Stillaguamish Tribe buys farmland, breaches levees to restore Chinook salmon

The Stillaguamish Tribe in Washington has purchased hundreds of acres of farmland and is removing levees to let fields flood in an effort to restore Chinook salmon, the tribe said.

The land lies within the tribe’s traditional territory, tribal officials said. The purchases and restoration work aim to return drained fields to wetlands that once dominated the landscape.

Tribal officials said converting farmland to wetlands will create rearing habitat for juvenile Chinook and improve their chances of surviving the journey to the ocean.

The projects have included breaching or removing levees and allowing controlled flooding, the tribe said. Photographs by Megan Farmer of KUOW document some of the work.

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