Washington’s rivers, shorelines, estuaries, and forests are increasingly feeling the effects of climate change. Hotter summers are warming rivers and streams that are critical for salmon and steelhead. Increasingly intense storms and flooding are putting communities, infrastructure, and ecosystems at risk. Reduced snowpack and changing precipitation patterns are altering water flows across Puget Sound watersheds.
For decades, Tribes, communities, local governments, and restoration partners have invested in projects that help restore natural processes. As climate impacts become more visible and costly, these restoration projects are increasingly being recognized for their essential climate resilience benefits. For example:
- Reconnecting floodplains gives rivers room to spread out during floods without affecting homes or infrastructure while also storing water for drier months.
- Restoring wetlands and estuaries improves water quality, supports shorelines, and strengthens habitat resilience.
- Planting riparian forests helps cool streams and provides people with refuge during increasingly hot summers.
Many of these efforts are supported through state capital grant programs, such as the Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration (PSAR) program, which funds projects that protect and restore habitat critical to the survival of Puget Sound salmon populations. While PSAR projects plant trees, reduce flood risk, and increase groundwater storage to benefit salmon, they also support climate resilience across the region.
In recognition of the climate benefits, capital investments in habitat restoration have received a boost of funding from the Climate Commitment Act (CCA). The CCA places a cap on greenhouse gas emissions to reduce them by 95% by 2050 and raises revenue by auctioning emission allowances to businesses that produce them. Those dollars are then invested in projects that help Washington reduce climate-causing emissions and increase resilience to the climate change impacts already affecting Washington.
Over the past several state budget cycles, CCA investments supported a range of natural infrastructure and climate resilience efforts for Puget Sound and salmon recovery, including:
- $54 million to fund further down PSAR and Floodplains by Design project lists
- $70 million for planting trees along rivers to sequester carbon and reduce water temperature
- $45 million for farmers to implement carbon storage and sequestration practices
- $106 million for carbon sequestration and improved management of state forests
Supporting salmon recovery is a smart long-term investment in climate change resilience, and PSAR projects demonstrate how ecosystem restoration can deliver multiple benefits. These projects are cooling Washington’s waters, expanding floodplain capacity, restoring coastal resilience, and strengthening drought resilience, creating benefits that ripple throughout the region.
From restoration to resilience outcomes
Climate resilience projects often work by restoring disrupted natural processes. Many of these processes have been altered or degraded by development, land-use changes, habitat loss, and other human activities, reducing their ability to provide natural protection and ecosystem services. Floodplains, wetlands, estuaries, forests, and nearshore habitats absorb and store water, reduce erosion, improve water quality, and support healthy ecosystems. These restoration actions can also help communities adapt to climate impacts.
Restoration action
Climate resilience benefit
Floodplain reconnection
Reduces flood risk and increases water storage.
Riparian forest restoration
Lowers water temperatures, reduces erosion during high-flows, and sequesters carbon.
Wetland restoration
Improves water storage and drought resilience.
Estuary and shoreline restoration
Buffers coastal areas, stores carbon, and strengthens habitat.
Eelgrass protection and restoration
Enhances coastal resilience and carbon sequestration.
The following PSAR projects highlight the multi-benefits of salmon restoration, including climate resilience and community benefits.
North Shore Conservation Easement
San Juan County, San Juan Preservation Trust
Project Overview
The North Shore Conservation Easement project protects 1,875 linear feet of shoreline on Orcas Island. Restoration efforts include eelgrass bed and shoreline protection, wetland and freshwater processes restoration, and public shoreline access.
Climate Resilience Benefits
- Protects eelgrass, nearshore, and wetland habitat that can sequester carbon
- Provides shade that helps cool water temperatures
- Helps shorelines adapt to changes in sea level
Salmon and Ecosystem Benefits
- Supports juvenile Chinook salmon rearing habitat
- Protects forage fish spawning areas and eelgrass habitat
- Restores freshwater-to-nearshore ecological connections
- Allows natural erosion of the feeder bluff to rebuild diminishing beaches
Community and Cultural Benefits
- Expands public shoreline access on Orcas Island
- Supports Tribal access and cultural use
- Removes deteriorating infrastructure and restores natural landscapes
Project by the Numbers
- 1,875 linear feet of high-priority nearshore habitat protected
- 300 linear feet of high-priority feeder bluffs protected
- 2 acres of marine riparian vegetation protected
“The eelgrass beds are vital to supporting herring, an important food source for salmon, and provide rearing habitat for juvenile salmon. And I think this is going to be beloved by locals and their guests. The opportunity to provide public access that is sorely needed and desired on Orcas Island was compelling. I get giddy every time I walk out there and see the transformation, watching it return to a vibrant, ecologically sound place.” –Kathleen Foley, director of special projects at the San Juan Preservation Trust
South Fork Nooksack River Integrated Floodplain Reconnection Project
Whatcom County, Whatcom County Public Works
Project Overview
This project supports the acquisition and restoration of nearly 700 acres of floodplain, riparian forest, and steep slopes along four miles of the South Fork Nooksack River. It integrates forest management with adjacent floodplain restoration to ensure fully connected ecosystems and healthy watershed function.
Climate Resilience Benefits
- Increases groundwater infiltration and water storage capacity to reduce the effects of future drought
- Provides shade to cool water temperatures
- Reduces erosion and sediment impacts during high-flow events
- Restores floodplain function and natural river movement to protect people and infrastructure during high-flow events
Salmon and Ecosystem Benefits
- Restores habitat critical for Chinook salmon
- Reconnects wetlands and riparian habitat
Community and Cultural Benefits
- Reduces flood risk for nearby communities
- Supports Nooksack Tribe treaty rights and restoration priorities
- Creates long-term opportunities for community forest management
Project by the Numbers
- 700 acres of floodplain, riparian forest, and steep slopes acquired
- 133 acres of floodplain reconnected
- 10 acres of wetland reconnected
- 550 acres of upland forest reconnected
“We’re connecting floodplains to the river, reengaging that much acreage for water storage. When the flood waters do come up, it’ll have somewhere to go and be able to infiltrate. We also want to support the Nooksack Tribe in maintaining their culture and work with them to restore the ecosystem bones of this watershed.” –Chris Elder, senior planner in watershed management for Whatcom County Public Works
West Oakland Bay Restoration
Mason County, Squaxin Island Tribe
Project Overview
The West Oakland Bay Restoration project restores estuarine and shoreline habitat through bulkhead removal, salt marsh restoration, and creosote removal, which will improve the water quality and health of Oakland Bay.
Climate Resilience Benefits
- Restores salt marsh systems to improve shoreline resilience
- Rebuilds estuarine habitat that helps absorb waves, reduce impacts from winter storms, and store carbon
- Restores natural shoreline processes and tidal function
- Supports resilient shorelines to buffer changes in sea level
Salmon and Ecosystem Benefits
- Restores salmon migration and foraging habitat
- Improves water quality by removing contaminated materials
- Enhances and expands estuarine and salt marsh habitat to support multiple salmon species, forage fish, shellfish, waterfowl, and shorebirds
Community and Cultural Benefits
- Supports culturally significant Tribal landscapes and resources
- Benefits commercial, Tribal, and recreational fisheries
- Supports shellfish growing areas important to the regional economy
Project by the Numbers
- 22 miles of stream and shoreline treated or protected
- 17 acres of stream and shoreline habitat restored
- 17 miles of shoreline armor removed or modified
- 246,419 cubic yards of clean fill at elevations up to 12 feet deep over 17 acres to provide a base for saltmarsh vegetation
- 36,954 cubic yards of clean cobbles over 1.6 acres to stabilize the saltmarsh
“Oakland Bay is one of the most productive commercial shellfish-growing regions in North America, contributing 10% of the total statewide shellfish harvest value. By protecting critical spawning, feeding, and transitional habitats, this project sustains five species of anadromous fish, benefiting Tribal, commercial, and recreation fishing. It also supports the increasing salmon population in Goldsborough Creek, already the second-largest salmon producer in South Puget Sound.” –Scott Steltzner, environmental manager at the Squaxin Island Tribe
Island Unit Estuary Restoration
Skagit County, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Project Overview
The Island Unit Estuary Restoration project will restore a 270-acre estuary at the mouth of the South Fork Skagit River by removing dikes and levees, excavating tidal channels, and reestablishing native vegetation. The project will also restore tidal and river processes, creating productive habitat for salmon, shorebirds, and a host of other fish and wildlife.
Climate Resilience Benefits
- Restores natural hydrologic and sediment processes that build marshes, which helps them keep pace with sea-level rise and capture carbon
- Reduces flood elevations by 1—2 feet for several miles upstream during major flood events
- Increases floodplain storage and reduces floodwater velocities
- Removes vulnerable infrastructure that is increasingly at risk from larger floods, sea level rise, and coastal storms
Salmon and Ecosystem Benefits
- Creates critical rearing habitat for juvenile salmon
- Restores estuary, tidal channel, and forested floodplain habitats for salmonids, waterfowl, shorebirds, beavers, shellfish, and invertebrates
- Improves habitat connectivity and ecosystem resilience across the estuary
Community and Cultural Benefits
- Provides features that support waterfowl hunting and kayaking
- Focuses restoration work on public land while nearby farmlands remain in production
Project by the Numbers
- 270 acres of estuary and floodplain forest functions restored
- 5 miles of aging dikes removed
- 20 acres of new channels excavated
“This project doesn’t just restore habitat on this 270-acre site; it removes barriers to reconnect hundreds more acres of intertidal estuary across the South Fork Skagit River delta. Young Chinook salmon will quickly use these rich feeding grounds so that they grow bigger and survive better once they leave the shelter of the estuary and head out into Whidbey Basin, Puget Sound, and the ocean beyond.” –Jenny Baker, project manager and senior restoration specialist at WDFW
Multi-benefit restoration projects help Washington communities and ecosystems adapt to climate change.
By funding projects that reconnect floodplains, restore wetlands and estuaries, protect shorelines, and reestablish riparian forests, PSAR helps communities adapt to increasing floods, droughts, higher temperatures, and sea level rise while supporting the recovery of Puget Sound salmon. Enhanced by funding from Washington’s CCA, these restoration efforts provide multiple benefits, including improved water storage, cooler streams, reduced erosion, carbon sequestration, healthier ecosystems, and stronger protections for people, infrastructure, and cultural resources.
