Conservation - Tide Gates Swing Open

By Tildy LaFarge


Reclaiming farmland for ducks in the Pacific Northwest

Imagine cows standing in a field, knee deep in salty water. It's not an optimal grazing scenario. To a farmer, all that water spells trouble. To a waterfowl biologist, the water represents the critical "tidal pulse" that sustains an estuary. In the Pacific Northwest, draining and diking for agricultural purposes have resulted in dramatic wetland losses. As a result, many species of migratory ducks have lost habitat critical to their life cycles.

DU's Western Regional Office (WRO) recently opened a satellite office in Vancouver, Washington, to give conservation efforts there an extra shot of momentum. "Because this part of the country is experiencing an explosion of human growth and development associated with cities like Portland, Seattle, and Tacoma, the window of opportunity for wetland protection is really tight. I'd say we have about 10 years," says Ron Stromstad, DU's WRO director of operations.

One of DU's most ambitious projects involves the restoration of the Chinook River estuary, just a few miles inland from the coast of Washington. A settler who wanted to start a dairy farm purchased the estuary-about 1,400 acres in size-in the late 1800s. In order to drain the water from the fields, the farmer engineered a solution-with many tons of steel, he locked out the nearby Chinook River with a massive tide gate. Without the river's tidal pulse, the vegetation that supported many living creatures, including many species of ducks, geese, clams, and fish, died off.

Fast-forward 100 years. The government has made a deal with the land's current owner, offering a financial incentive in exchange for retiring the land under the voluntary Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP). Working with several partners, DU recently helped purchase the idle farmland for restoration and permanent protection. In 2002, the tide gates will swing open and the Chinook River will inundate more than 1,000 acres of fields. Levees around the estuary will prevent nearby properties from flooding.

Restored to its original state, the Chinook estuary will ultimately support many species of waterfowl, including pintails, ring-necked ducks, greater scaup, Pacific brant, and wigeon.

"The estuaries are extremely important to migratory waterfowl and many kinds of shorebirds, too. They also provide a critical link between ocean habitats and riverine systems. Juvenile fish, including many salmon species, depend on estuarine areas as a productive nursery for rapid growth and a chance to adapt to saltwater conditions," says Tom Dwyer, director of conservation for DU's new Vancouver office.

The fish connection hasn't been lost on Washington's Salmon Recovery Funding Board and the Lower Columbia River Fish Recovery Board, which supported the project. Other partners include the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Sea Resources, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Columbia Land Trust.