The document summarizes climate change impacts and adaptation planning efforts for the Nisqually watershed area in Washington state. It notes that 61% of the area is forested land providing $1.9 million to $226 billion in benefits annually, but forests face risks of drought, fire, and shifting species from climate change. Freshwater resources face risks of reduced quantity from population growth and lower quality from warming. The Nisqually delta wetlands restoration aims to benefit salmon and birds but faces challenges of reduced sediment accumulation and rising sea levels that could convert marsh to mudflats. Shellfish in the area are also threatened by ocean acidification effects on their habitats and food sources.

1. Nisqually Forest and
Water Adaptation Plan
Summer Teacher Institute
June 27, 2016

2. Background
 Climate adaptation planning process completed in
2014
 In partnership with the Model Forest Policy Program’s
Climate Solutions University
 Focused on climate impacts and adaptation solutions in
Nisqually Watershed
 Forests
 Freshwater
 Estuary

3. Nisqually Watershed

4. Forest Impacts
• 300,000 acres (61%) under forest cover
• Earth Economics estimates Nisqually Forests provide $1.9
million-$226 billion in benefits each year.
Current stressors:
• 20,000+ people by 2020s
• Forest management practices
Climate Impacts:
• Drought stress
•Wildland fire & disease
• Shifting species compositions
Candra Grimm

5. Freshwater Impacts
 Supports salmon, provides drinking
water, generates hydroelectricity
 Current stressors:
 Water quantity – competing uses
and more people on the way
 Water quality – 5 areas fail EPA
water quality standards
 Climate impacts:
 Glacial melt – 1 meter every 10 days
 Shifting hydrology
 Warmer water temperatures
Roger Andrascik
Susan Rosebrough

6. Nisqually Delta & Estuary
 BFJNNWR was set aside to “conserve, manage, restore
and enhance native habitats and associated plants and
wildlife species representative of the Puget Sound
lowlands with a special emphasis on migratory birds and
salmonids.”1
 2004 Comprehensive Conservation Plan
 Preferred Alternative: Maximum estuary restoration; removal
of 4.5 miles of dike
 Option provided the maximum benefits for ESA listed Chinook
salmon & other estuarine species2
 The largest estuary restoration project in Puget Sound
1Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge Comprehensive Conservation Plan, 2004.
2Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge Estuary Restoration Project, 2013.

7. Sediment Budget
 Land subsided ~1m after
years of tidal exclusion
 Sediment-rich glacial
melt is trapped by Alder
Dam; remaining sediment
washes off-shore
 ~0.12 mm/year1
1 Ellings, C.S. 2009. Monitoring and Adaptive Management of
the Nisqually Delta after Tidal Marsh Restoration: Restoring
Ecosystem Function for Salmon. Nisqually Indian Tribe.
Olympia, Washington.

8. Nisqually Delta & Sea Level
Rise
 Projected sea level rise is greater than sediment
accumulation rates
 Local predictions: ~2-3.5 mm/year1
 By 2110, predicted sea level rise ranges from 12 cm,
63 cm and 142 cm1
What does that mean for the Delta?
 Loss of high- and mid- marsh habitat types, potentially
leaving mostly mudflat1
 Ripple effects:
 Macroinvertebrates tied to plant cover on land
 Salmon & migratory birds feed on insects
1Thorne, K.M., Dugger, B.D., Takekawa, J.Y. 2015. Marshes to Mudflats: Climate change
effects along a latitudinal gradient in the Pacific Northwest.

9. Ocean Acidification
 Nisqually Delta provides habitat to geoduck clam,
Dungeness crab, oysters and other shellfish
 Nisqually Tribe tied culturally and economically to
shellfish & species that eat them
 National Fish & Oyster Company
 Recreational shellfishing
 As Puget Sound becomes more acidic they are less
habitable to shellfish; larger food chain

10. Questions?