Beamer, E., Brown, B. and Wolf, K., 2012. Juvenile salmon and nearshore fish use in shallow intertidal habitat associated with Dugualla Lagoon, 2012. Skagit River System Cooperative, La Conner, WA. pp. 14.

Restoration and protection of Dugualla Heights lagoon was identified as a priority in the
Skagit Chinook Recovery Plan (page 216 in SRSC & WDFW 2005) because of its
importance to early rearing of wild fry migrant Chinook salmon originating from the
Skagit River. In 2009, the area was protected with a conservation easement and a
restoration feasibility study was funded by Washington State’s Salmon Recovery
Funding Board (SRFB), with the project’s sponsor being the Whidbey Camano Land
Trust (http://www.wclt.org/projects/dugualla-heights-conservation-easement/). Currently
the Dugualla Heights lagoon is connected to Skagit Bay by a 30-inch concrete culvert
280 feet long. Restoration concepts at Dugualla Heights include improvement of tidal
connectivity and fish passage to the lagoon from Skagit Bay.
As part of the feasibility study, the Skagit River System Cooperative Research Program is
responsible for presenting a report to Whidbey Camano Land Trust describing fish use of
the study area before restoration occurs at the outlet of the lagoon. Results from this
monitoring effort document fish species composition and relative fish abundance inside
the lagoon and the adjacent nearshore habitat near the outlet of the lagoon prior to any
restoration completed at this site. Pre-restoration project fish results serve as a basis for
measuring the response of the fish community to restoration at Dugualla Heights. In this
report we present results from our second year of monitoring. The first year of
monitoring was reported in Beamer et al. (2011).