Category Overview
Conserving land along our waterways protects important habitat and helps keep our rivers healthy, clean, and more resilient to drought. Riparian Protection projects conserve and restore fresh and saltwater habitat while protecting fish habitat. In doing so, the grants help provide our families, farms, and fisheries with clean water across the state.
Project Highlights
The Twins Nearshore & West Twin River project provides a unique conservation opportunity for shoreline, river, riparian, coastal wetland and forested upland habitat on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Acquisition of this property by the WDFW will protect and enhance the natural processes, conditions, functions, and biological responses of fish and wildlife habitat in one of the remaining functional ecosystems in western Washington. This reach contains some of the most complex shorelines of the Salish Sea, Twins Nearshore one of the most diverse. The nearshore fish assemblages include forage fish, juvenile steelhead, Chinook, Coho, cutthroat, and chum migration and rearing. The project site provides priority habitat for multiple species of concern, including ESA Bull Trout and documented nearshore use by ESA Chinook. The project includes highly productive Coho and winter steelhead spawning and rearing habitat, and supports prey production habitat for southern resident killer whales, salmon migratory habitat, intact eelgrass and kelp beds, and forage fish spawning and rearing habitat. The property provides rich shorebird and migratory bird habitat and includes a documented flight corridor for federally listed marbled murrelet.