Friends of the San Juans used this funding to undertake the Shoal Bay Tide Gate Removal Project with partners Coastal Geologic Services, Wyllie-Echeverria Fisheries, landowners Nick and Sarah Jones, and community volunteers to reconnect nearly 5 acres of high quality coastal lagoon habitat to the marine environment by removing a derelict tide gate and restoring the tidal channel and associated nearshore habitat. The project improved feeding and refugia habitat for juvenile salmon and salmon prey species. The diverse nearshore marine environment of Shoal Bay, Lopez Island, includes documented surf smelt and Pacific herring spawning habitat, eelgrass prairies, shellfish beds, a sand spit, and a coastal lagoon. Juvenile Chinook, coho and chum salmon have been documented within Shoal Bay, and juvenile salmonids have been observed in the lagoon. A large cement and metal tide gate was located within the tide channel waterward of the Shoal Bay lagoon. This derelict structure was constricting flow, impeding fish passage at low tides, creating water quality problems within the lagoon, and eroding the associated upper beach and estuarine wetland habitat. Removal of the derelict tide gate at the Shoal Bay lagoon had been identified as a priority project by a county-wide soft-shore restoration blueprint. Preliminary geologic surveys, biological assessments, and pre-project monitoring were completed with match funds.