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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, MARCH 26, 2022
Washington creates sea grass, kelp sanctuary
completely damaged.”
The new protection zone
is part of a watershed-wide
Snohomish River action plan
announced by Franz last
month in Everett. She calls
it a “Tree to Sea” eff ort, to
collaborate with other part-
ners including tribal, fed-
eral and local governments
to help recover salmon popu-
lations, working at the water-
shed scale.
Salmon are in decline
because of 1,000 cuts and it
will take a multi-prong strat-
egy by many partners to
rebuild their numbers, Franz
said.
The Snohomish is the
pilot project, which for
the Department of Natu-
ral Resources will include a
range of work from stepping
up eff orts to remove dere-
lict vessels and creosoted pil-
ings, to planting trees and
placing large woody debris
in streams to help bring back
the complex habitat salmon
need in their fresh water
phase of life.
Bart Christiaen, a Depart-
ment of Natural Resources
eelgrass specialist, said the
Snohomish was targeted for
the fi rst preservation zone in
part because there is a large
eelgrass area near the river
delta. “It is very important for
our out-migrating chum and
Chinook salmon; it is the fi rst
eelgrass bed they encounter
in their out migration.”
By LYNDA V. MAPES
Seattle Times
A fi rst-of-its-kind sanc-
tuary has been created off -
shore of Everett, Washing-
ton, where 2,300 acres of
state tidelands have been put
off -limits to development for
50 years.
Commissioner of Public
Lands Hilary Franz created
the protection zone with the
stroke of a pen, withdraw-
ing the tidelands from poten-
tial development. Protected
are kelp forests and eelgrass
meadows near Hat Island
and in the Snohomish River
estuary.
“We are just getting
started,” said Franz, who
added that the protection
zones will be only part of a
new state eff ort under a mea-
sure, Senate Bill 5619, just
passed by the Legislature to
conserve and restore 10,000
acres of kelp and eelgrass by
2040.
Kelp and eelgrass are the
undersea forests and mead-
ows that shelter and nurture
aquatic life, just as grass-
lands and forests are havens
on land. Sea grass meadows
and kelp are the redoubt of
myriad, tiny unsung lives
that nourish and shelter the
glamour species such includ-
ing sea otters, salmon and
orcas. Kelp forests also pro-
vide migratory corridors for
baby salmon headed to sea
and for adults headed back to
their home river.
“It’s part of the circle of
life, one of the links in the
chain, and without it the
whole thing breaks down,”
Tom Wooten, chairman of
the Samish Indian Nation,
said of eelgrass and kelp.
But there is trouble in this
blue-green paradise.
“I’ve lived here in our
traditional territory in Ana-
cortes my entire life, and I
have seen what is happening
with all the natural resources,
but with kelp and eelgrass in
particular,” Wooten said.
Monitoring by the tribe
has mapped a 36% loss in
Steve Ringman/Seattle Times
Portions of the Snohomish River estuary are now being protected under a new tideland reserve.
kelp in their traditional ter-
ritory in and around the San
Juan Islands from 2006 to
2016, said Todd Woodard,
director of natural resources
for the tribe. Losses at some
of the more northern islands
in their territory are even
higher, at about 70%, Wood-
ard said. “It’s raising alarm
bells.”
Warming water, espe-
cially in recent marine heat
waves, is believed to be a cul-
prit, especially where water
temperatures can climb in
areas of low energy waves
and currents.
Kelp is a keystone not
only for the environment,
but for tribal culture, Wood-
ard said.
Declines were fi rst noted
by Samish elders who were
having trouble getting big
blades of bull kelp to wrap
salmon for cooking, Wood-
ard said.
Traditionally, the fi rst rat-
tles for Samish babies are
dried kelp bulbs with pebbles
inside. Eulachon oil burned
for light was also carried in
the bulbs. And eelgrass and
kelp are home to the pearles-
cent eggs of herring, savored
in feasts.
Even their extended fam-
ily needs kelp, said Wood-
ard. Southern resident orcas,
especially J pod, whom
the Samish regard as rela-
tives, play in kelp, winding it
around their fl ukes and fl ip-
ping it with their tail. “We
don’t know why it is import-
ant to them, but it is,” Wood-
ard said.
Eelgrass beds are coin-
cident with so many of the
traditional foods cherished
by the tribe, Woodard said.
“When the tide goes out, the
table is set — and when it’s
low enough, you can walk
out and get your crab.”
The overall area of eel-
grass in Puget Sound is
regarded as relatively stable,
at about 57,000 acres, based
on 18 years of monitoring by
the Department of Natural
Resources.
But those statistics hide
big losses in local areas.
Some San Juan Island coves
and bays once home to lush
eelgrass meadows have been
totally denuded, said Drew
Harvell, professor emeritus
of Cornell University. She is
a senior scientist at the Uni-
versity of Washington’s Fri-
day Harbor Labs, studying
a wasting disease that kills
eelgrass.
The disease is stoked by
warmer water brought by the
changing climate, Harvell
noted. The wasting disease
spreads both by water and
by contact of infected blades
with healthy patches.
The combined threats of
urbanization and warming
make preserving healthy eel-
grass pastures all the more
important, Harvell said.
Eelgrass is an ecosys-
tem with superpowers, she
said, from providing biodi-
versity hot spots to cleaning
the water and even helping to
absorb carbon dioxide, by the
process of photosynthesis.
In that way, protecting
kelp and eelgrass also helps
build climate resilience, Har-
vell said. “What’s good for
the environment is also good
for people too.”
Preservation now can
protect strongholds that can
reseed other areas, Harvell
noted. “It is so much faster
and less expensive, if we can
preserve sites rather than try
to restore something that is
DOUGLAS GRAHAM PASSED AWAY
ON JANUARY 16, 2022
His family invites you to a
celebration of life at the
Big Creek Lodge in Knappa
on Saturday, April 2, 2022
from 1:00-5:00 pm.
Because of flooding, there will be
limited parking at the lodge, but there
will be buses running between the
lodge and the parking lot at Teevin
Bros. Land and Timber every 15
minutes. We will need to leave room
at the lodge for handicapped parking
as well to let the shuttle drop off and
pick people up. Thank you for your help
with this!
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