CLALLAM COUNTY – 110 acres of land near the mouth of the Dungeness River is eventually going to be restored from soggy farmland to river floodplain. When planners breach a levee that was built in the 1960’s by the Army Corps of Engineers, the river will reclaim the land that was once an important floodplain habitat.
It’s a plan that’s been in the works since the late 1990’s, bringing together the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, Clallam County, Dungeness River Management Team, Fish and Wildlife, the Forest Service, Department of Ecology and others. Ecology awarded the project almost a million dollars this spring to move things along, and Habitat Biologist Cathy Lear says that after almost 20 years of slow progress, there’s actually light at the end of the tunnel.
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Native plantings and other features are being added to the area, and construction of a new levee along Towne and Anderson Roads will be built before the existing levee is breached, perhaps as early as 2021.