Protecting a Refuge for Salmon and Birds at Willapa Wetlands

At the northern end of Washington’s Willapa Bay, Western Rivers Conservancy has purchased a 393-acre property of nearly pristine wetlands along 2.2 miles of the Willapa River. We plan to convey the property, called Willapa Wetlands, to the Chinook Indian Nation, conserving lush riparian forests and returning ancestral lands to the Chinook Tribe.

Willapa Bay is one of the largest, most ecologically vibrant estuaries on the West Coast. Tidal mudflats, salt marshes, coastal forests and wetlands create a nursery for salmon and a haven for birds and other wildlife. The Willapa River flows 44 miles from the Willapa Hills through a working landscape of small-scale agriculture, forestry and commercial shellfishing. Its lower reaches are wider, slower and tidally influenced, winding past the communities of Willapa, Raymond and South Bend before entering the bay.

The Willapa Wetlands property sits just upstream of Raymond, where the river’s fresh water mixes with the tidal salt water of the bay. The property—which is almost entirely wetlands—includes 4.5 miles of inlets and sloughs lined with Sitka spruce, creating a mosaic of freshwater, estuarine and riverine habitat.

This stretch of river is essential for salmon. All fish migrating up the Willapa to spawn, or down to the Pacific as smolts, pass through this reach. Fall Chinook, chum and coho rear here, alongside winter steelhead and coastal cutthroat trout. The property’s fluctuating salinity helps these fish regulate the transition between fresh and salt water. In fact, NOAA has designated Willapa Wetlands as Essential Fish Habitat for fall Chinook and coho. Unlike many wetlands in the bay that are cut off by berms and tide gates, these remain fully accessible to fish.

The property, which lies along the Pacific Flyway, also supports a wide array of both migratory and coastal-dependent birds, including band-tailed pigeon, dusky Canada goose and bald eagle. All of these are state-listed Species of Greatest Conservation Need.

Now that we own Willapa Wetlands, we are working to secure funding to convey it to the Chinook Indian Nation. WRC’s work here builds on our recent conservation of 2,366 acres along the nearby Bear River (which flows into the bay to the south), expanding protection across one of the Pacific Northwest’s great estuarine landscapes.