Budd Inlet Ecosystem
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Like most South Puget Sound Inlets, Budd Inlet contains multiple beaches and embayments, and is anchored by a large embayment complex at its head. Budd Inlet is the most populated inlet in South Sound. The head of Budd Inlet is dominated by the City of Olympia which surrounds the historical Deschutes Delta and East Bay which received flow from the Deschutes Watershed and the Indian-Moxlie Creek Watershed. The rest of the inlet shoreline is formed of five significant beach drift cells including clockwise from the NE, Gull Harbor North Drift Cell, Priest Point North Drift Cell, Mission Creek Drift Cell, East Cooper Point Drift Cell, and West Bay Drift Cell. Several smaller drift cells flow into three embayments, Ellis Cove, Gull Harbor and Butler Cove which receive a large portion of the remaining freshwater from the watershed. The Embayments and portions of the Gull Harbor and Priest Point drift cells are the least developed. Much of the remaining shoreline is either armored or extensively modified.
- View in Coastal Atlas showing Drift Cells
- Map of Budd Inlet showing drift cells and lost barrier embayments
- NOAA Chart of Budd Inlet
Notes
- South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group has completed nearshore restoration assessments. They recently restored the mouth of Mission Creek.
- Squaxin Island Tribe has been involved in ecosystem assessment and planning, and has rights to ceded lands.
- City of Olympia has been involved in restoration of fish passage at Ellis Creek Watershed
- Capital Land Trust has acquired extensive shoreline properties around Gull Harbor
- Deschutes Estuary Restoration Team advocates for restoration of the Deschutes Delta
- Puget Sound Restoration Fund has supported olympia oyster restoration in Budd Inlet (not sure if there are any results). The system used to be a Oyster production area.
- Washington State Department of Natural Resources manages state owned aquatic lands as well as shoreline property being considered for restoration in the Priest Point North Drift Cell
- People for Puget Sound has supported feasibility work for enhancement of East Bay
- Budd inlet is a Puget Sound Initiative Site identified by Washington State Department of Ecology.
- Shoreline development is regulated by the City of Olympia and Thurston County Shoreline Master Plans.
- The 2014 Olympia Plan is submitted and under review by WDOE as of January 2014.
- The Thurston County plan was last updated in 1990, and is now under development.
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