During Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal’s visit to Vashon on Wednesday, March 23, she attended a talk concerning how local salmon recovery projects will benefit from the recent passing of the infrastructure bill.
Jayapal met with Vashon Nature Center Director Bianca Perla, Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust Executive Director Kate Riley, King County Basin Steward Greg Rabourn and Executive Director of Save Our wild Salmon Joseph Bogaard at Dockton Park on Wednesday afternoon.
At the Dockton Park site, Perla noted several areas where bulkheads — man-made structures meant to keep back wind, waves and other elements — had been taken out to allow for shore and salmon restoration.
According to Perla, access to the shoreline is vital to salmon restoration, as findings from a 2004 King County study found that more salmon are turning south into the Puget Sound, and coming in from many rivers, including as far north as the Stillaguamish River to forage on Vashon shores.
Perla added that as bulkheads have been removed on Vashon, the Nature Center has seen sand from areas that used to be bulkheaded feed beaches not just in the immediate vicinity, but also miles away as sand is moved with currents known as “drift cells.”
“Most restoration projects on Vashon have been located at the feeding end of drift cell currents meaning that when the bulkhead is taken down, sand nourishes the beaches well beyond the area where the bulkhead is located,” said Perla in an email to The Beachcomber.
In addition, sites without bulkheads typically have more overhanging vegetation, logs anchored on-site and beach wrack, which includes seaweed and drift that washes up with the tides. This type of landscape, according to Perla, provides habitat for insects, which can make up to 80% of the stomach content of medium-sized chinook along Vashon’s shores.
“We are seeing in our data that the first thing to change on Vashon sites when bulkheads are removed is that logs start to anchor, sand starts to feed the beach, fish use starts to increase, and beach wrack starts to form more thickly,” said Perla. “After a few years we will get more vegetation regrowth but right now our sites are too new to see this,”
The recent passage of the infrastructure bill assists in removing barriers to salmon, such as bulkheads. According to Jayapal, the funds from the infrastructure bill will benefit local communities like Vashon by directing “billions of dollars” into green building projects, and removing fish passage barriers and culverts to assist in salmon restoration.
“Salmon are in deep trouble,” said Bogaard. “When those disconnections occur, fish don’t make it.”
Bogaard applauded the work of both the Vashon Nature Center and the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust, while highlighting how investments made on Vashon impact the wider ecosystem.
Jayapal described her visit to Vashon as a “total treat,” and spoke about the Climate Resiliency Workforce Act she is in the process of introducing to Congress.
This particular bill would invest in building and training a workforce able to respond to climate change events. It would also fund the development of regional, state, local and community-based climate resilience plans, as well as creating an Office of Climate Resilience within the White House.
“The innovative Climate Resilience Workforce Act responds to the worsening climate crisis at the scale necessary by investing in a skilled workforce that is capable of not only responding to but preparing for the destructive impacts of climate change,” said Jayapal in a press release. “As we create millions of good-paying, union jobs and center the very communities who are disproportionately impacted, we are finally building back better, greener, and stronger.”
The bill was introduced to the House of Representatives on Tuesday, January 25 and was referred to the Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry by the Committee on Agriculture on Tuesday, February 8. As of press time, the bill is still in committee.
