Land Trust focuses on restoring island creeks

Published 7:00 pm Monday, December 29, 2025

It’s the season for gratitude!

After gathering with family and friends, it feels fitting to pause and reflect on how lucky we are to call this beautiful island home. At the Land Trust, gratitude is an action — an act of giving both to the people around us and to the land that gives us so much.

That spirit of gratitude was on full display at the final installment of our Speaker Series. (Only on Vashon would 80 people turn out on a Friday night for a talk about habitat restoration!)

In the coming months, the Land Trust will be working with islander Rocky Hrachovec and his firm, Wolfwater Resources, to evaluate our island creeks, identify the most appropriate restoration projects for our landscape, and compile those efforts into a restoration action plan. After all, restoration is the ultimate act of gratitude for our wild and working lands.

A major focus of this islandwide restoration effort centers on our creeks, particularly in the Judd and Shinglemill watersheds. While both creeks are undeniably lovely, they have been channelized and disconnected from their historic floodplains due to human activity. Over the years, we have made important progress by protecting large stretches of these waterways, strategically placing logs, removing invasive plants, and planting native vegetation along riparian areas. Today, we have an opportunity to take the restoration of these creeks one step further.

Shinglemill Creek offers a clear example of both the challenges and the possibilities ahead. During heavy rains (like those we experienced earlier in December), it is one of the “flashiest” creeks on the island, with water rushing through the ravine, washing out salmon redds, and depositing large amounts of sand into Fern Cove’s estuary. If we can slow this flow during major rain events — like the one we experienced earlier this December — we can dramatically improve habitat while allowing our aquifer to better capture and recharge water.

To do this, we can look to the natural world for inspiration, specifically to our industrious beaver neighbors. Beaver Dam Analogs, or BDAs, are human-made brush dams placed strategically within creeks to mimic the effects of natural beaver dams. These structures help slow water as it moves through the system, reconnect creeks to their floodplains, and create pools and wetlands that provide critical habitat for fish.

A complex habitat is an abundant habitat. Expanded wetlands and riparian zones support thriving communities of invertebrates, giving juvenile coho salmon places to hunt for food under the cover of vegetation — ideally out of sight of river otters and herons. Holding water upstream also helps retain spawning gravels in the creek, rather than flushing them into Puget Sound, resulting in higher-quality habitat for returning salmon.

We’ve seen inspiring results from similar restoration efforts nearby. In 2018, Seattle’s Thornton Creek welcomed the return of Chinook salmon for the first time in 20 years — just four years after restoration work was completed. These successes remind us of what’s possible when we invest in thoughtful, science-based restoration.

So what’s next for the Land Trust? In January, we will continue work with Wolfwater Resources to assemble GIS maps and collect field data to help identify and prioritize restoration opportunities in the Judd and Shinglemill watersheds. We are also convening a panel of technical advisers to help refine these maps and guide the process. Together, Land Trust staff, consultants, and advisers will evaluate which projects make the most sense for our island creeks, and we look forward to sharing this work with the Vashon community as it unfolds.

The Land Trust and the Vashon community are stewards of this land, caring for it on behalf of future generations. Installing Beaver Dam Analogs, increasing salmon runs, and protecting our aquifer are tangible actions we can take right now to ensure the long-term health of this place we all love. And if a packed room for a restoration presentation tells us anything, this community is up to the task!

If you’re inspired to help with this important effort, consider joining our weekly stewardship work parties or making a donation to support the Land Trust.

Jenny Stamper is the operations manager at the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust.