(piano music)
(upbeat music)
- [Bill] This Kilisut Harbor Oak Bay restoration project
benefits water quality, nearshore habitat
and spin fish and shellfish stocks.
Especially Salmon had stocks
coming out of South Puget Sound and Hook Canal.
They have a migration routes
that enables them to find Refugio forge
and hide from predators and kill us at Harvard
because of the eel extensive eel grass beds
that align the entire Harbor which has over 2000 acres.
So this being one of the largest restoration projects
undertaken in the Marine environment for Puget sound,
is pretty amazing.
- [Rebecca] Yes.
So, it takes a lot of partners to do a project of this size.
And of course, department of transportation owning the road.
They were a critical partner and the Navy owning a lot
of the property was of course a critical partner
and the tribes were critical not only in the scientific data
that they collected to help us prove the case,
but also bringing money to the project.
The Navy was a really important partner in this project
and this project would not have been possible
without the partnership of the Navy,
because a lot of it takes place on Navy property,
where we needed permission to excavate old title channel
and actually build part of the spreads out at Navy property.
- [Bill] August of 2019, was the groundbreaking
for this project.
And throughout the courses of that summer, fall, winter,
and now into this summer,
this project has been steadily working
and has almost come to completion here.
So behind me is the title connection,
that was the main focus of this project
and the bridge that allows that to happen.
- [Cmdr.Donald] You know, when you say something
took nine years, that's pretty incredible.
Anytime you get that many partners together,
working on a project of this magnitude
over the course of a decade,
it's pretty incredible to get this through all the obstacles
and the funding issues and all the challenges.
- [Rebecca] One of the unexpected
outcomes of the project is the community benefit.
And we have seen a tremendous amount of people
utilizing the waterway that we have created
between Oak Bay and kill us at Harbor.
- [Voice Of Cmdr. Emerson] It is truly remarkable
to see the water flowing between Oak Bay
and Kelso Harbor once again.
This restoration project was possible due to the hard work
of the North Olympic Salmon Coalition
and there are many partner organizations.
We all share the same vision of restoring
this historic waterway that once ran
between Indiana mayor stone Island.
Today that vision is a reality.
The Navy is proud to support the partnership
that made it happen.
We support this project by participating in site surveys,
contributed design input.
We helped the project team secure construction
and access easements for the project site on Navy property.
Our team helps secure funding for this project
through a $1 million mitigation agreement with the tribes.
Partnerships like this are vital for the preservation
of our beloved region.
They also enable us to be good stewards of the environment
while bouncing our national defense mission.
As a reminder, Naval magazine Indian Island,
is a restricted access installation.
Please remember that our beaches are not open to the public.
We hope that you enjoy the restorative waterway
around the island,
while respecting our installation boundaries
and security requirements.