Posted in the Skagit paper on Thursday, July 17th, report from Olympia:
Starting today, the 175-acre Headquarters Unit of the Skagit Wildlife Area will be closed to public access as work crews begin clearing land for major estuary-restoration project at the mouth of the Skagit River.
The closed area includes the public boat ramp and the dike-top trails along the Skagit River and Wiley Slough.
The Dept expects to reopen the Hdqtrs Unit at the end of September.
The Wiley Slough project is designed to restore 160 acres of estuarine salmon habitat that was diked and drained to create farmland in 1962.During the next three months, construction crews will work to construct a new "setback" dike further inland along the border of the wildlife area and install a new, larger tidegate farther upstream in Wiley Slough.
Next summer, work crews will remove 6.500 feet of dikes and levees, allowing the tides and river to reclaim the area south of the new setback.
End of quote, thought some of you birders would like to know. Hang in there!

Cleo Andreasen
Anacortes,WA
andie777 at isomedia.com