The Livingston Bay Pocket Estuary Restoration Project has restored ecological functionality, including salmon and forage fish access, to one of the highest value habitats in the WRIA 6 priority geographic area of Port Susan Bay. Chinook populations as well as other salmon species, such as bull trout and steelhead that originate in watersheds on the north Puget Sound mainland, depend on the nearshore habitats of Port Susan Bay to forage and rear as juveniles before heading into the ocean as adults. With more than 60% of Island County’s coastal lagoons isolated from natural tidal processes, completing this opportunity for restoration of the 10 acre pocket estuary in Livingston Bay directly aligned with Island County’s highest priorities for multi-species salmon recovery. The Nature Conservancy's contractors removed approximately 100 feet of artificial dike and excavated a tidal channel connecting to the bay that restores tidal processes to the interior of the pocket estuary. The dike was built in the early to mid 1900s for the purpose of grazing livestock on the interior and was also used as a landing strip for small planes. A natural breach in the dike occurred at the southern end of the pocket estuary during storm events sometime in the late 1970s and 1980s, which has resulted in infrequent tidal inundation and large woody debris capture in the lagoon. This breach at the southern end of the site was repaired by creating a beach berm which will allow for more effcient tidal exchange at the new dike breach location at the north end of the pocket estuary. The new levee breach, tidal channel excavation, and southern breach repair allows natural processes to occur on a more regular basis, and has restored habitat for salmon and other fish and wildlife species.