Puget Creek Beach Acquisition

 

Partial beach property acquisition began in1999. Early on in this endeavor, we* realized that H & H Partnership, owner of the beach property between the Puget Creek outfall and Katie Downs restaurant, was willing to make some kind of transfer of the property. They originally wanted to trade that section to DNR in exchange for land under Luciano's restaurant, but the deal never went through.

 

For a separate piece of the beach, our organization received a grant from the Conservation Futures Fund in 2001 to purchase an area for classification as habitat in perpetuity.

 

Since 2001, this property has been under the ownership of Pierce County's Parks and Recreation Department; however, in the next few years, it is expected that the beach area will be turned over to Department of Natural Resources (DNR), to be classified as habitat in perpetuity. PCRS currently operates in this section under a stewardship agreement and intends to continue to act as steward under DNR ownership.

 

A third portion of the beach, a 30' wide section, runs directly out from the mouth of Puget Creek under a right-of-way through the City of Tacoma. PCRS hopes to work under the Shoreline Master Plan to get right-of-ways that include nearshore areas as protected habitats, keeping them safe from future development and other negative impacts from upland.

 

Currently, we are planning a sediment clean-up project that should help decrease arsenic, lead, copper, and zinc contaminants. Part of the beach area will also be used as an eelgrass restoration testing area in a partnership project between PCRs, University of Puget Sound, and Pierce Conservation District. We also expect to use the beach area for many other studies, assessments, evaluations, and monitoring projects in the future.

 

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