Double dose of progress for South Sound conservation

The News Tribune, Opinion March 6, 2005

Two recent South Sound projects illustrate well that the best approach to environmental protection lies at the intersection of self-interest and public good.

The Nisqually Tribe’s restoration of the Nisqually Delta and the preservation of a former South Prairie dairy are cooperative efforts worth duplicating elsewhere in this rapidly urbanizing region.

The tribe is working to bring more salmon back to the Nisqually River. It has restored 40 acres of estuary on the eastern bank of the river and this summer plans to rebuild another 100 acres. The estuary is critical to the development of young salmon.

What’s more, the tribe has signed a pioneering agreement with the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge to jointly manage about 310 acres of tribally owned land within the refuge’s boundaries. The estuary is part of the land.

The agreement requires the tribe and federal government to work together over the next 25 years to protect the estuary and to provide opportunities for people to bird-watch or fish on the tribal land. The eastern bank of the river has never been open to the public.

In eastern Pierce County, a similar collaborative effort is saving a former 107-acre former dairy farm from development. The Cascade Land Conservancy pooled money from the state, Pierce County and the Boeing Co. to buy the farm from Bert Inglin Jr. and his wife, Caroline.

South Prairie Creek, the most productive salmon stream in the Puyallup River system, runs through the property. But the creek has been polluted by years of dairy farm operations.

The Pierce Conservation District, which received the title to the land from the conservancy, plans to spend $400,000 planting trees to shade the creek, eradicating invasive plants on the property and building an interpretive trail.

What makes these noteworthy is that they were accomplished through collaboration rather than regulation. Too often, protection of environmental resources must be accomplished through mandates on unwilling property owners. Cooperative efforts bypass controversy and foster good will that sustains them and other conservation projects.

Salmon are the biggest winners here. But the cause of conservation elsewhere in the South Sound should also benefit from the collaboration demonstrated at the Nisqually Delta and South Prairie Creek.