About 1,800 acres of shellfish beds in Port Susan will be reopened to tribal harvest as of April 2, after years of work by the Stillaguamish Tribe.

"This is a great accomplishment," said Shawn Yanity, fisheries manager for the Stillaguamish Tribe. "Last year, we had a First Salmon Ceremony for the first time in more than 20 years. The opening of Port Susan gives us another opportunity that we haven't had for ages--to provide traditional food for our ceremonies."

Port Susan is a protected bay where the Stillaguamish River meets Puget Sound. Threats to its water quality include a dozen dairy operations, three wastewater treatment facilities and the densely developed residential community of Warm Beach.

The state Department of Health closed the area to shellfish harvest because of fecal pollution in 1987, and for years, nothing was done to clean it up.

The Stillaguamish Tribe has limited opportunities to harvest shellfish, so the natural resources department made it a priority to reopen the beds in Port Susan. In 1998, the tribe started sampling the water to determine and address sources of fecal coliform contamination, with the help of the Snohomish County Surface Water Division, Stillaguamish Diking District and the Snohomish County Conservation District.

"The Warm Beach community was really helpful in giving us access to dairies and the places they kept horses," said Don Klopfer, biologist for the tribe. "When our tests showed that some of the contamination came from horses, they moved their horses away from water sources."

The tribe shared its data with the Snohomish County Health District, which investigated and corrected problems such as leaky septic systems and illegal sewer hookups.

In 2002, the state Department of Health got involved, processing the tribe's water samples at its lab. The department completed a sanitary survey report last week, finding that the most recent water samples passed the shellfish water quality standard.

Nearly all of the shellfish beds to be reopened in April are owned by the Nature Conservancy, which manages the tidelands as the Port Susan Preserve.

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