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Restoring America's Estuaries
7/10/08 Values and challenges surrounding estuary health
7/10/08
This week, People For Puget Sound played host to colleagues from estuaries around the country. We are one of 11 partners in Restore America’s Estuaries, made up of groups like us from San Francisco to Galveston Bay, to Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Maine. Together we have launched major estuary habitat restoration efforts, involving thousands of volunteers every year to bring renewed life to the nation’s bays, sounds and straits. The board of Restore America’s Estuaries met on Orcas Island, where we visited restoration projects and took a beautiful morning boat trip hosted by People For Puget Sound board member Bill Wright’s company, San Juan Safaris.
In all of the nation’s estuaries we are confronting essentially the same problems—population pressures leading to unsound, sprawling development; toxic pollution and oil spills; failures of our political system to act effectively and urgently. But each of our regions is unique in its ecology and human culture. It was fun to see folks from hot and humid climes enjoying our sparkling, cool mornings, our stunning scenery, and the chance to see eagles, dolphins, seals and a host of seabirds. (No orcas this trip, but that was nothing to complain about.)
A beautiful morning out on the water, with wildlife left and right, might lead one to believe that all is right with the world. But Bill Wright asked us to think about what wasn’t there: roiling balls of baitfish, with hundreds of birds feasting from the air side, as bigger fish and marine mammals work up from below. Chinook salmon so plentiful that we don’t have to worry about whether there’s enough to sustain both whales and people. The sounds and smells of a place that teems with wildlife, rather than the quiet and serenity of a beautiful—but largely depleted marine world.
Most of us are thinking ahead to the fall, when a new team will come to Washington DC. Will they embrace the cause of Restoring America’s Estuaries? So much more could be done with the resources and political will to do it. There will be a lot competing for the attention of the new Administration. But few opportunities so ripe with win-win potential.