Washington breaches dike to convert farmland to fish habitat

Excavators breached a dike Monday that for more than a century had protected farmland, furthering a state and federal plan to convert thousands of acres of agricultural fields into salmon habitat in the Skagit Delta.  Excavators started digging a gap in the 12-foot-high dike in the morning. By late afternoon, Puget Sound’s high tide was spreading saltwater over 131 acres that previously grew crops such as broccoli, red potatoes and vegetable seeds. Tiny fish were swimming at the toe of new dike farther inland on Fir Island, between the Skagit River’s south and north forks, which empty into Puget Sound. The head of a farm group accepted the conversion of cropland into a fish-rearing estuary as a regulatory necessity, but he wasn’t rejoicing. “It’s not a celebratory time,” said Brandon Roozen, director of the Western Washington  Agricultural Association. “There’s been blood, sweat and tears spent on that land to keep it fertile.” The agricultural association represents a dozen diking, drainage and irrigation districts that serve farmers over 54,000 acres.