Ducks Unlimited's Western Washington Wetlands Initiative spans a large and diverse geographic area, including coastal Washington and the entirety of Puget Sound. These areas provide habitat for a host of fish and wildlife species, including waterfowl, sensitive salmon species, shorebirds and other wetland-dependent wildlife. All of these species rely on the rich habitat diversity provided by the mosaic of tide flats, estuarine marsh, sloughs, freshwater wetlands and adjacent uplands found here.

The diversity of habitat within these areas provides for many species of waterfowl, including northern pintail, both lesser and greater scaup, mallards, Pacific brant, American wigeon, wood duck, Wrangel Island snow geese, tule white-fronted geese, dusky and cackling Canada geese and trumpeter swans. Mallard numbers are high in the Puget Sound area, with wintering populations exceeding 100,000 birds in most years. Puget Sound and Coastal Washington serve as some of the most important waterfowl wintering areas in the Pacific Northwest, supporting nearly 10 percent of Pacific Flyway waterfowl.

Ducks Unlimited's coastal projects are designed to primarily provide wintering and migration habitat. Our projects involve a variety of local, state, federal and private landowners and partners to achieve our long term goal of providing for the needs of waterfowl during their stay in western Washington. To date, DU has protected, restored or enhanced more than 10,000 acres of habitat in Skagit, Snohomish and Whatcom counties alone.