Stillaguamish Delta Dynamics Affecting Restoration

From Salish Sea Wiki


Stillaguamish lidar.jpg

This project will conduct reach-scale feasibility by better understanding how wave energy, goose herbivory and sediment dynamics are likely to affect proposed investments to restore the Stillaguamish Delta.



Western Washington University in collaboration with USGS is evaluating wave energy dynamics, vegetation retreat, and goose herbivory along the seaward face of Florence Island in the Stillaguamish Delta as part of defining restoration strategies.

Western Washington University, with partners, will expand its system-wide estuary monitoring program at the Stillaguamish River to characterize how landscape context affects the interaction of biophysical controlling factors to drive different habitat responses. Based on this work we will produce recommendations for three current projects and a strategic framework for future projects throughout Puget Sound. Some marsh areas of the Stillaguamish are declining while others are growing. Restoration projects, depending on their landscape position, face similar factors. Projects also can alter system-wide processes, either improving marshes or accelerating their deterioration. Understanding the biophysical dynamics driving these changes is critical.

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