Construction crews work on removing the old causeway to restore tidal exchange after installing the bridge over Kilisut Harbor in 2020. Photo by NOSC.

By Cheryl Lowe, Board of Directors

Last summer, surrounded by a young riparian forest on the bank of the recently completed Snow Creek Uncas Preserve Restoration project, a small group of NOSC supporters watched water flow through new side channels and under huge logjams while we listened to Kevin Long, NOSC Project Manager, describe this restoration project’s challenges, ecological connections and expected impact.

Hood Canal Summer Chum returned to spawn at the Snow Creek Uncas Preserve project site in the fall of 2024 - the first ever documented chum this high in the watershed. Photo by NOSC.

Every time I tour a NOSC project site, I am filled with hope--for salmon and all the other species who live in these habitats. But it’s really much bigger than that. We know that salmon restoration projects also benefit other fish, birds, mammals and aquatic invertebrates, but these projects also benefit people and local communities.

Until recently, I never really thought much about what “economic benefits” really means. Trying to quantify these kinds of benefits is challenging because riparian and floodplain restoration projects vary widely in scope and context, but I figured there must be some documentation about it, so I took a little trip “down the rabbit hole” to learn more.

Economic Benefits

Habitat, floodplain and riparian restoration provide multiple local economic impacts, including:

• Creating or supporting local jobs by hiring local contractors or using local suppliers
• Supporting other nearby businesses as employees purchase food, housing or supplies
• Reducing flood risk (and lower flood insurance rates) for adjacent properties
• Increasing local tax revenues from local purchases and land values
• Improving climate resilience
• Supporting tourism, and sport and commercial fisheries
• And, of course, increasing ecosystem services such as improved water quality, biodiversity, soil stability, etc.

One of the best resources I found was a 2020 report called “Economic Outcomes of Urban Floodplain Restoration. Implications for Puget Sound”. Implications for Puget Sound” by American Rivers & ECONorthwest.

The report’s introduction notes that prior studies primarily focused on ecosystem services rather than community revenue impacts from floodplain restoration. This report investigates the direct financial outcomes of floodplain restoration on local community budgets. It’s an interesting read, as it compiles information from a number of different projects in Puget Sound and around the country that describe efforts to quantify economic benefits.

The authors looked at indirect impacts from supply chain purchases and local consumption of other services and found that “for every job created from spending, an additional 0.6 jobs are supported in the local economy.” In a Snohomish County/WA Dept of Natural Resources study, authors estimated that for every dollar spent on salmon recovery, 77 cents become wages for a Washingtonian, and every million dollars spent on salmon recovery supports nearly 15 jobs (FTE in annual wages), primarily in adjacent/local counties.

Crews cross a temporary bridge to access the restoration worksite at the Snow Creek Uncas Preserve in 2023. Photo by NOSC. Floodplains by Design Reforesting and reconnecting floodplains to stream and river channels benefits salmon, and also helps reduce the impacts of flood events. Flood events are expected to increase in size and frequency as a result of climate change. These events not only scour river channels and damage habitat, but they also flood homes and infrastructure, and result in increased urban and agricultural runoff, ultimately leading to more pollutants in rivers and bays. Last year, NOSC prepared a grant application for a large-scale river and floodplain project to Floodplains by Design, to a Washington State public-private partnership program. The Upper Cowan Ranch Floodplain Restoration project on the Hoko River just received a #3 ranking for potential funding from this program. The project is part of a broad, collaborative partnership with the Makah Tribe, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Washington State Parks, Clallam County Public Works, Fruit Growers Supply Company and the Lydiard and Salens families. The project will protect the integrity of the Hoko-Ozette Road (the only access to 100 square miles or residences, National Park, and commercial forests), reconnect 40 acres of floodplain, protect $55 million in timber-related economic impact, and restore 1.8 miles of river habitat for fish. Learn more about the economic impact of this project.

Construction crews work with engineers from Natural Resource Design (out of Port Angeles) and the NOSC Project Manager to install engineered log jams in a newly constructed side channel of Snow Creek in 2023. Members of the crew grew up just up the road from the project site. Photo by NOSC.