SEQUIM — Hundreds of abandoned tires are littering the shoreline and intertidal zone of what appeared to be vacated property along Sequim Bay.
Sequim resident Charles Darland took note of the tires while kayaking with his wife not far from Sequim Bay State Park.
“There are hundreds of them in and out of the water and I imagine a lot are in the overgrowth that we can’t even see,” he wrote in an email to news reporters inquiring about the tires.
The tires won’t be there for long.
Staff members with the community-based nonprofit North Olympic Salmon Coalition are spearheading a project to restore and enhance a 1,400-foot section of Sequim Bay shoreline.
“The intent is to restore ecological functions to the shoreline, lower bluff and upland areas, with the majority of the project focused on shoreline restoration,” according to the shoreline exemption approved by Clallam County Department of Community Development officials in February.
Slated for removal
The 200-plus tires used to armor the shoreline are among many defunct structures slated for removal during the project.
“We hope to begin construction in mid-June,” said Kim Clark, project manager for the salmon coalition.
Funding for the $400,000 project came from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state Recreation and Conservation Office Salmon Recovery Funding Board.
Aside from a 1,040-square-foot beach house and hundreds of tires, a 194-foot concrete bulkhead, 140-foot rubble bulkhead, 110-foot pier and associated pilings, access road across the bluff, 1,165 cubic-yards of nearshore fill material and noxious, invasive plant species also are targeted for removal.
The project is located at what are described as the “former Dawley parcels” about 6 miles east of Sequim, according to county officials.
Once 14.9-acre and 7.5-acre residential waterfront properties, the land now is owned by the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife Service and managed as a part of the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge.
The project is close to another salmon coalition venture, the Pitship pocket estuary restoration project, which was completed in 2009.
Clark said the two projects are complementary in restoring the nearshore corridor from the mouth of Jimmycomelately Creek.
“The nearshore habitat is critical to salmon, especially summer chum, migrating to and from Jimmycomelately Creek, and forage fish,” she said.
“Currently, the habitat here is degraded with creosote pilings, tires and a bulkhead inhibiting nearshore sedimentation processes.”
Shoreline recontoured
The shoreline will be recontoured to blend into undisturbed adjacent beaches, the marine riparian zone will be revegetated and the removal of the creosoted pilings is anticipated to improve water quality within Sequim Bay, according to the project description.
Upon project completion, about 5 percent of the bulkhead from the Sequim Bay shoreline will have been eliminated.
“This project will repair habitat-sustaining shoreline processes and improve migration and survival of juvenile salmon,” said salmon coalition officials.
The salmon coalition is working in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe to pursue the restoration effort.
For more information about the North Olympic Salmon Coalition, visit www.nosc.org or call 360-379-8051.
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Alana Linderoth is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach her at alinderoth@sequimgazette.com.
