For years, Hylebos advocates and fisheries biologists looked at the Spring Valley Ranch, a 27-acre parcel in the heart of Spring Valley, as the most critical property to acquire for Hylebos conservation. The property included a 1,500-foot reach of prime spawning habitat for Chinook, coho and chum salmon. It was degraded from years of operation as a hobby farm, but the restoration potential was huge. If there was one place to significantly increase salmon productivity, particularly for Chinook, it was at Spring Valley Ranch.

Due to upstream development and floodplain degradation, the site experienced regular, heavy flooding. The old stream crossing at S. 373rd St. was too small for contemporary flows and regularly plugged up with sediment and needed to be replaced. The city of Federal Way wanted to solve this flooding problem and was interested in stream restoration.

The challenges, however, were significant. First, for many years, the owner did not want to sell. And when he did, the market value - $1.8 million - was so high that it was out of reach of traditional funding sources and partnership.

Then, we heard that the Washington Department of Transportation was in need of a large site for wetland mitigation for HOV-lane construction planned for 2009 in Pierce County. They were having a difficult time finding a suitable property.

We proposed the Spring Vallley Ranch site to our colleagues at WSDOT. They quickly realized that it was a high value restoration site that would fit their project mitigation needs. Working the Friends and the city of Federal Way, WSDOT purchased the site in 2004. The transportation department, then worked with the Friends, the city, The Puyallup Tribe and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to design a stream and wetland restoration project that will be built in the summer of 2007.