Regional nonprofit working to Keep Salish Sea healthy

Juvenile salmon populations have steadily increased at Bowman Bay since a shoreline restoration project removed armoring and restored natural habitat a decade ago, according to the Northwest Straits Foundation.

NWSF believes protecting the Salish Sea’s health involves planting and maintaining native vegetation around shorelines as well as removing shoreline armoring like bulkheads, seawalls, riprap and similar manmade methods wherever possible. That way, the environment can shift naturally with time.

Removing abandoned crabbing pots and commercial fishing nets is also a large part of the work.

Removing shoreline armoring and ensuring that these areas are full of more natural wood debris create erosion control and shelter for wildlife. Lack of woody debris and sediment can cause beaches to shorten over time, according to NWSF’s program coordinator Haley Sherman.

“The heart of our shore-friendly program is to reduce shoreline armoring and prevent new armoring from being installed, because it has a spiral of effects, such as burying suitable forage fish habitat, which are a key staple in adult salmon, shorebirds, and marine mammals diets,” Sherman said.

The NWSF hosts events where volunteers can come out to help with projects like tending to the native vegetation, weeding, spreading mulch, cutting back blackberry bushes, and assessing invasive pieces.

Some of the work includes projects along Mukilteo, Picnic Point and Edmonds shorelines.

Nearly a third of these shorelines are impacted by harmful armoring and the goal is to reduce this with every restoration project, and site visit, according to Sherman.

The NWSF has visited over 600 different sites around the Salish Sea, and has restored over 5,750 feet of beach shoreline, according to their website.

In Skagit County at Bowman Bay back in 2015, The NWSF removed a large amount of shoreline armoring that was made up of large scale boulders and quarry spall, and replanted the area with native vegetation. This is also one of the locations where they do near-shore fish monitoring, a 10-year study that shows how the wildlife is being affected by their work, Sherman said.

From 2015 to 2025, juvenile salmon abundance increased at a rate of 110 fish per year and forge fish abundance increased at a rate of 313 fish per year, Sherman said.

“If this work doesn’t get done, shoreline armoring continues to be installed or not removed, which is a reduction in prey for both adult and juvenile salmon. This trickles up to our southern resident killer whales,” Sherman said.

The NWSF is also planning a large-scale restoration project at Clayton Beach, which involves the removal of more than 1,300 linear feet of rock armor as well as wood pilings from an old trolley that operated on this land from 1912 until 1928.

Workshops like shoreline restorations and beach walks are important because they bring people together and promote ecological growth, Sherman said.

Landowners with beach-front properties are more closely related to the immediate area associated with this work and should consider signing up for a beach walk event to learn more about how they can protect their property and the environment, she said.

“Our shore-friendly team has done countless site visits, beach walks, workshops for shoreline landowners, and we have also helped offset the cost for vegetation and drainage improvements,” Sherman said.

Feeder bluffs and natural landslides dump nutrients and sediments into the ecosystem that are necessary for a healthy environment for the migrating juvenile salmon, according to NWSF’s Marine Program Manager Jason Morgan.

Derelict fishing gear removal is a large part of the work done by the NWSF. Gear that has been lost, abandoned, or discarded at sea, including gill nets from the commercial salmon fishery and crab pots, captures and kills marine organisms, Morgan said.

The NWSF has removed more than 5,800 derelict fishing nets and over 8,400 crab pots, which equates to over 870 acres of marine habitat, which likely saved about 12 million marine animals, Morgan said.

Morgan emphasized that about 80% of the crabbing pots lost are from recreational fishing, not commercial, and this is caused by user error. They focus a large portion of their outreach by educating recreational crabbers proper techniques, he said.

“If this work doesn’t get done, I think the health of the Salish Sea will decline exponentially,” Morgan said.

The NWSF is hosting volunteer powered events all throughout the summer.