Cantwell celebrates a milestone

Nature Conservancy Restoration Manager Jenny Baker (left) explains the Fisher Slough project to Senator Maria Cantwell as David Dicks, executive director of Puget Sound Parnership, looks on. PHOTO BY KELLY RUHOFF | STANWOOD/CAMANO NEWS U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash) paid a visit to The Nature Conservancy’s Fisher Slough project between Conway and Stanwood last Saturday morning to check on the first phase of a project she helped fund.

Cantwell was instrumental in the conservancy’s award of $5.2 million in stimulus funding through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to complete the $7 million coastal restoration project.

Three new floodgates, engineered by Tetra Tech in Seattle, have already been installed, replacing older ones that did not allow for proper fish passage on Fisher Slough.

Once completed, the restoration project will create approximately 60 acres of tidal freshwater marsh habitat for juvenile salmon and provide 15 miles of spawning stream.

Three new flood gates installed on Fisher Slough, north of Stanwood, will provide better fish passage. PHOTO BY KELLY RUHOFF | STANWOOD/CAMANO NEWS During the next phase it will be routed into Big Ditch, which borders the outskirts of Stanwood.

“We in the Northwest are in the business of moving fish,” said an enthusiastic Cantwell, standing on land that will become a tidal estuary.

She spoke to a group of Nature Conservancy biologists, David Dicks, the director of Puget Sound Partnership, Jennifer Steger with NOAA, and others involved with one of the conservancy’s largest coastal restoration endeavors in the state.

The project has brought conservation groups, fisheries agencies, the agricultural community, along with tribal and Skagit County, together to collectively restore salmon habitat, property owners from floods, while also sustaining farming, said Cantwell.

The project has also created 50 jobs and will provide 13 permanent positions.

Washington state received 10 percent of stimulus funding for estuary restoration on Fisher Slough because of its vital importance to the Skagit River Delta.

“This is the sweet spot,” said Cantwell.

Bob Carey, lead biologist on the assignment, said critical habitat was being restored.

“The Skagit River is arguably one of the most important rivers in Washington,” he said.

With the Fisher Slough project, Carey said farming and the recovery of the economy were working hand in hand.

“Skagit River Delta produces more than 80 crops, “ he said.

Karen Anderson, state director of The Nature Conservancy, said restoring Fisher Slough and removing longstanding dikes is important because the Skagit River, and its tributaries, has varied species of salmon, and healthy fish translates into a vigorous eco-system.

During the next phase, dikes that have been in place for decades will be removed from the property owned by Richard Smith.

The created flood storage area will drain into Big Ditch, which will also be realigned, said engineer David Cline with Tetra Tech.

“The Nature Conservancy has done an excellent job of collaboration with the farming community,” said Cline.