Duwamish Alive Habitat Restoration

Project Overview

The lower Duwamish River flows through one of the most industrialized corridors in the Pacific Northwest, passing through South Seattle before emptying into Elliott Bay. The river and its estuary are designated a federal Superfund site due to decades of contamination from industrial facilities, stormwater runoff, and combined sewer overflows. Despite these challenges, juvenile Chinook and other salmon species still use the lower Duwamish as a migratory corridor during their outmigration to Puget Sound.

Duwamish Alive is a community coalition formed in 2005 to improve the ecological conditions of the river's shoreline through volunteer stewardship. Coalition events bring together neighborhood residents, tribal members, students, and conservation volunteers to remove invasive blackberry and English ivy, plant native willows, alders, red cedars, and other riparian species, and stabilize eroding banks. The native vegetation buffers reduce stormwater pollution entering the river, lower water temperatures through shade, and provide riparian insect communities that juvenile salmon rely on as food.

The coalition works in coordination with King County's Lower Duwamish Waterway cleanup process, the City of Seattle's Green/Duwamish Watershed restoration program, and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, which holds treaty fishing rights on the Duwamish and has been active in advocating for stronger cleanup standards and habitat improvements along the river.