Many of you know that wild salmon populations native to the Salish Sea and the west coast are threatened and or endangered due to a number of factors such as rising water temperatures, loss of and diminished clean non-polluted spawning streams and loss of habitat for juvenile salmon (and other fish and marine critters) to grow, mature and accommodate to salt water before embarking on their journey to sea. Reclamation of these onshore and nearshore wetlands and associated habitats are ongoing projects all along the west coast. To aid in our local reclamation effort, along with 231 other community volunteers, I spent my Martin Luther King Jr. Day of National service helping to re-establish an estuary where one of our local creeks empties into Bellingham Bay at the edge of the Salish Sea.
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Estuaries are transition areas where freshwater streams and rivers enter the salt water providing a critical habitat - essentially a nursery for young salmon. These estuaries are typically relatively calm refuges and are loaded with seagrasses such as eelgrass and other nutrients needed by the juvenile salmonids and other near shore critter to grow and to survive. These low saline environments are of critical importance as they are a blending of salt and fresh water. Once the salmonids reach this area after being born and nurtured in fresh water, they enter the estuary and begin the osmoregulatory process of adapting their physiology to function in a salt water environment. This preparation for their journey to the sea takes from one to two years depending on the species.
This video shows the previous estuary reconstruction on the other streams in town. (7 Min.)
Our city holds an annual MLK Jr. Volunteer work day devoted to community and environmental justice with a major goal of restoring and maintaining our natural environment. This year the focus was clearing out invasive species and planting native vegetation along Little Squalicum Creek and its under-construction new estuary seen in the lead photo above.
Through this work, we hope to exemplify the environmental justice movement, which was inspired by Dr. King through his concern for the urban environment. Environmental justice embodies the principle that all people have the right to clean air, water, and soil, as well as the right to live in safe and healthy communities.
Over the past 150 years the shoreline of Bellingham Bay has lost approximately 286 acres of precious estuarian habitat that had served the various species of salmon, herring and other nearshore fish in its five creeks and the Nooksack River. This habitat loss has led to the near extinction of native salmon populations, especially Chinook salmon as well as local herring. Various industries, lumber, other wood products, coal, and ironically fish canneries, were built along the shore and over salmon rearing waters and estuaries leading to the demise of the very commodity they were seeking. Commerce and industry require shipping their products. Here that meant dredging a deep water port. So, the near shores and estuaries were dredged up, further destroying habitat. What wasn’t shipped by sea was sent by rail, requiring tracks to be build, of course along shore line and over water. Not only were the habitats dug up and built over, they were defiled by toxic pollutants from the manufacturing processes that must now be mitigated by re-dredging and disposal. Yes it was a mess. The next photo gives an inkling of what the early shore looked like around downtown Bellingham.
In recent years the city has made great progress in restoring and reclaiming much of this lost critical shoreline for its original owners, the fish. This particular project is the last and one of the smaller of several estuaries reclaimed around the city. This job will require dredging only ~ 8,000 cubic yards of contaminated soils overlaying the estuary and tide lands.
Little Squalicum Creek and estuary:
Although there is no “Big Squalicum,” Creek there is a Squalicum creek that is about a half mile away and it is larger, hence, Little Squalicum. And indeed, Little Squalicum is rather small as seen in photo below as it runs along side the new estuary construction site. Here is a Bucket I did 10 years ago on the restoration of Squalicum Creek.
The city’s master plan for this project was completed in 2010, although construction only started in 2022. It will be completed in 2024. As shown in the top photo, a basin was carved out that will serve as the new estuary proper that will connect under the train trestle and through the beach to salt water beyond. In addition to basin creation and trail development, the riparian areas along the creek and around the basin must be mitigated to secure the slopes and ensure that water quality is maintained. This is where many volunteer hours come in and what we were about on this MLK Jr. day. Financial support for this project was shared by some 12 agencies from the city, county, local tribes, state and federal Government along with several non-profits. On this day our work was directly organized by the Bellingham City Volunteer program, the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association, Washington Trails, and the Whatcom Million Tree Project. Check this site for a some in-process photos and drawings of the project.
Fortunately for us, volunteers from these groups were well prepared with coffee and snacks, as well as a broad array of tools, plants and other materials. All we had to do was dig in. Our job was to clear out the invasive species like Himalayan Blackberry, English Holly and Poison Hemlock, a noxious weed that is toxic to even the touch for humans and animals.
Once an area was cleared of invasives and roots dug up, we were ready to reintroduce native vegetation that would serve as habitat for animals and as filters for our prodigious rainwater run off before it drained into the creek, the estuary and the bay. As a group we cleared 24 cubic yards of invasive plants and picked up two cubic yards of litter.
The work party as a whole, planted about 4,600 plants including riparian shrubs, upland trees and bushes. Each plant was surrounded by a doughnut of mulch to retain water and provide nutrients for the young starts.
The MLK Jr. Day of National Service was a big success at Little Squalicum Park and estuary. One of the city workers who was there helping to orchestrate the work parties commented to me how grateful he was for all the volunteer help. He said that if it were left to him and his crew, this amount of work would have taken them a couple of weeks. That is back breaking work that they do not have to do. We all think of this work as a win — win proposition. The city gets its work done, we volunteers got our hands dirty by helping and we all will have cleaner water and more productive salmon spawning and rearing habitats — and we hope, more salmon in the ocean to feed the orcas, for fishers to catch and to restore and sustain our wonderful environment with its many native critters.
What volunteer activities were planned in your communities over the MLK Jr. Day or any other day for that matter? I envision this group of Bucketeers as being highly invested in maintaining or restoring our natural habitats for the welfare of all the critters that we observe and report on here as well as for our own enjoyment.