SPU 1008
- Salish Sea References
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Introduction
PSNERP Strategy Assessments[edit]
Beach Assessment[edit]
Beach Site 1008 is a 6.76 km long beach system containing 1134 meters of barrier beach (17%) and 7 creek mouths, one of 29 beach sites located in the Juan de Fuca Sub-basin. Based on these attributes it ranks 81 out of 100 in terms of size and complexity among all Puget Sound Beach systems. Over five generations of beach development, 5 percent of beach length now has some indicator of sediment supply degradation, and 28 percent of the nearshore zone has estimated impervious surface levels higher than 10 percent. Property boundaries now legally segment the shoreline with an average of one property every 97 meters. Based on these metrics, this site ranks 44 out of 100 in terms of estimated degradation among all beach sites in Puget Sound. The PSNERP Strategy Analysis places this site in Degradation Group D10, a group of 30 sites where nearshore impervious is typical for Puget Sound, but parcel density is still below average and sediment supply degradation very low. Based on this grouping we recommend this site for a restoration-based strategy, where there may be the opportunity through a combination of protection and restoration efforts to recover the full operation of ecosystem processes thereby recovering ecosystem services that are either degraded or at risk. The site faces a high risk from jetty development impounding sediment, has no impacts from active shoreline railroad, and faces a slight risk from predicted future population growth (as estimated by Bolte & Vache 2010).
Barrier Embayment Assessment[edit]
Historically this system contained 2 barrier-type embayments, with an embayment shoreline length of 1.23 km, encompassing 3.6 hectares of tidal wetlands. Considering the length of beach this is the equivalent of one embayment every 3.5 km. This system is one among 23 barrier embayment complexes in the Juan de Fuca Sub-basin. Based on these metrics this site ranks 54 out of 100 in terms of size and complexity among all Puget Sound barrier embayment systems. The PSNERP Strategy Analysis placed this site in Potential Group P6, a large group of 138 sites that are average in the scale and density of embayments.
Site 1008 currently has 1 embayment--1 less than under historical conditions. This has been accompanied by a 77 percent loss of wetland area and an 86 percent loss of embayment length, based on comparison to historic maps. None of the remaining embayment shoreline length has evidence of shoreline modification. Based on these metrics, and the general development status of the drift cell, the PSNERP Strategy Analysis ranked this system 47 out of 100 in terms of degradation among all Puget Sound barrier embayment systems, and placed this site in Degradation Group D2, a large group of 64 barrier embayment systems with extremely high loss of embayment shoreline length, perhaps indicating fill, but with moderate to low degradation across the drift cell and remaining embayments. Based on this grouping, the site is recommended for a restoration-based approach, where there may be the opportunity through a combination of protection and restoration efforts to recover the full operation of ecosystem processes thereby recovering ecosystem services that are either degraded or at risk.
