I recently had the great pleasure, for the second year in a row, of sitting in on a presentation on the history of the Duwamish waterway, given by George Blomberg of the Port of Seattle. He uses a lot of images that I haven't seen elsewhere, such as the photo of the current BNSF rail line and Western Avenue, in the same locations which now run over apparently solid ground, but which first ran over water, on pilings out in the bay. It gives a special insight into walks along the waterfront, sort of walking on water, as it were. The mouth of the Duwamish at Elliott Bay was once one of the largest tidal estuaries in the nation, a rich ecosystem of mud flats and dendritic channels. It was dredged and filled to create industrial lands and waterway. Harbor Island at the mouth was for a long time the largest manmade island in the world. The river itself will never be restored, for a variety of reasons. Most of the rivers that fed into it were long ago diverted elsewhere.
The Port is often the subject of controversy, but that might be expected of any entity that manages a multi-billion dollar annual economy. George is an environmental scientist (his title is Senior Environmental Program Manager) who works with People for Puget Sound and other stakeholder groups to manage many of the habitat restoration projects along the river. He was more careful this year in pitching the economic mission and mandate of the Port, it seemed. I think they're doing great work, so it's all fine by me. George had some new images this year, illustrative plans and sections of proposed habitat typologies, such as marsh push-backs and mud benches that can be connected with larger sites, pockets and hubs, into a sort of Green Corridor along the river. I was telling Dhira Brown of People for Puget Sound that I wished George would publish his presentation. As it turns out, much of it has been published, as of January 13, in the Lower Duwamish River Habitat Restoration Plan.
This coincides neatly with the release by the Duwamish River Cleanup Coaliton this month of the Duwamish Valley Visioning Project report. The maps from the Plan and the Vision even seem to mesh pretty well, at first glance. This is very encouraging and means more restoration sites, and more need for volunteers to weed, plant, and maintain the sites. It's not just the Port getting involved, although they own the actual waterway and several sites along it. King County, City of Seattle, other municipalities, agencies and private land owners are also contributing restoration sites. It's great to see it all come together. I still wish George or someone would publish the history of the waterway, though, it's quite fascinating.
