Presentation Abstract
Title: Urban-industrial shoreline restoration techniques: Duwamish Waterway and Elliott Bay Seattle’s present-day Elliott Bay and south-harbor industrial area comprises approximately 5,300 acres, 80 percent of Seattle’s industrial area. This man-made landscape is enormously productive, providing approximately 225,000 regional jobs, totaling $7-9 billion in annual payroll. Seattle’s industrial environment displaced another highly productive landscape, eliminating 98 percent of native intertidal, shallow sub-tidal, and riparian fish and wildlife habitat in the former Green-Duwamish estuarine wetland and nearshore system. Working in this complex environment, the Port has restored, created or enhanced 31 acres of habitat at 16 sites during the past 25 years. The port’s “Century Agenda” commitment includes restoration of 40 acres of additional habitat by 2026. Recent port restoration actions emphasize replacing inert armored, steep industrial shorelines, with riparian slopes and emergent marsh area, protected with large-woody-debris. Shoreline restoration actions in rural and non-urban areas have been well documented; however, use of “living” urban-industrial shoreline restoration techniques has not been successfully demonstrated. Unique challenges associated with urban-industrial restoration include surface and buried infrastructure, contaminated industrial fill, incompatible land uses, vessel wake/prop wash erosion, adjacent armored shorelines, interrupted hydrology, and urban storm-water. The Port has designed and tested durable urban estuary shoreline restoration techniques, including re-shaping degraded bank-lines, to create inter-tidal and shoreline areas stabilized with native emergent and riparian vegetation. The Port has also integrated passive public shoreline access improvements with habitat restoration, encouraging public education and stewardship. The Port has confirmed six restoration designs, progressing from “partial restoration”, in sites constrained by adjacent features, to “full restoration”, for sites with adequate site conditions. The Port will be applying these designs in future, area-wide bank-line rehabilitation projects, including working with agencies to obtain programmatic approvals. Presenter: George Blomberg, blomberg.g@portseattle.org, 206.787.3194
Session Title
Challenges and Solutions for Shoreline Armor Removal and Design of Soft Shore Protection: Part I
Keywords
Urban-industrial shoreline, Shoreline restoration techniques, Duwamish Waterway, Elliott Bay
Conference Track
SSE1: Habitat Restoration and Protection
Conference Name
Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference (2018 : Seattle, Wash.)
Document Type
Event
SSEC Identifier
SSE1-611
Start Date
4-4-2018 2:45 PM
End Date
4-4-2018 3:00 PM
Type of Presentation
Oral
Genre/Form
presentations (communicative events)
Contributing Repository
Digital content made available by University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.
Subjects – Topical (LCSH)
Shorelines--Monitoring--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.); Estuarine restoration--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)
Geographic Coverage
Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)
Rights
This resource is displayed for educational purposes only and may be subject to U.S. and international copyright laws. For more information about rights or obtaining copies of this resource, please contact University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225-9103, USA (360-650-7534; heritage.resources@wwu.edu) and refer to the collection name and identifier. Any materials cited must be attributed to the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference Records, University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.
Type
Text
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
Included in
Fresh Water Studies Commons, Marine Biology Commons, Natural Resources and Conservation Commons, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons
Urban-industrial shoreline restoration techniques: Duwamish Waterway and Elliott Bay
Title: Urban-industrial shoreline restoration techniques: Duwamish Waterway and Elliott Bay Seattle’s present-day Elliott Bay and south-harbor industrial area comprises approximately 5,300 acres, 80 percent of Seattle’s industrial area. This man-made landscape is enormously productive, providing approximately 225,000 regional jobs, totaling $7-9 billion in annual payroll. Seattle’s industrial environment displaced another highly productive landscape, eliminating 98 percent of native intertidal, shallow sub-tidal, and riparian fish and wildlife habitat in the former Green-Duwamish estuarine wetland and nearshore system. Working in this complex environment, the Port has restored, created or enhanced 31 acres of habitat at 16 sites during the past 25 years. The port’s “Century Agenda” commitment includes restoration of 40 acres of additional habitat by 2026. Recent port restoration actions emphasize replacing inert armored, steep industrial shorelines, with riparian slopes and emergent marsh area, protected with large-woody-debris. Shoreline restoration actions in rural and non-urban areas have been well documented; however, use of “living” urban-industrial shoreline restoration techniques has not been successfully demonstrated. Unique challenges associated with urban-industrial restoration include surface and buried infrastructure, contaminated industrial fill, incompatible land uses, vessel wake/prop wash erosion, adjacent armored shorelines, interrupted hydrology, and urban storm-water. The Port has designed and tested durable urban estuary shoreline restoration techniques, including re-shaping degraded bank-lines, to create inter-tidal and shoreline areas stabilized with native emergent and riparian vegetation. The Port has also integrated passive public shoreline access improvements with habitat restoration, encouraging public education and stewardship. The Port has confirmed six restoration designs, progressing from “partial restoration”, in sites constrained by adjacent features, to “full restoration”, for sites with adequate site conditions. The Port will be applying these designs in future, area-wide bank-line rehabilitation projects, including working with agencies to obtain programmatic approvals. Presenter: George Blomberg, blomberg.g@portseattle.org, 206.787.3194
