[This post seemed to disappear into the ether the first time I sent it. My apologies if this is a duplicate.]

The proposal to flood Skagit WMA represents a distressing conversation dilemma: Given the choice between two disappearing habitats, which do you choose? People love shoreline. Relatively undisturbed estuarine/salt marsh habitat is becoming rare. Many birds rely on these habitats during migration. Migrating birds need stopovers at reasonable intervals.

However, similar arguments can be made for shrubby/grassy/weedy (SGW) habitat at low elevations near the shore. SGW habitat has certainly increased in the mountains where logging occurs, but development and clean farming are gobbling up those areas in the low-elevation Puget Trough, where the weather is mildest year-round and warmest during the winter. Simple geography says there is more land area available for creating SGW habitat than there is for creating estuarine habitat, but nothing is that simple. All land in the Puget Trough is expensive. The closer to the water, the more expensive it gets. Land a "safe" distance from development, where the birds are less exposed to traffic mortality, high levels of human-associated predators (skunks, raccoons, rats, feral and domestic cats, opossums, squirrels, crows, etc.), and high levels of competition from urban birds (house finches, house sparrows, goldfinches, and other feeder birds) is becoming extremely rare. The Montlake Fill is an example of one of those rare SGW habitats, somewhat buffered from the surrounding habitats by the playfields, but still with a large population of urban predators and competitors.

I think I'd lean towards favoring the dike breaching, but I wouldn't casually blow off the importance of SGW habitat in the Puget Trough. Many species already hammered by development are going to suffer. Ideally, "someone" (and who would that be?) would try to compensate by setting aside Skagit Valley areas maintained in a SGW condition. Unfortunately, land is something you can't make more of.

Kelly Cassidy

Pullman