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MudUp Campaign to Save Puget Sound Shoreline

Photo: Ron Harbour

In an all-hands-on-deck effort heralded by The Trust for Public Land's Puget Sound Shoreline Strategy report, the government, the private sector, and nonprofit organizations from Bellingham to Seattle to Port Townsend have teamed up and committed to restore Puget Sound by 2020. Complementary and coordinated campaigns are getting underway to engage the public in this important effort. In broad terms, the state government will focus on public education and the nonprofit community will take on the public involvement aspect to this massive and historic endeavor.

Children rally around the Mud Monster, the new mascot for the cleanup of Puget Sound.

The MudUp campaign

The Trust for Public Land, The Nature Conservancy and People For Puget Sound have taken their ground-breaking partnership, the Alliance for Puget Sound Shorelines, into completely new territory by creating www.mudup.org, a single, centralized place where individuals and groups can post and find ways to help the Sound.

At www.mudup.org, Silicon Forest meets Puget Sound to share and promote activities for young and old, families and weekend mud warriors, all centered around the Puget Sound Shorelines.

What the public can do through MudUp.org:

• Volunteer to restore Puget Sound wildlife habitats and shorelines: remove invasive species and replace with native plants; restore trails; remove litter and garbage.
• Get involved on the local and state level. Advocate for more parks and natural areas, and request restoration of damaged and polluted shorelines.
• Create events that support MudUp and its goal to create ten new parks, protect 1,000 miles of shoreline and restore 100 miles of shoreline by June, 2009.
• Find links to other groups who are working to help save Puget Sound.

MudUp Featured on KOMOTV (Video)

Washington Governor Christine Gregoire proclaims May 31, 2007, as MudUp Day!

The Problems of Puget Sound

From the public's point of view, the problems plaguing the Puget Sound are often met with skepticism, yet Puget Sound is one of the most damaged, polluted waterways in the country. Here are some basic facts and figures:

Habitat Loss and Human Development

• 75 percent of the Sound's salt marsh habitat has been destroyed, and one-third of the shoreline altered or engineered from its natural state. (Source: Washington Department of Ecology)
• Native plants and wildlife have had to "move over" for human development (like bulkheads) that now edge about one third of the total Puget Sound shoreline, resulting in damaged beaches and estuaries. Rapid-paced development disrupts stream flows, which can affect migration and spawning of threatened salmon. (Source: Washington Department of Ecology)
• Human-introduced invasive species like ivy and spartina have spread aggressively to nearly every county in the Sound at the expense of crucial natural vegitation.
• Failing septic systems, farm runoff, pet wastes and other human activities are cited as causes for bacteria and viruses contaminating the water supply as waste is carried by stormwater runoff into area waters. Toxic chemicals found in bottom sediment have been known to affect the health of orcas and some of their favorite food, salmon. (Source: www.pugetsound.org)
• Even the health of the region's beloved orca whales, declared endangered in 2005, is connected to shorelines, because shorelines are the basis for a food web that feeds salmon and, ultimately, orcas.

MudUp is all about reclaiming healthy shorelines for the people and wildlife that love living around Puget Sound - working together we can do better!

The Puget Sound Shoreline Strategy describes TPL's conservation vision for the 12-county region based on shoreline access, population, and land-use trends impacting the public enjoyment of Puget Sound and its shorelines. Using the report's findings as a guide, TPL is collaborating with Native American tribes, local communitiesa, public agencies, and other conservation groups to identify priority areas for protection and secure new funding for communities to achieve local shoreline goals.

TPL's Puget Sound Project Highlights

Photo by: Ryan Schierling

Pritchard Park
In partnership with the Bainbridge Island Land Trust, TPL helped protect a 50-acre property with nearly a mile of shoreline on the south shore of Bainbridge Island's Eagle Harbor. With stunning views of Puget Sound, Seattle, Mount Rainier, and the Olympic Mountains, the land will become a waterfront park named after the late Joel Pritchard who represented the Island in Congress for 12 years before becoming Lieutenant Governor.

Photo by: Kelly Balcomb-Bartok

Deadman Bay
More than 100,000 visitors a year come to Lime Kiln Point State Park on San Juan Island—one of the state's best places for watching orcas and renowned as the first park in the country created for on-shore whale watching. The Park abuts Deadman Bay Beach, which is owned by the San Juan County Land Bank. Deadman Bay is among the most scenic and popular beaches in the San Juans. In the mid-1990s, TPL collaborated with the San Juan County Land Bank to protect 53 acres, including Deadman Bay.

Updated 5/2007