Chinook salmon will benefit as the Cedar River is widened to enhance salmon habitat. | Stock Photo
Chinook salmon will benefit as the Cedar River is widened to enhance salmon habitat. | Stock Photo
Work recently started on Riverbend Restoration Project, a $15 million effort to return Cedar River to its natural state.
Funded by King County’s Water and Land Resources Division, Washington State Salmon Recovery Funding Board, Floodplains By Design Partnership, and City of Seattle, the project’s intent is to reduce flood risk and provide better habitat for Chinook salmon, which will in turn create more sustenance for Puget Sound orca.
“We are steadily restoring the Cedar River toward its natural state, reducing flood risks, improving salmon habitat, and providing a more reliable food source for Puget Sound orca,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine in a press release from the county’s office. “Our successful restoration projects upstream provide a model for a unified effort, guided by science to achieve multiple benefits for all living things that call King County home.”
The project will help undo damage done by levees which create restricted, fast-moving rivers by widening the river into flood plains vacated earlier through partner efforts.
“Reimagining flood projects so we can protect people while also supporting habitat for salmon is the direction we need to head,” King County Flood District Chair Dave Upthegrove said in a press release from their office. “We can keep our community safe from flooding, but in the process, also provide environmental benefits for generations to come.”
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