The Olympian, Olympia, Wash. (November 3, 2009)

Nov. 3--The public is invited to celebrate the largest estuary restoration project in the Northwest next week at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge.

The project, 12 years and $12 million in the making, has reconnected 762 acres of formerly diked-off refuge property with the South Sound tides.

The ceremony coincides with a high tide and includes opening of a one-half mile portion of the new Nisqually Estuary Trail that provides public viewing of the tidally influenced lands.

Next year, the trail will be extended via a boardwalk built directly into the estuary for public use.

Also during the event, the longest of the seven historical sloughs in the reclaimed estuary will be named Leschi Slough, in honor of Chief Leschi of the Nisqually Tribe of Indians.

The estuary restoration, combined with 140 acres previously restored by the Nisqually tribe, boosts the amount of salt marsh habitat critical for salmon, shorebirds and other species by 50 percent in South Sound, noted Jean Takekawa, refuge manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"The project is an important step in the recovery of Puget Sound," she said.

"This is the top priority to recover chinook salmon in the Nisqually watershed," said David Troutt, natural resource director for the Nisqually tribe.

At the end of the 19th century, the Nisqually estuary was intact, but in the early 1900s about 1,000 acres was diked for farming. Since the 1970s, U.S. Fish and Wildlife managed the area as freshwater wetlands, an effort made difficult by invasive plants.

By reconnecting the wetlands with the Nisqually River, McAllister Creek and Puget Sound, more than 21 miles of tidal channels and sloughs will be restored in the estuary.

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