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Executive Summary: Marine and Estuarine Shoreline Modification Issues

As part of the process outlined in Washington's Statewide Strategy to Recover Salmon: Extinction is Not an Option the Washington Departments of Fish and Wildlife, Ecology, and Transportation were charged to develop Aquatic Habitat Guidelines employing an integrated approach to marine, freshwater, and riparian habitat protection and restoration. Guidelines will be issued, as funding allows, in a series of manuals addressing many aspects of aquatic and riparian habitat protection and restoration. This document is one of a series of white papers developed to provide a legitimate scientific and technical basis for developing Aquatic Habitat Guidelines. The white papers address the current understanding of impacts of development and land management activities on aquatic habitat, and potential mitigation for these impacts. Individual white papers will not necessarily result in a corresponding guidance document. Instead, guidance document development, addressing management and technical assistance needs, may incorporate information synthesized from one or more of the white papers. The scope of work for each white paper requested a “comprehensive but not exhaustive” review of the peer-reviewed scientific literature, symposia literature, and technical (gray) literature, with an emphasis on the peer-reviewed literature. The reader of this report can therefore expect a broad review of the literature, which is current through late 2000. Several of the white papers also contain similar elements including the following sections: overview of the guidelines project, overview of the subject white paper, assessment of the state of knowledge, summary of existing guidance, recommendations for future guidance documents, glossary of technical terms, and bibliography. This white paper addresses the impact of marine and estuarine shoreline modifications on naturally functioning fish and shellfish habitat in Washington State. "Nearshore" marine habitats within Washington State span a continuum from upland to subtidal areas, and are defined to encompass the zone wherein direct functional interactions (e.g., sediment supply, primary production and export) occur between upland and marine habitats. Marine shorelines in Washington state can be grouped into three distinct regions: the shores of the inland coastal waters of Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca; the outer coast fronting the Pacific Ocean; and the shores of outer coast estuaries. Within these regions, estuarine and nearshore marine habitats can take many forms, including eelgrass (especially Zostera marina) meadows, kelp forests, sand and mudflats, tidal marshes, river mouths and deltas, sand spits,