DESCRIPTION
The North Olympic Land Trust worked with the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe to prioritize land parcels in the Dungeness feeder bluffs for purchase of fee simple, conservation easements, or other conservation tools identified through this planning work. The conservation project’s goal was to ensure the continued delivery of sediment to the Spit in natural quantities and by natural means, for a planning period of 200 years. To prioritize land parcels for conservation, it was crucial to know the relative quantity of sediment recruiting from various bluff locations and ultimately reaching the Spit. This planning effort focused solely on the marine bluffs between Morse Creek and the Dungeness Spit, Drift Cell Mile 5.10 to 13.55. We further narrowed our focus to exclude publicly owned parcels, public and private roads, and the few armored parcels just east of Morse Creek.
The project addresses stock status and trends by maintaining expansive, important nearshore and estuarine habitat for numerous salmonid populations and forage fish. Listed stocks include Hood Canal/Strait of Juan de Fuca summer chum and Puget Sound steelhead, Puget Sound Chinook and bull trout. Non-listed stocks include Dungeness pinks, fall chum, coho, and cutthroat. A multitude of other Strait of Juan de Fuca, Hood Canal and Puget Sound salmonids also likely utilize this habitat.