The Land Trust and the Town of Eatonville are pleased to announce the acquisition of properties totaling 79 acres and over two-thirds of a mile of salmon-producing shoreline on the Mashel River, the largest tributary to the Nisqually River and a river critical to the recovery of threatened steelhead trout and Chinook salmon.

The properties are in the center of the Mashel River Protection Initiative, which has now protected a total of 201 acres and 1.8 miles of Mashel shoreline through the heart of Eatonville.

Eatonville acquired a 72-acre block with an $823,286 grant from the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program. The Land Trust provided $835,000 in match for the grant by transferring a further 50 acres of Mashel shoreline property into Town ownership.  The Land Trust also raised $100,000 in acquisition funds through the Washington Salmon Recovery Funding Board and the Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration (PSAR) Fund.

Van Eaton Property, Phase II, 68 acres on the Mashel River targeted for acquisition in 2011 as part of the Land Trust’s Mashel Shoreline Protection Initiative.

The 72-acre block contains excellent riparian habitat and includes part of a proposed loop trail along the river for public access.  The block’s permanent protection prevents its development as residential real estate and assures access for river restoration work by the Nisqually Indian Tribe, and the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group.

Thus far the two groups have installed more than 40 engineered logjams along the Mashel to create salmon-friendly pools and stream conditions.  Forty years ago, the Mashel was one of the finest steelhead rivers in the Pacific Northwest, but in the 1970s and 1980s overfishing and intense timber harvest wiped out the fish population and scoured and silted the river, impacts that are still felt today.

The Land Trust also purchased of 7.1 acres of Mashel shoreline from Larry and Donna Magill, also in the heart of the Initiative.  The Nisqually Tribe has already installed 22 engineered logjams on and near the Magill property, which was acquired with funding from the Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration Fund.

Efforts Underway to Acquire Original Van Eaton Homestead

As well, Pierce County Conservation Futures 2011 has awarded top ranking for the Land Trust’s proposed acquisition of the crown jewel in the Mashel Initiative, the 68-acre Van Eaton property, near the confluence of the Little Mashel and Mashel rivers.

Site of the original Van Eaton homestead and the founding of Eatonville, the property includes excellent shoreline, floodplain, riparian, and wetland habitat and would provide the only permanent access to the next phase of stream-restoration work on the Mashel.  The Land Trust is now working with the Van Eaton family to try to complete the purchase.