Bowman Bay Beach Restoration
This past week, I attended a special event at Bowman Bay in Deception Pass State Park. We gathered to celebrate the restoration of the beach and near-shore habitat there. This was a multi-agency project that included: The Northwest Straits Foundation Skagit County Marine Resources Committee Washington State Parks Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group New interpretive signs tell the story of the beach's history. This includes a fish hatchery built in the 1940's and a rip-rap sea wall installed to protect it. Unknown at the time, this kind of armoring disrupts natural beach processes and biological habitat. Driftwood, shore grasses, overhanging trees and normal upland runoff stabilize and nourish a healthy beach. Forage fish spawn there providing food for young salmon. Insects inhabiting the vegetation attract the forage fish as well as birds. Seawalls interfere with these processes rendering the shoreline and beach lifeless. I had to go back to 2011