Last week, the Washington Salmon Recovery Funding Board and the Puget Sound Partnership awarded over $44 million in grants to various organizations throughout the state for projects aimed at restoring and conserving salmon habitat. King County received nearly $3.8 million of that total, with $200,000 designated by the Water and Land Resources Division for the purchase of 11 acres of land within the Maury Island Aquatic Reserve.

The land parcel that has been deemed a priority includes about a quarter-mile of shoreline along the west side of Quartermaster Harbor near Lost Lake.

The project is part of a broader effort to save Chinook salmon from extinction by protecting the eelgrass that young Chinook use to hide from predators, as well as restore the shoreline habitat for the forage fish that the salmon eat.

Islander Greg Rabourn with the county’s Water and Land Resources Division, noted that the reserve, which stretches between Point Robinson and Tahlequah and includes all of Quartermaster Harbor, is one of only seven aquatic reserves in Puget Sound, which makes it important ecologically.

“Just look across the water (toward Burien),” he said. “There’s no habitat at all on the other side.”

Rabourn also explained that as this funding is for a land purchase only, more grants will be needed to actually do the restoration and preservation work.

“It’s an ongoing process,” he said. “A previous grant of $1.6 million is being used to work on property we’ve already acquired. We just have to keep going through the steps.”