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Beaches and Bluffs of Puget Sound and the Northern Straits

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Beaches and Bluffs of Puget Sound and the Northern Straits Technical Report 2007-04 Beaches and Bluffs of Puget Sound Prepared in support of the Puget Sound Nearshore Partnership Jim Johannessen and Andrea MacLennan, Coastal Geologic Services, Inc. Valued Ecosystem Components Report Series he Puget Sound Nearshore Partner- Brennan, J.S. 2007. Marine Riparian Vegetation Communi- Tship (PSNP) has developed a list of ties of Puget Sound. Puget Sound Nearshore Partnership valued ecosystem components (VECs). Report No. 2007-02. Published by Seattle District, U.S. The list of VECs is meant to represent a Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle, Washington. cross-section of organisms and physical Buchanan, J.B. 2006. Nearshore Birds in Puget Sound. Puget structures that occupy and interact with Sound Nearshore Partnership Report No. 2006-05. Pub- the physical processes found in the near- lished by Seattle District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, shore. The VECs will help PSNP frame Seattle, Washington. the symptoms of declining Puget Sound nearshore ecosystem integrity, explain Dethier, M.N. 2006. Native Shellfish in Nearshore Ecosys- how ecosystem processes are linked to ecosystem outputs, tems of Puget Sound. Puget Sound Nearshore Partnership and describe the potential benefits of proposed actions in Report No. 2006-04. Published by Seattle District, U.S. terms that make sense to the broader community. A series Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle, Washington. of “white papers” was developed that describes each of the Eissinger, A.M. 2007. Great Blue Herons in Puget Sound. VECs. Following is the list of published papers in the series. Puget Sound Nearshore Partnership Report No. 2007-06. All papers are available at www.pugetsoundnearshore.org. Published by Seattle District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle, Washington. Fresh, K.L. 2006. Juvenile Pacific Salmon in Puget Sound. Puget Sound Nearshore Partnership Report No. 2006-06. Published by Seattle District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle, Washington. Johannessen, J. and A. MacLennan. 2007. Beaches and Bluffs of Puget Sound. Puget Sound Nearshore Partner- ship Report No. 2007-04. Published by Seattle District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle, Washington. Kriete, B. 2007. Orcas in Puget Sound. Puget Sound Near- shore Partnership Report No. 2007-01. Published by Seattle District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle, Washington. Leschine, T.M. and A.W. Petersen. 2007. Valuing Puget Sound’s Valued Ecosystem Components. Puget Sound Nearshore Partnership Report No. 2007-07. Published by Seattle District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle, Washington. Mumford, T.F. 2007. Kelp and Eelgrass in Puget Sound. Puget Sound Nearshore Partnership Report No. 2007-05. Published by Seattle District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle, Washington. Penttila, D. 2007. Marine Forage Fishes in Puget Sound. Puget Sound Nearshore Partnership Report No. 2007-03. Published by Seattle District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle, Washington. Front and back covers: Whidbey Island (courtesy of Washington Sea Grant) ii Beaches and Bluffs of Puget Sound Contents Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................................... iv Executive Summary .................................................................................................................................... v Preface ........................................................................................................................................................ 1 Puget Sound Beaches ................................................................................................................................ 2 Puget Sound Bluffs .................................................................................................................................... 8 Shore Modifications ................................................................................................................................13 Sea Level Rise and Global Climate Change ...........................................................................................17 Coastal Restoration .................................................................................................................................19 References ................................................................................................................................................23 ii Beaches and Bluffs of Puget Sound Technical Report 2007-04 Puget Sound Nearshore Partnership iii Acknowledgments rafts of this paper were improved by comments from The Puget Sound Nearshore Partnership Steering Commit- DMaurice Schwartz, Western Washington University; tee initiated the concept of this paper and the others in this Hugh Shipman, Washington Department of Ecology; Guy series. The Nearshore Partnership Project Management Gelfenbaum, U.S. Geological Service; Jan Newton, Univer- Team (PMT) – Tim Smith, Bernie Hargrave, Curtis Tanner sity of Washington (UW); and Megan Dethier, UW-Friday and Fred Goetz – oversaw production of the papers. The Harbor Laboratory. Some data summaries were prepared by Nearshore Science Team (NST) played a number of roles: Bill Schenken. Thanks to Megan Dethier for coordination. they helped develop conceptual models for each valued In memory of Matt Chase of Coastal Geologic Services Inc. ecosystem component (VEC), in collaboration with the au- thors; individual members were reviewers for selected pa- pers; and members were also authors, including Megan De- Recommended bibliographical citation: thier, Tom Mumford, Tom Leschine and Kurt Fresh. Other Johannessen, J. and A. MacLennan. 2007. Beaches and NST members involved were Si Simenstad, Hugh Shipman, Bluffs of Puget Sound. Puget Sound Nearshore Partner- Doug Myers, Miles Logsdon, Randy Shuman, Curtis Tanner ship Report No. 2007-04. Published by Seattle District, U.S. and Fred Goetz. Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle, Washington. The Nearshore Partnership organization is especially Available at www.pugetsoundnearshore.org. grateful for the work done by series science editor Megan Dethier, who acted as facilitator and coach for the authors and liaison with the NST and PMT. We also thank the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Public Affairs Staff — Patricia Grasser, Dick Devlin, Nola Leyde, Casondra Brewster and Kayla Overton — who, with Kendra Nettleton, assisted with publication of all the papers in the series. Finally, the Nearshore Partnership would like to thank the Washington Sea Grant Communications Office — Marcus Duke, David Gordon, Robyn Ricks and Dan Williams — for providing the crucial editing, design and production ser- vices that made final publication of these papers possible. This report was supported by the Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration Project through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. For further information or printed copies of this report, contact Curtis Tanner, Local Project Manager, Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration Project, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, 600 Capital Way North, Olympia, Washington 98501-1091. [email protected]. To download PDF files of this and other reports in the series, visit our Web site at www.pugetsoundnearshore.org. iv Beaches and Bluffs of Puget Sound Executive Summary he shores of the Puget Sound region provide valuable associated changes in beach and habitat stability. recreational and economic benefits for the burgeoning T Cumulatively, more than 805 miles, or 34 percent, of the population. Beaches and bluffs of the Puget Sound region Puget Sound and Northern Straits shore has been modified provide critical nearshore habitat functions and values for (WDNR 2001). Bulkheads and other shore-parallel struc- the region’s fish and wildlife. Coastal bluffs are the primary tures along coastal bluffs impound potential beach sedi- source of beach sediment along the Puget Sound shore, and ment, commonly bury upper beach spawning habitat and their natural erosion is essential for maintaining beaches fundamentally alter the beach and backshore, resulting in a and associated nearshore habitats. Critical habitats depen- decrease in the amount of drift sediment available for main- dent on functioning coastal systems include coastal forests, tenance of down-drift beaches. Burial of the backshore re- spawning beaches for forage fish (such as surf smelt), eel- sults in reduced beach width (Griggs 2005) and loss of habi- grass beds, and salt marshes, all of which shape the health of tat area. The remaining upper beach typically suffers from salmon populations. changed hydraulic conditions. Although research has been Puget Sound and the Northern Straits encompass the cen- very limited locally, bulkheads are thought to cause some tral feature in the Puget Lowland, consisting of a complex degree of localized beach erosion (MacDonald et al. 1994). series of deep, generally north-south-trending basins. Puget As a result of these changes, beaches become more coarse- Sound was created by the repeated advance and retreat of grained and gravel-dominant, which does not provide the glacial ice sheets, the most recent of which advanced be- same quality of habitat as a finer grained beach (Thom et al. tween 15,000 and 13,000 years ago (Booth 1994). The area’s 1994, MacDonald et al. 1994). Cross-shore structures, such glacial legacy has resulted in abundant steep bluffs (some- as groins and jetties, also impact coastal processes by im- times referred to as sea cliffs,
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