This project will provide long-term protection for Dungeness Spit and Dungeness Bay by ensuring that feeder bluff processes essential for the Spit's existence will continue unhindered in perpetuity (200 year planning horizon). This will be accomplished through the purchase of feeder bluff parcels, JSKT relocating homes landward, purchasing conservation easements on unarmored parcels and purchasing development rights of undeveloped bluff parcels, and the relocation or decommission of structures and infrastructure along the entire Dungeness drift cell feeder bluff complex. The initial two phases - 1) measure bluff erosion rates, 2) develop a conservation plan, including public outreach - are complete. The current project is the implementation phase.

Dungeness Bay provides approximately 5,200 acres of critical spit and estuary habitat for a large variety salmon and char, forage fish, crustaceans, shellfish, waterfowl, shorebirds, wading birds, and marine and freshwater mammals. Dungeness Bay is wholly created by the fragile 5-mile long Dungeness Spit. The spit itself is entirely the product of enormous sediment recruitment, originating primarily from the 8.8-mile drift cell to the west. Any decrease in sediment supply resulting from the construction of shoreline armoring, jetties, groins, or other shoreline structures could cause Dungeness Spit, Dungeness Bay, and their associated nearshore habitats to quickly erode away.