. In 2004, the Trustees assisted in the acquisition of one of the parcels and has entered into a cooperative agreement for future acquisitions.
HYLEBOS CREEK OFF-CHANNEL/JORDAN PROPERTY. Completed: 2005. The Trustees, along with Pierce County and the City of Fife, purchased 15.3 acres of property in the City of Fife. Restoration objectives included enhancing intertidal area for juvenile salmonid migration, establishing off-channel habitat for juvenile salmonids, and protecting the site for natural resources. The Trustees created fish rearing and feeding habitat and assumed responsibility for the design, construction, and management of the stream restoration project. The Friends of the Hylebos (FOH) provide stewardship and monitoring services. The City of Fife continues to be the landowner.
KARILEEN/WEST FORK HYLEBOS CREEK HABITAT RESTORATION PROJECT. Construction: 2009-10. The Karileen restoration project, being constructed under a settlement with General Metals, is designed to provide enhancements to fish and wildlife habitat and wetlands on the west branch of Hylebos Creek. The ten-acre property is located in Federal Way, Washington.
MIDDLE WATERWAY (CITY) ESTUARINE RESOURCES RESTORATION PROJECT. Completed: 2000. As part of the settlement with the City of Tacoma, the City developed an estuarine shoreline wetland restoration project on the Middle Waterway. Excavation and regrading of the 1.85-acre vacant upland created an intertidal marsh and riparian buffer bordering one of the few remaining original mudflats within Commencement Bay. The project goal was to establish estuarine marsh habitat for an assemblage of wetland dependent marine, bird and plant species. The project is across the head of Middle Waterway from and complements the Middle Waterway Shoreline Restoration Project developed earlier by Simpson Tacoma Kraft Co. in cooperation with the Trustees. The City of Tacoma provides stewardship and monitoring services for this site.
MIDDLE WATERWAY (SIMPSON) SHORE RESTORATION PROJECT. Completed: 1996. In the spring of 1995, Champion International Corporation, the former owner of the Simpson Tacoma Kraft Mill, and Simpson Tacoma Kraft Company, its current owner, in cooperation with the Trustees, created the Middle Waterway Shore Restoration Project on a five-acre site owned by Simpson on the northeast bank of the Middle Waterway. The Middle Waterway project reestablishes over three acres of intertidal, salt marsh, and riparian habitat along the Middle Waterway, a high priority location for restoration in the Bay ecosystem. Formerly filled land was excavated and contoured to create a natural shoreline with hummocks and other natural marsh features and to provide a partial buffer between the mudflats and adjacent upland industrial uses. Citizens for a Healthy Bay (CHB) provides stewardship and monitoring services for this site.
MOWITCH ESTUARY PROJECT (formerly "Wasser-Winters"). Completed: 2000 (formerly "Wasser-Winters"). This 2.3-acre project was designed to increase the sinuosity of the Hylebos Creek channel and increase the area and quality of the intertidal habitat. The straight stream channel was modified, three backwater pools were sculpted from the upland buffer area, and a secondary stream mouth was added. The pools and adjacent terraces include horizontal logs as habitat features. Citizens for a Healthy Bay (CHB) provides stewardship and monitoring services for this site.
OLD SOLDIERS HOME LEVEE SETBACK PROJECT. Completed: 2007. The project was developed by Pierce County with $2.3 million in settlement funds from a group of Hylebos Waterway PRPs referred to informally as the Mediation Group and with additional financial contributions from the Salmon Recovery Funding Board for property acquisition and project development. The project consists of a new 5,000-foot levee which has been set back 900 feet from the main channel of the Puyallup River. A levee structure was removed to allow the river to naturally meander in the opened floodplain area. The new setback levee transformed 67 acres of dry floodplain into a complex of braided channels. The area of the setback lets the river migrate more naturally, allowing flood waters to spread out and create off-channel habitat.
OLYMPIC VIEW RESOURCE AREA RESTORATION PROJECT. Completed: 2002. The City of Tacoma acquired 0.7 acres of upland and intertidal property bordering the 11.7 acres of state-owned adjacent aquatic lands lease site. The lease precludes use of the eelgrass areas by incompatible commercial or industrial activities.The project goal is to protect and enhance nearshore eelgrass and intertidal habitat for an assemblage of aquatic species, in a manner consistent with low-impact public use and enjoyment of a shoreline and water areas. The City of Tacoma provides stewardship and monitoring services for this site.
OLYMPIC VIEW RESOURCE TRIANGLE RESTORATION PROJECT. Completed: 2007. The project is adjacent to the Olympic View Resource Area Restoration Project. The Washington Department of Natural Resources (WDNR), as the landowner, served as the project manager. A high salt marsh and riparian habitat was created at the head of the Thea Foss Waterway to benefit juvenile salmonids and a variety of other plans and animals. The project is approximately 1.2 acres. WDNR provides stewardship and monitoring services at this site.
On hold. This approximately six-acre site is owned and managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps). The site has been highly ranked by the Trustees for its habitat restoration potential. The project may be implemented through a partnership between the Trustees and the Corps with the Puyallup Tribe of Indians serving as the local sponsor. The field surveys were completed in 2003 and the alternatives analysis was conducted in 2004. Sources of potential contamination were investigated by the Corps and additional sampling was conducted in 2003 and 2004. This site is still on the inventory but no action is anticipated this year.
Construction 2009-10. The Parsons restoration project replaces the Hylebos Marsh restoration project originally approved under the City of Tacoma consent decree. The Trustees determined that the project would be of equal or greater ecological value to injured Commencement Bay natural resources than the Hylebos Marsh project and agreed to substitute this project in order to permit the Port of Tacoma to make use of the Hylebos Marsh project site. This restoration project would consist of developing a marsh and wildlife habitat on 14.25 acres east of Marina View Drive on the north bank of Hylebos Creek, near the head of the Hylebos Waterway.
SHA DADX (formerly “Frank Albert Road” and “Kusler property” sites). Completed: 2009. The 20-acre site is on the north bank of the Puyallup River at approximately River Mile (RM) 4.5, in Fife, Pierce County, Washington. The site is a relic channel of the Puyallup River and is isolated from the river by a levee. The project creates off-channel habitat and riparian buffers with connection to the Puyallup River and installation of a culvert under North Levee Road to connect the Puyallup River to constructed pools and channels in an abandoned oxbow system. A ring levee was constructed around the site to contain floodwater within the off-channel habitat area and to protect properties adjacent to the site. The off-channel habitat consists of approximately 12 acres inside the ring levee. This project will link other restoration sites in the lower Puyallup River and Commencement Bay area.
SKOOKUM WULGE BEACH (formerly the “Meeker” parcel). Completed: 1999 (formerly the "Meeker" parcel). The Skookum Wulge Beach site consists of 1.19 acres of uplands and tidelands with 418 linear feet of waterfront immediately inshore from a Trustee restoration site (#1), formerly the Meeker Log Storage Lease. The Trustees purchased the land in 1999 and conveyed title, in trust, to the Puyallup Tribe of Indians for stewardship in perpetuity. The Trustees have decided that due an already functioning habitat and the problems potentially associated with high wave energy, the most prudent course of action at this time would be to monitor the site rather than to engage in active restoration. The Trustees will reevaluate this position should the monitoring effort determine that the site needs intervention in order to continue functioning.
Completed: 2005. The Trustees partnered with the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group (SPSSEG) to implement this project. The project was designed to reconnect the oxbow and associated wetland to the the mainstem of the Puyallup River. The three-foot diameter culvert was replaced with a seven-foot diameter culvert with an internal fish ladder. The culvert provides juvenile salmonid access to the oxbow during most flood levels and create beneficial habitat for juvenile coho and chinook salmon and steelhead and cutthroat trout. Some armoring materials were placed around the culvert to protect the structure during high flow events on the River.
SQUALLY BEACH PROJECT (formerly the “Puyallup Intertidal Plant Nursery”). Completed: 2000 (formerly the "Puyallup Intertidal Plant Nursery"). The project restores approximately 0.66 acres of intertidal habitat. About 2,000 cubic yards of material were excavated and the area north of the existing vegetation line was regraded and planted with intertidal vegetation. Runoff from the hillside on the north side of Marine View Drive, which forms the eastern project boundary, is intercepted and routed through the project site in a dendritic channel pattern. Freshwater inputs lower salinity and encourage growth of species that tolerate brackish conditions. Citizens for a Healthy Bay (CHB) provides stewardship and monitoring services for this site.
Completed: 1992. As part of the remediation of the 17-acre area of the St. Paul Waterway, this project was constructed by Simpson Tacoma Kraft Company and designed to create a new intertidal habitat. The Company maintains this site and offers yearly "beach walks" for the public.
SWAN CREEK STREAM RESTORATION PROJECT. Completed: 2000. The City of Tacoma developed this stream restoration project on 12 acres of property bordering Swan Creek near the City of Tacoma corporate boundary and the Puyallup River. The location of this project adjacent to both Swan Creek Regional Park and the Port of Tacoma mitigation properties presents opportunities for both habitat restoration and public outreach. The project establishes freshwater, in-channel and off-channel stream habitat to restore and enhance refuge habitat for juvenile salmonids, to provide increased and enhanced habitat for wetland dependent species, and to eliminate fish passage impediments to the re-establishment of anadromous salmon stocks in Swan Creek canyon. The City of Tacoma provides stewardship and monitoring services for this site.
TAHOMA SALT MARSH RESTORATION PROJECT. Completed: 2004. The City of Tacoma constructed a salt marsh wetland restoration project on the Ruston Way shoreline within the City of Tacoma and Commencement Bay. The project's goal was to establish salt marsh and mudflat habitat to provide nesting, refuge, and feeding opportunities for a variety of fish and waterfowl species. A tidal channel was excavated (1.95 acres) to connect the newly created marsh and the restored beach to permit tidal inundation of the marsh. The City of Tacoma provides stewardship and monitoring services for this site.
ACQUISITION: 1999. Under a natural resource damages settlement, the Washington Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) made three parcels of state-owned aquatic lands (totaling 8.3 acres) available for future habitat restoration. No active design work is scheduled.
Completed 2000. The beach cleanup restoration involved demolishing and disposing of two derelict, wooden barges stranded on the shoreline of the property and removing from the site the debris from one former drydock and a sunken concrete float. This site was designed to be consistent with the overall Trustee vision for selected sites along Marine View Drive by enhancing the nearshore and intertidal habitats for salmonid and benthic resources and providing an unobstructed corridor along the shoreline which encompasses the intertidal area and extends into the Bay to a depth of at least -10 feet (MLLW). Citizens for a Healthy Bay (CHB) provides stewardship and monitoring services for this site. |
