Maury Island is best described as the crown jewel of Puget Sound.
Wide eelgrass meadows paint the shoreline as waterways shimmer with tens of millions of forage fish returning to historic spawning grounds. The forage fish are followed by the salmon, and the salmon are followed by the orca who utilize the Maury nearshore in the winter months – newborn calves at their side. Recognized as one of Puget Sound’s “last best places” the area is designated as both a State Aquatic Reserve and a National Marine Protected Area.
Over a decade ago, a threat was made to the Maury Island Aquatic Reserve and the habitat held within its borders.
- Multi-nationally owned mining company, Calportland, unveiled a plan to use land heavily contaminated with toxic arsenic to create what based on extraction rates would have been the largest sand and gravel mine in the country along the shoreline of Maury Island – effectively in the middle of Puget Sound.
- To support the mine, the mining company proposed the construction of an industrial barging facility in a mile long stretch of ecologically unique nearshore habitat that stood at the heart of the Aquatic Reserve.
- Expert biologists documented the significant risk the proposal presented to the nearshore ecology and to the endangered orcas and salmon that rely on the critical habitat found at the site. And, properly applied environmental laws should have stopped this proposal immediately. However, a favorable political climate and lack of regulatory agency oversight allowed Calportland to move their nonsensical proposal forward.
Preserve Our Islands rose up from the community to fight…
Through grass-roots activism, tenacious regulatory vigilance and targeted litigation, we were successful in defending the Maury Island nearshore against the threat from Calportland’s dangerous plan.
In 2010, after more than ten years of fighting a true David and Goliath battle – and after a series of legal victories that were earned when we challenged the state and federal permitting agencies, Calportland gave up and the property was acquired by King County under the leadership of Executive Dow Constantine.
The acquisition stood not only as a remarkable moment for the Vashon-Maury Island community, but as a true moment of reckoning for Puget Sound and the hope for its recovery.
With this acquisition, this ecologically vital nearshore area will continue to welcome endangered orcas and their newborn calves in the winter months and chinook salmon in the summer. And, in the uplands, there will be a park for our children, and their children to gaze across shimmering blue waters to the shoulders of Mount Rainer, mesmerized by the wonder that is the Puget Sound. Clean drinking water will be protected and a mile of uniquely valuable habitat – designated as both a State Aquatic Reserve and a National Marine Protected Area – will be preserved in perpetuity.
With the experience and knowledge gained from over a decade spent fighting for the protection and preservation of Puget Sound – we are now moving forward, with a strong community at our side, to tenaciously apply our well honed skills to other local and regional Puget Sound habitat protection projects.
Please join us as we work to make a difference in the recovery of Puget Sound.
Please click on the video link below to watch “The Story of Maury”.