Port Susan Bay holds some of the finest estuarine habitat in Puget Sound. Its marshes, vast mudflats and tidally influenced channels support hundreds of thousands of birds, several species of salmon, herring, hake and clams. Western sandpipers, dunlins and dowitchers swoop over the mudflats. Wrangel Island snow geese gather by the thousands in tidal marshes and on nearby farm fields. Raptors from peregrine falcons to short-eared owls, add to the drama.

The Stillaguamish River spills into the bay, mixing freshwater and saltwater to create extensive estuarine marshes that produce a vast quantity of decaying organic matter, which feeds the abundant invertebrate life in the tide flat sediments. These tiny creatures, in turn, feed the shorebirds and waterfowl that make Port Susan Bay and adjacent Skagit Bay important stops for migratory birds traveling along the Pacific Flyway. Read More

The property, located three miles south of Stanwood, has long been identified by biologists and ornithologists as one of the private parcels in the region most in need of conservation. In 1990, the Nature Conservancy began talking to the owner, Menno Groeneveld, about a possible sale. Menno was interested in selling the land but passed away before negotiations were completed. After his death, the Conservancy began working with the bank appointed to oversee Menno’s estate. In 2001, 11 years after discussions first began, the transaction was completed.

The preserve is more than 4,100 acres in size and contains 160 acres of diked uplands. The rest is a vast expanse of estuarine wetland, tidally influenced channels and mudflats, straddling the southern and northern mouths of the Stillaguamish River. That combination of fresh and saltwater, the expanse of the estuary and the diversity of the tidal habitats make Port Susan Bay one of the most important stops along the Pacific Flyway as well as critical salmon habitat.