Revolution on the Nisqually River

For people who spend their lives studying rivers, the Nisqually is a model made in heaven. It’s only 78 miles long, but it flows through such spectacular, varied terrain that it makes an ideal living laboratory for geologists, hydrologists and biologists.

It begins at a glacier on an active volcano; crashes down a steep, narrow canyon, through old-growth forests and past herds of elk. Then it meanders across prairies and farmland to its mouth, a largely intact estuarine delta filled with marshes and migrating birds.

“This river is a whole different world,” said geologist Scott Beason, one of a panel of scientists introducing the Nisqually to this summer’s crop of seasonal rangers at Mount Rainier National Park last month. “There’s so much going on here it’s just insane.”

The Nisqually is a model in another important way as well.

For 20 years, it has been watched over by the Nisqually River Council, a loosely knit group of landowners, business people and government representatives who rely on consensus and a mutual appreciation of the watershed.

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