The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle District, recently completed a $7.5 million federally-funded dune restoration project to provide coastal storm damage protection and prevent wetland erosion in Willapa Bay near the Shoalwater Bay Indian Reservation. Repair work included dredging approximately 700,000 cubic yards of sand from a borrow site about 3,000 feet offshore, providing materials to rebuild the 12,500 foot-long protective berm up to 25 feet tall. In addition to mitigating flood risks and preserving Native American cultural lands, the project also improved habitat for the Pacific Coast western snowy plover, a small shorebird federally listed under the Endangered Species Act as threatened.