Washington Ecology Secures $3.6M To Protect Coastal Wetlands

On Friday, the Washington Department of Ecology announced that it had secured nearly $3.6 million in federal National Coastal Wetlands Conservation grants to protect about 725 acres of coastal wetlands in Skagit, Snohomish, Thurston, and Whatcom counties. Coastal wetlands bordering Puget Sound and other state marine waters often rival tropical rain forests and coral reefs as some of the most diverse, productive ecosystems on the planet the DOE said. 

Coastal wetlands include estuarine salt marshes as well as freshwater wetlands that extend inland within a watershed.

The conservation program is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and funded in part through taxes paid on fuel and equipment purchases by recreational anglers and boaters. The federal program provides up to $1 million for individual wetland projects.

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