Category Overview
The State Lands Restoration and Enhancement category provides funding to two state agencies to help repair damaged plant and animal habitat. These grants focus on resource preservation and protection of public lands. Projects in this category help bring important natural areas and resources back to their original functions by improving the self sustaining and ecological functionality of sites.
Project Highlights
Washington State Parks used this grant to initiate restoration on 55 acres of open dunes in Leadbetter Point State Park helping to restore habitat for two federally listed threatened species – western snowy plover and streaked horned lark; and two state listed endangered species – pink sand verbena and bear’s-foot sanicle; as well as the critically imperiled dune ecosystem (North Pacific Maritime Coastal Sand Dune and Strand). Restoration of this site will continue under RCO 22-1589 Leadbetter Point Coastal Dune Restoration Phase 2. Phase I work (RCO 20-1575) completed archeology and permitting, three broadcast herbicide applications to control exotic beachgrass, mechanical beachgrass control, a prescribed burn to reduce beachgrass thatch, and initiated seed collection efforts to propagate native plants back onto the site. One of the focal species, pink sand verbena, re-appeared on the site in the summer of 2023 apparently germinating from the long-dormant seed bank or from seed blown in from a population on the refuge. Western snowy plovers and streaked horned larks continue to breed nearby but no nests have been detected within the project area. An sign interpreting dune ecology and restoration was installed in February 2025.