The District has received grants from the WA State Salmon Recovery Funding Board to purchase two properties along South Prairie Creek, including the one shown here. Protecting critical stretches of stream through acquisition is just one action of many the District and its partners in salmon recovery are taking to improve wild salmon runs in Pierce County.
Across Washington State, 18 distinct
runs of salmon, steelhead, and bull trout
are listed as endangered or threatened
under the federal Endangered Species
Act (ESA). Efforts to recover Pacific
salmon to self-sustaining populations
is a complicated endeavor, to say
the least. Since the late 1990’s, the
Pierce Conservation District has
contributed to salmon recovery via
fish passage improvement, riparian
habitat enhancement, and reducing
stormwater run-off on both rural
and urban landscapes. Working with
landowners to implement these practices
is fundamental to the work of the
District, but sometimes the chance to
acquire strategic stretches of stream is
an opportunity too good to pass up.
In the mid-2000’s, the District received
funding from the WA State Salmon
Recovery Funding Board (SRFB)
and other partners to purchase
two properties along South Prairie
Creek, one of the most important
salmon streams in the Puyallup River
watershed. Protecting these properties
from development, and making them
available for salmon recovery projects,
has resulted in the work that is currently
underway at the former Inglin Dairy to
recreate a half-mile of new side channel,
reconnect South Prairie Creek to its
floodplain, and improve spawning habitat.
In the 2018 SRFB funding round, the
District received grants to acquire two
additional properties, also on South
Prairie Creek. Negotiations with the
current landowners are underway, and
if successful, these new acquisitions will
contribute over 40 acres and almost a
half-mile of in-stream habitat to salmon
recovery efforts in Pierce County. It’s a
long-term, uphill battle to recover our
ESA listed species of salmon, as well as
our ESA listed Orca whales that rely on
them for food, but every acre we can
preserve and restore get’s us a little bit
closer to those goals.