Little Squalicum Estuary

The Little Squalicum Estuary project helps address the need for additional estuarine habitat in Bellingham Bay. Completed in 2023, the project restores 4.85 total acres of coastal habitat including a 2.4-acre estuary. The project also removed a fish passage barrier at the mouth of Little Squalicum Creek, just two miles east of the Nooksack River Delta in Little Squalicum Park.

This project restores tidal and sedimentary processes, improves fish passage, and returns saltmarsh, mudflat and estuary habitats to an area where historical wetlands have been lost. Over the past 150 years, Bellingham Bay has lost an estimated 282 acres of aquatic land as the result of historical dredging, filling, and shoreline modification activities, drastically reducing rearing habitat available to local salmonid populations. Due to an increasingly urbanized shoreline with competing uses such as marinas, industry, and railways, the WRIA 1 Nearshore and Estuarine Assessment and Restoration Plan identified Little Squalicum as one of the last remaining locations available for estuary habitat expansion in WRIA 1.

Project elements included removing 50 linear feet of shoreline barrier, installing 1.2 acres of saltmarsh and riparian plantings, and enhancing 1.16 acres of forage fish spawning habitat. As part of the estuary excavation, the project improves water quality by removing and disposing of approximately 8,000 CY of contaminated material. All of the trails in Little Squalicum Park were shifted west to accommodate the estuary footprint, and a new trail network was installed along with the new pedestrian bridge at the estuary mouth.

The estuary provides juvenile rearing, refuge, foraging, and osmoregulatory habitats for multiple salmonid species including our target species: ESA-listed Puget Sound Chinook. Other priority species supported by this project include steelhead, coho, and southern resident killer whales.

The Little Squalicum Estuary project was prioritized by the community during the Little Squalicum Park Master Planning process facilitated by Bellingham Parks in 2009 and 2010. The planning process involved substantial community input including guidance from a Stakeholder Advisory Team comprised of various private and public stakeholders and related subject area experts. Construction of the project began in 2022 and wrapped up at the end of 2023. To find out more about construction, visit the Little Squalicum Estuary capital project page.

Funding for Little Squalicum Estuary Project:

City of Bellingham
Greenways Levy
Washington Department of Ecology Centennial Clean Water Program
Washington Department of Ecology One-Time Grant Program
Washington State Aquatic Lands Enhancement Account Grant Program
Washington State Estuary and Salmon Restoration Program
US Fish and Wildlife Service National Coastal Wetland Conservation Grant Program
Port of Bellingham
Whatcom County
Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA)

This project would not be possible without the partnership of landowners within the project area: Lehigh Northwest Cement Company, Port of Bellingham, Whatcom County, and BNSF.