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Celebrating Urban River Restoration Success in Seattle

On June 17, 2014, NOAA spoke at a celebration event on the newly restored banks of the Lower Duwamish River near Seattle.

The event, hosted by the Boeing Company, recognized the partners who helped make the restoration a reality. Along the Duwamish River, Boeing has created nearly five acres (one mile) of fish and wildlife habitat and restored shoreline – the largest habitat restoration project in the Lower Duwamish Waterway. The project includes wetlands for migrating salmon, and the addition of 170,000 native plants.

Speakers at the event included NOAA, Boeing, the Muckleshoot Tribe, and a local community group. Will Stelle, the NMFS Regional Administrator of the West Coast Region, spoke on behalf of the Trustees. To learn more about this project watch the new video. NOAA’s case team member, Rebecca Hoff, was also interviewed by local media about the event.

In 1913, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers excavated and straightened the river to expand commercial navigation, removing more than 20 million cubic yards of mud and sand were removed opening the area to heavy industry. Ninety-seven percent of the original habitat for the salmon was lost due to the transformation of a 9-mile estuary into a 5-mile industrial channel. Damaged and polluted as the Lower Duwamish Waterway is, the habitat here is crucial to ensuring the survival and recovery of threatened species, including the Puget Sound Chinook and Puget Sound Steelhead.

For further information, contact Joe.Inslee@noaa.gov.

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Sign on a fence in front of river.
A sign advertising the recent restoration. (NOAA)
Man with camera with another man and a woman.
OR&R scientist Rebecca Hoff (far right) is interviewed by local media. (NOAA)
Last updated Tuesday, November 8, 2022 1:54pm PST