Port of Everett Inside General

The Port of Everett's primary environmental management goal is to assure continued, and where feasible, enhanced ecological functioning and productivity of Port Gardner and the Snohomish River estuary while fulfilling its statutory mandates as a public port district. Environmental management programs for habitats on Jetty Island and for bald eagle habitat on Port properties, and restoration plans for Union Slough and Biringer Farm are being developed to enhance or create additional wildlife habitat and/or to anticipate the need for future mitigation actions.

Jetty Island:
Jetty Island is a sand island constructed from sediment removed from a Federal Navigation Channel. It began as a riprap jetty in the late 1800s and provided a protected harbor and navigation channel. The Port of Everett obtained ownership in 1929 and has continued its maintenance since.

In 1989 the Port of Everett and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers collaborated on a project to develop beneficial use of clean dredged materials. The outcome was a 2500 ft long 15 MLLW (mean low low water) high sand berm constructed with 323,000 cubic yards of sediment adjoined westward of Jetty Island. The goals of the project were to create 15 acres of intertidal habitat, and continue habitat enhancement of Jetty Island. By 1996 the project had met all biological criteria established in the implementation plan and productivity of the embayment greatly exceeded project goals for salmonid habitat evaluation. The lower energy regime and mud substrate of the embayment is providing productive habitats for juvenile salmon prey resources than exists on the more exposed sandy beaches.

Jetty Island is also home to many marine animals including, juvenile salmon, various waterfowl and bald eagles. For more information on Northwest salmon species check out our Salmon Fact Sheet.