One of the questions that we're looking at,
how can we get more salmon habitat into the Duwamish River?
Using biomimicry, using nature based design, we can address
our problems with stormwater and habitat loss.
I live in South Park around
ten minutes from that place.
For me,
that experience is the most important to integrate
the science community project to the community
because the community is part of the river.
Historically, all of south of downtown
was a huge intertidal marsh with quiet water
full of wetland plants and lots of insects.
So when people used to talk about
two, three hundred pound Chinook,that's why
we had two or three hundred pound Chinook
because they had the habitat to rear.
Thast habitat’s all gone.
We have very industrialized and urban shorelines.
Stormwater runoff
carries a whole payload of toxicants.
Nature's kidney's is what wetlands are known as.
They trap stormwater runoff and help sediment settle out.
We've seen our results trend in positive directions
that we are producing good habitat for salmon.
We're taking a lot of the lessons
that we've learned
from the Duwamish and starting to apply those to new locations.