Creating a walk at the delta

Snaking its way across the recently reclaimed Nisqually River estuary, the mile-long boardwalk at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge is nearly 50 percent complete.

When it opens to the public, which should be late this year, refuge visitors will have a chance to venture out into a world of mudflats, saltwater vegetation and tidal sloughs rich with marine life and birds, constantly changing with the tides.

McAllister Creek, Luhr Beach, Anderson Island and South Sound stretching to the Tacoma Narrows bridges all come into view in this vast expanse where the Nisqually mixes with the Salish Sea.

“The boardwalk is going to attract people like a magnet,” said Jean Takekawa, a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service employee and refuge manager.

The $2.7 million boardwalk financed with federal stimulus money is the capstone to a three-year, $13 million project that has reclaimed about 762 acres of the refuge, turning the delta back into the estuary and saltwater marsh it was before it was diked to create farmland more than 100 years ago.

The goal is to restore habitat for salmon, shorebirds and other creatures that thrive in estuaries.

Estuary restoration required removal of the Brown Farm Dike, which served as a popular section of a five-mile looped trail from the refuge visitor center and back.

The loss of the dike trail was hard to swallow for many refuge visitors.

“I loved the dike trail,” retired Lacey school teacher Elmer Keiski said. “But I understand the need for the estuary, and the new boardwalk is going to be fantastic.”

Boardwalk construction, ongoing since April, presents some interesting logistical challenges for the contractor, Longview-based Five Rivers Construction.

The concrete pads that form the footings for the boardwalk pilings are dropped in place by helicopter.

At low tide, the 10-member crew works to pin the concrete pads in the mud and anchor the wooden pilings. At high tide, crew members work on the cedar decking and guard rails.

“They always have something to do, as long as I schedule it right,” construction foreman Mike Kaufman said.

The project originally was slated for completion in October, but that was before the unleashed tidal and stream flows created some new sloughs that needed to be bridged.

“We’ve got two more bridges to build,” Kaufman said, gazing out to the mouth of McAllister Creek where the boardwalk will end.

The boardwalk features three covered viewing towers and a waterfowl blind. It will be handicapped-accessible and will create a four-mile hike out and back to the refuge visitor center.

Visitors walking on the new interior dike at the refuge are urged to stay off the boardwalk until it is completed.

“It has to remain closed while under construction,” Takekawa said. “It’s not safe out there.”

APPROVED BY EPA

Once it does open, the boardwalk has a life expectancy of 50 to 75 years, thanks to the durable building supplies and wood-preserving chemicals in the pilings to ward off marine borers, insects and decay.

The preservative – ammoniacal copper zinc arsenate, or ACZA – is approved for marine use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and is considered less toxic than some of its predecessors, including creosote.

“We looked hard at using recycling materials, but this isn’t a good application for them,” Takekawa said. “We had to go to wood to get the strength we need.”

ONGOING RESEARCH

Boardwalk construction isn’t all that’s happening in the newly formed estuary. The largest estuary restoration project in the Pacific Northwest also is a fruitful place for scientific research.

“There’s plenty to do out there and plenty to learn,” said Kelly Turner, a U.S. Geological Survey restoration biologist overseeing a crew of college students documenting the return of salt-tolerant vegetation to the river delta.

“We’re seeing salt marsh plants in the footprint of the old dike,” she said. “And the closer we are to the Nisqually River, the more plants we see coming in.”

Signs of transition from pasture to estuary are obvious from the unfinished boardwalk – shorebirds swoop in aerial ballets over mudflats that were pasture last summer, sea lettuce clings to dying reed canary grass, stranded jellyfish bake in the sun at low tide, and pickle grass sprouts in the mud from seeds carried in with the tides.

It didn’t take long for salmon – hatchery and wild chinook, chum, pink and coho – to start using the reclaimed estuary and tidal channels to feed and acclimate to saltwater, Nisqually Tribe fisheries biologist Chris Ellings said.

“Even in this immature state, the estuary is providing invertebrates and other prey for fish,” he said. “The fish are feeding heavily in the estuary, and the sloughs are all connected to Puget Sound; we haven’t seen any fish strandings.”

The crew members working on the boardwalk – mostly men who enjoy outdoor activities – seem interested in their unique workplace.

“This is going to be beautiful,” exclaimed Antonio Hernandez of Chehalis. “I want to bring my kids out here when it’s finished – guaranteed.”

John Dodge: 360-754-5444 jdodge@theolympian.com