Take Leque Island, for example. The Leque Island estuary restoration project restored estuarine channels, tidal processes, and salt marsh to the 250-acre interior of Leque Island, which lies at the mouth of the Stillaguamish River. After nine years of planning, designing, studying, and pushing forward, followed by one year of construction, the once-diked and dry area is now an inundated estuary and salt marsh for the benefit of juvenile salmon and other fish from the river. A group can walk the path to where the dike used to be, and when the tide is high, the effect is stunning. A visitor to the site today may have no idea that the path used to be a road, that the tidal marshland was much drier, and that the shoreline before her was restored by the hard work of partners and volunteers over many years.

We have a responsibility to share the importance of these projects — and how they are accomplished — with our neighbors and elected officials in a more succinct way and over a much shorter period of time. But how can you tangibly communicate the phases of a restoration project in just one day, and build community partnerships along the way?

The Island County Department of Natural Resources designed a restoration tour for County Commissioners and citizens to witness a habitat restoration project through all of its phases by visiting several projects at different phases of implementation. I was fortunate enough to tag along.

Read about the tour on the full blog post