Bid to preserve coastal estuaries

Seattle Times reports on the Wildlife Forever Fund and Cascade Land Conservancy $2 million partnership for stewardship programs.

A national preservation group has agreed to match donations up to $1 million as part of the Cascade Land Conservancy's bid to preserve Washington's coastal estuaries.

The Wildlife Forever Fund (WFF), a Bellevue-based group that raises money to protect land and wildlife across the country, made an initial grant of $100,000 as seed money to start an endowment, the land conservancy announced Wednesday.

The endowment will help the land conservancy and its network of volunteers replace invasive species with native plants, restore water flows and rejuvenate wetlands and estuaries — areas near the mouths of streams where fresh and saltwater meet.

The conservancy still must raise its own share of the funds, but "we're confident we will be able to do that," said Steve Dunphy, a spokesman for the land conservancy.

Since it first began quietly working with WFF seven years ago to preserve estuaries, the conservancy has preserved more than 30 properties, from Willapa Bay to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and into Puget Sound.