Landscape Structure: Composition and Configuration. The Spatial Context of Priority Nearshore Restoration in Puget Sound, Washington.

Abstract

The Puget Sound region of Washington State has undergone enormous change over the past century. A burgeoning population and resulting urban development have permanently altered the historical shoreline as well as the underlying biogeophysical processes which create and maintain the modern shoreline. In 2001, the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began a project to examine the Puget Sound shoreline, identify areas which had been degraded, and develop a methodology to determine where and how restoration might take place. This effort to create a framework through which regional strategic restoration might be implemented was named the Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration Project (PSNERP). The project had a number of specific environmental goals, which included choosing to work with sites where restoration would create habitat complimentary with surrounding terrain, ensuring restoration would create diverse habitats, and reconnecting habitats between restoration sites and surrounding landscapes. In 2014 PSNERP identified thirty-six sites, from an initial list of 1,544 sites, where restoration should be prioritized. While PSNERP had focused on natural systems, the project was funded with public monies, and transparency and public accountability were highlighted in the framework. This study attempts to incorporate public perception of the spatial context of restoration with an examination of PSNERP’s natural scientific perspective on restoration. The landscape structure surrounding each of the thirty-six priority sites was analyzed in terms of natural composition and public access configuration. Three compositional lenses and two configurational lenses were used to understand if PSNERP’s framework had been successful in selecting sites capable of fulfilling stated environmental goals, while also including public participation. Comparisons of composition and configuration indicate that many of the landscape extents around priority sites retained moderate amounts of natural habitat, some habitat diversity endured, and the potential for habitat reconnection was present. However, many of the priority sites were fairly isolated within the landscape and public interaction opportunities with proposed restoration were limited. PSNERP appears to have been moderately successful in achieving the habitat goals established in the strategic framework, while little public access exists at many of the proposed restoration sites.