How a community is using Ecology grants to help salmon return
Ohop Creek is an important spawning habitat for Chinook salmon. Photo by NOAA.
For almost 20 years, the Nisqually Land Trust has been steadily improving habitat in and around Ohop Creek – one of the largest stream-restoration projects in the state. The project is also a great example of a successful community collaboration between the Nisqually Land Trust, the Nisqually Indian Tribe, several non-profit organizations, landowners and volunteers. The Ohop Creek restoration is one of 37 state wide projects we have funded through our competitive streamflow restoration grants program. Funding for these grants was authorized by the state legislature in 2018 to help public entities improve rivers and habitat throughout Washington.
Read the entire blog post on collaborative salmon recovery here.
NISQUALLY LAND TRUST ACQUIRES TWO KEY PROPERTIES ALONG OHOP CREEK
Purchases Protect Spawning Beds and Set Stage for Restoration
The Land Trust has permanently protected two more properties central to the restoration of Ohop Creek, one of the two main tributaries to the Nisqually River.
They include 45 acres of floodplain and over one-half mile of Ohop Creek shoreline used by four species of Pacific salmonids native to the Nisqually Watershed, including threatened Chinook salmon and steelhead trout.
The Land Trust purchased the properties from two families with long ties to the Valley.
The Land Trust purchased ten acres in the lower Ohop from Marcia Berger, who has owned the property since 1983. The Land Trust worked with Marcia and her daughter, Cindy, to allow Cindy and her family to retain a residence on high ground while the Land Trust acquired the land along the valley floor.
The Berger property adjoins 90 acres the Land Trust purchased from the Pruitt family in 2019 and helps set the stage for the next phase of Ohop Creek restoration. Ohop Creek was ditched over a century ago to drain the valley for dairy farming. This had devastating impacts for fish, reducing the creek’s capacity for Chinook salmon, for one, by some 80 percent.
In 2015, the Land Trust, the Nisqually Indian Tribe, and a team of local, state, and federal partners completed the first phase of restoration, re-converting 1.6 miles of ditch back to 2.4 miles of meandering, salmon-friendly stream and planting 186,000 native trees and shrubs in the floodplain.
“We’re grateful to Marcia and her family for helping us to secure one more piece of the puzzle for the next phase of the Ohop Creek restoration,” said Land Trust Executive Director Jeanette Dorner. “It’s been a high priority in the Nisqually salmon recovery strategy for the last two decades, and this brings us one step closer.”
Further up the Valley, the Land Trust purchased 35 acres from the Litzenberger family that include over 2,200 feet of Ohop Creek shoreline along the heart of the creek’s salmon-spawning beds.
The purchase secures the property for floodplain restoration and eliminates development of up to 37 residences, which would have severely impacted the spawning grounds. The Land Trust will continue to lease a home to a young family with a small livestock operation on a portion of the property outside the floodplain.
Funding partners for the two purchases include the state’s Streamflow Restoration and Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration programs and the Nisqually Delta Environmental Mitigation Trust.
For more information, please contact Nisqually Land Trust Executive Director Jeanette Dorner: (360) 489-3400 x105;
It’s a hot day. But deep inside the Nisqually Community Forest, there’s no shortage of shade as my photographer and I work our way around skinny trees and toward a pair of researchers.
A familiar cracking and popping sound echoes around us as we walk over old branches that have fallen to the forest floor before it’s interrupted. Read the full article here.
Land Trust Purchases 6 Acres of Upper Mallard Cove
By Daniel Warn /
The Nisqually Land Trust recently purchased 6 acres of undeveloped forest at the top of the Mallard Cove west bluff to protect the land in perpetuity.
The land, obtained from Douglas and Julia Hart in a sale for just under $200,000, features forested wetlands, which supply freshwater to feed Mallard Cove’s pocket estuary year-round through groundwater flow.
“Pocket estuaries in the Puget Sound are critically important for juvenile salmon that are migrating out from the rivers where they were born and getting ready to head out into the ocean to live their adult lives,” said Jeanette Dorner, executive director of the Nisqually Land Trust.
The Nisqually Land Trust’s first project to protect Mallard Cove was completed in 1998, which protected 46 acres of the cove’s nearshore forest, mudflats, and beaches.
The activism around the Nisqually watershed — the 460,000 acres surrounding the Nisqually River, from Mount Rainier to the Sound — in the last 60 years has resulted in one of the most pristinely preserved environments in the state. Still, the Nisqually Tribe and its allies worry for the future of the watershed, especially for the salmon that depend on its health to survive. “Excerpt from South Sound Magazine Article, March 16, 2020” Read more here!
When the going gets tough, call the Girl Scouts: Four scouts from troops in Olympia and Steilacoom are tackling the restoration of a critical but much-abused shoreline property the Land Trust recently acquired along the main stem of the Nisqually River, near Yelm.
The Girl Scouts and a team of volunteers will plant 500 plants on this acre of shoreline land, which has been torn up over the years by dirt bikes and off-road vehicles.
“These girls are incredibly ambitious,” said Courtney Murphy, the Land Trust’s Stewardship Assistant, who has been working with the Scouts for much of the last year. “They’ve worked hard – researched what kind of plant diversity they need, raised money to buy plants, salvaged plants from other sites, prepped the site. They’ve done it all.”
The four Scouts – Cassidy Chaney, from Steilacoom Troop 45261, and Maya Hanson and Maggie and Addie Barker, from Olympia Troop 40116 – are middle-school students and Girl Scout Cadettes. They’ll earn the Girl Scouting Silver Award for their project. It’s the highest honor a Cadette can receive.
In November and December, the Scouts and a team of volunteers will plant 500 plants on an acre of land that has been torn up over the years by dirt bikes and off-road vehicles. The property anchors one end of a ten-acre habitat block in the Nisqually River’s McKenna Reach that is salmon-rich but highly vulnerable.
In particular, the McKenna Reach contains spawning grounds used by Nisqually Chinook salmon and steelhead trout, both of which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
A Silver Award project must demonstrate a Scout’s “understanding of sustainability and the wider world.” In addition to the restoration project, all four Scouts have completed the rigorous six-week Nisqually Stream Stewards class held by the Nisqually Indian Tribe and the Nisqually River Council.
Experience the wildest stretch of the Nisqually River, up close, right on the water! Join the Nisqually Land Trust to float the river’s seldom- seen upper 13 miles. Click here to learn more.
Nisqually Reach Kayak Trips
Enjoy premier wildlife watching, sea-kayaking safety, and interpretation of the marine environment with professional biologist guides.
First-ever Environmental Partnership Grant Saves Final Land Purchase
Over a year ago, facing a deadline to come up with nearly a million dollars or lose the opportunity to acquire the crown-jewel property for its Nisqually Community Forest Project, the Land Trust did something it had never done before – took out a private, short-term, eleventh-hour loan. “And we did that with no idea how we’d pay it off,” said Executive Director Joe Kane.
In the ensuing months the Land Trust managed to reduce the mortgage to $500,000 by winning a U.S. Forest Community Forest grant and additional funding from the state’s Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration program.
“But there it stood,” said Kane, “with the clock ticking, interest payments mounting, and the very real possibility that we could still lose the land – until the PSE Foundation called.”
Nisqually Community Forest Board members, (left to right) Justin Hall, Joe Kane, and Bryan Bowden along with PSE energy government affairs rep Kelsey Hulse
The Foundation had just launched its new Environmental Partnership program, and Executive Director Sandra Carson was canvassing the PSE service area for potential applicants. Foundation Chair and President Andy Wappler recommended she look into the Nisqually Land Trust.
Carson and Kelsey Hulse, Puget Sound Energy’s government affairs representative, visited the Land Trust offices and learned about the 320-acre Busy Wild Creek property, the final piece in the community forest’s 1,920-acre Phase I acquisition plan.
Busy Wild Creek is the headwaters of the Mashel River, the largest tributary to the Nisqually River. In 2016, both the Mashel and the Busy Wild were designated federal critical habitat for steelhead trout, which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act and verge dangerously close to extinction.
“The community forest properties are in the headwaters of the Busy Wild,” said Kane. “They influence everything below them, all the way to Puget Sound. And they have dense timberlands that need management to improve salmon habitat. That means steady local forestry jobs.”
The property also contains key sections of the most popular trail in the Mount Tahoma Trails Association’s hut-to-hut cross-country ski network, which attracts some 3,000 users annually and is an economic driver for upper Nisqually Watershed communities.
Two months later, Carson called with big news: The Land Trust had won $500,000 to pay off the property loan. It was the first and largest grant the Foundation awarded under its new program. In announcing the award, the Foundation cited the Land Trust’s “environmental and community impact in a rapidly growing area.”
“The PSE Foundation is committed to supporting programs that deliver meaningful, measurable and long-lasting results for generations to come,” said Foundation Chair Andy Wappler. “We’re proud to help the Nisqually Land Trust protect this critical watershed.”
The U.S. Department of the Interior is awarding the Nisqually Land Trust $1.95 million for two projects that will protect marine shoreline in southern Puget Sound, including intact habitat vital for the recovery of threatened orcas and Chinook salmon.
Wetlands in coastal watersheds are diverse and complex ecosystems that are also critical for the nation’s economy and an important part of the nation’s natural heritage. In recognition of the role wetlands play, the Department awarded a total of some $20 million to 22 projects in 11 coastal states.
With the first award, we (along with Washington Department of Ecology and other partners) will protect an 88-acre estuarine complex in Thurston County comprised of 4,200 feet of intact shoreline surrounding 7.8 acres of estuarine intertidal wetlands, 42 acres of intact freshwater forested wetlands and 38 acres of mature forested uplands.
The second award (also in partnership with Washington State Department of Ecology and other stakeholders) will protect a 93-acre waterfront property on Drayton Passage, along Anderson Island in Pierce County. The property is comprised of 4,000 feet of marine/estuarine shoreline and a coastal wetland complex consisting of barrier beach, barrier lagoon, closed lagoon, saltmarsh, bluff-backed beach, intact feeder bluff, tideland and associated upland forest habitats.
The projects represent the current phase of the our Marine Conservation Initiative and build upon extensive prior investments in coastal protection and restoration within the region, including the 900-acre Nisqually Delta restoration project and establishment of the 14,800-acre Nisqually Reach Aquatic Reserve.
According to Marine Conservation Initiative Project Manager Eric Erler, “This is an incredible achievement for Nisqually Land Trust in advancing our Marine Conservation Initiative. Developing these funding proposals and building necessary relationships and partnerships requires significant investment of time and resources.
“To put this in perspective, with these awards, the Land Trust secured two of only 22 awards made nationally and nearly 10 percent of the total funding. This success is a testament to the Marine Conservation Initiative vision and strategic approach.”
We received this video (click here) from Nancyrose Houston (Sound View Camp Outdoor Environmental Education Director). Nancyrose took the video a few weeks ago from the beach at Sound View Camp. From my perspective, this is the best possible confirmation that, with your support, the Marine Conservation Initiative is making an essential investment in the protection of Puget Sound coastal habitats (make sure your volume is up).
The Land Trust and the Nisqually Community Forest board of directors recently tripled the size of the Community Forest with two major acquisitions.
In December, acting as the purchasing agent for the Community Forest, the Land Trust acquired a full section (640 acres) of heavily forested timberlands along Busy Wild Creek, the headwaters of the Mashel River. This property adjoins the first section of the Community Forest, which was acquired in 2016.
And in April, in two separate transactions, the Land Trust added two 320-acre parcels to the existing block, bringing the Community Forest to a total of 1,920 acres. This completed Phase I of the project, which is now the largest locally-owned community forest in the state. It was also the first community forest in Puget Sound.
These purchases were made possible in part by grant funding from the Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration Program and the Washington Salmon Recovery Board, administered by the state’s Recreation and Conservation Office, and from the Pierce County Conservation Futures program.
And one of the April purchases would not have been possible without a substantial, eleventh-hour loan from The Conservation Fund, a national nonprofit organization that supports development of community forests. Without the loan, the property would have gone to another buyer.
Our deepest thanks to these partners, and also to the seller, the Hancock Timber Resource Group, which worked patiently with us through a complex transaction process.
“This is a vivid demonstration of the power of partnerships, and of community,” said Community Forest Board President Bryan Bowden. “And it’s just the start.”
Located near Ashford and Mount Rainier National Park, the Nisqually Community Forest is a working forest managed specifically to benefit our local communities by providing forestry and tourism jobs, recreation, education, clean air and water, and abundant wildlife habitat.
The Nisqually Community Forest now protects some 22 miles of shoreline along Busy Wild Creek and its tributaries, which are critical to the recovery of threatened steelhead trout and Chinook salmon.
As well, the Community Forest adjoins the Land Trust’s 2,500-acre Mount Rainier Gateway Reserve. Between them, the two projects also provide long-term protection of some three miles of the most popular section of the Mount Tahoma Trails Association’s hut-to-hut cross-country ski trail, the largest such no-fee public trail in the country.
The activism around the Nisqually watershed — the 460,000 acres surrounding the Nisqually River, from Mount Rainier to the Sound — in the last 60 years has resulted in one of the most pristinely preserved environments in the state. Still, the Nisqually Tribe and its allies worry for the future of the watershed, especially for the salmon that depend on its health to survive. “Excerpt from South Sound Magazine Article, March 16, 2020” Read more
