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“We have sort of an idyllic estuary”

Willapa Bay, also known as Shoalwater, is the largest estuary between San Francisco and Puget Sound. It boasts one of the least-spoiled environments and the healthiest salmon runs south of Canada, produces one in every four oysters farmed in the United States, and is a favorite pit stop for tens of thousands of migratory birds.

And it’s in trouble.

The infestation of Spartina, imported by accident from the East Coast, collects enough silt to raise the bay floor by up to a foot, turning much of Willapa’s enviably productive tidal zone into a giant, unkempt lawn. At the same time, other introduced plants and animals and two opportunistic species of native shrimp also threaten to spoil the pristine bay.

“If you lose Willapa Bay, it’s of both state and national significance,” says Kim Patten (’83 Ph.D. Horticulture), a Washington State University researcher and associate professor of horticulture who is a leader in the battle for the bay.

“I think it’s a national treasure, because every estuary in North America would try to emulate it. There’s no other estuary out there like it,” Patten says. “We have sort of an idyllic estuary. It’s not perfect, but for all intents and purposes, it’s a very functioning estuary. You don’t get better than that.”

Environmentally, aquatic landscapes from Chesapeake Bay to San Francisco Bay are infamous for what they’ve lost. Willapa Bay’s protectors want to make it renowned for what it kept. They’re starting to get noticed.

Last June, the National Audubon Society ranked Willapa Bay second—just behind part of Florida’s Everglades—in its Cooling the Hot Spots report detailing wildlife areas threatened by invasive species. That followed a similar listing in the National Wildlife Refuge Association’s 2002 report, Silent Invasion. And the Nature Conservancy has made protecting the bay and its rich watershed one of its highest Washington priorities.

Senator Patty Murray (’72 Recreation) and her colleagues helped secure another $1 million in federal funding for this season’s work, the second in a six-year, multi-partner plan to eradicate Spartina. The state is pitching in hundreds of thousands more.

“It’s so common for us to not realize what we’ve got until we lost it,” says U.S. Representative Brian Baird, D-Vancouver. “This wonderful bay faces some real threats. Spartina, for example, is a nightmare. It can turn the Willapa Bay into the Willapa Prairie.”

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What Price Willapa?

Willapa Bay has one of the West Coast’s richest ecosystems—full of birds and salmon, clams and crabs. Many environmentalists might argue that you simply can’t put a price tag on such a precious gem.

But Dave Williams begs to differ. He is the great-great-grandson of the man who platted the Columbia River fishing town of Ilwaco and great-grandson of the man who founded Oysterville and helped start the bay’s shellfish industry 150 years ago. Williams also is president and CEO of environmentally minded Shorebank Pacific, which he believes might just be America’s only commercial bank with a biologist on staff.

In 2001, Williams assigned staff scientist Kathleen Sayce to put a dollar sign in front of Willapa Bay—not to sell it off, but to better understand what’s at stake.

Sayce’s conclusion: Willapa Bay’s pristine environment is worth between $700 million and $1.7 billion, equivalent in value of up to $136 million every year. By comparison, the $1 million the federal government has paid in each of the past two years to rid the bay of its biggest threat, Spartina grass, seems like a bargain.

Sayce’s figures include broad estimates of the value of the fishing industry, including salmon, crabs, and shellfish; recreational activities ranging from fishing to clamming to bird-watching; and a quality of life that attracts many of its human inhabitants.

Her estimates leave out the bay’s ability to enhance the region’s overall environment, which she says could triple its value. Nor does the accounting factor in the rich upland areas containing abundant timber, fertile farmland, and coastal communities.

Bay backers such as Williams have been trying “like mad” to use Willapa Bay’s pristine reputation to get a higher price for its products. Similarly, Linda Rotmark, executive director of the Pacific County Economic Development Council, likes to market the area as “Nature’s Best Effort.”

With only a few budding exceptions, Williams says, “So far that premium is not established. It needs to be.”