PORTFOLIO - RESTORATION / MITIGATION - LIBERTY BAY ESTUARY

estuary before

This is a large private site on Liberty Bay in Poulsbo, Washington with various intensive use issues.  The estuary site is seasonally flooded.  The edge between the developed portion and the native edge was poorly defined and suffering from years of miss-management and neglect.  Portions of the outer landmass in the estuary had been farmstead and remnants of piers and dock were present.  The scope of work was to inventory the existing vegetation and define the native boundaries, while providing low impact access into the estuary.  Working with the Kitsap County and Washington Dept. of Fish & Wildlife we developed a plan including the use of a boardwalk, developing a series of vegetative zones or buffer to blend the natives edges into managed ornamental edges.  Other aspects of this project include formatting an organic based maintenance program and irrigation management program. 

The finished project includes a meandering boardwalk using salvaged cedar milled from a local lumber mill.  Native vegetation restoration and enhancement to edge the work has been completed without further degradation to the already sensitive habitat and is flourishing.  This work was used as mitigation for future projects on this site.