Setting a Path for Urban Restoration Projects—Assessment, Prioritization, Planning, and Implementation at the City of Issaquah, WA

Salmon and preservation of riparian resources have long been legacies of the City of Issaquah, a growing Seattle suburb in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.  In 2005 the City created a WaterWays Planning Team, including members of the Public Works, Planning and Parks and Recreation departments, to better integrate work and maximize resources towards resource enhancement.  The group decided it needed a city-wide assessment and guiding document, resulting in the “City of Issaquah Stream and Riparian Areas Restoration Plan.”  The project began with a multidisciplinary and comprehensive review of City streams, which identified and ranked 74 potential restoration projects according to likely ecological results, feasibility and community benefit.  Conceptual restoration designs, including habitat features, bank stabilization and revegetation, were completed for the top 28 projects.  The atlas of projects included an in-depth discussion of implementation strategies, including regulatory implications and funding opportunities. 

The City has successfully used the draft concepts to help plan, secure funding, and construct multiple restoration projects.  One such project, completed in 2010, is the restoration of a 1,250 foot section of Issaquah Creek and associated wetlands at Squak Valley Park North.  This project garnered over $1 million in grants, from the King Conservation District and the State of Washington’s Salmon Recovery Funding Board and Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program, to remove an existing levee, re-grade a floodplain to incorporate stream meanders, and place large woody debris structures and rock to create pool-riffle sequences along stream sections previously dominated by glides.