NISQUALLY – Saturday’s Nisqually Watershed Festival offered a chance for visitors to not only celebrate the area’s history but to take in the sights and sounds of the delta since a major restoration project was completed.
The festival turned 22 this year, and as in past years, visitors were greeted by brightly colored wooden salmon pointing them in the direction of the event. In addition to a history lesson, the festival offered music, food and a chance for children to create art or explore the insides of a 25-foot replica salmon named Fin.
For many, though, the focus of the festival was to see the changes at the delta since a dike was removed to allow tidal waters to return to about 760 acres of estuary, while still protecting about 250 acres for freshwater.
The goal of the project was to restore the ecosystem of the estuary for shorebirds, insects and salmon, particularly Puget Sound chinook, an endangered species, said Nisqually Wildlife Refuge restoration biologist Jesse Barham.
The freshwater areas and the expanded areas for saltwater should provide the right habitat for chinook to feed and gain strength before swimming out into open water, he said.
It’s too early to tell how salmon have responded to changes at the delta since 2010, but juvenile fish have been spotted and the first chinook run is expected to return to the area in 2014, Barham said.
On the trails, visitors said they were enjoying the sights and silences of the delta.
“It’s a beautiful walk,” said Mike Goelz of Olympia, who took a stroll before he was set to perform in a drum circle called Planet Percussion, one of the festival’s musical acts.
Linda Salazar of Lakewood and Lee Ann Mills of Olympia said they stroll around the delta about once a month. They usually walk about a mile, then finish their day with a trip to nearby Norma’s for a hamburger.
“It’s gorgeous,” Salazar said about the area.
She said there are no buildings, no cars and no noise.
“It’s reassuring that the refuge can be maintained without commercial influence,” she said.
Mills said that even when there is an event at the delta, it is big enough that it still feels peaceful. Mills also praised it as a spectacular destination for wildlife.
“When the birds are in (in winter), it really is something to see,” she said. “It’s just solid with birds.”
Rolf Boone: 360-754-5403 rboone@theolympian.com
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