Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge
Near Olympia, Washington
The Nisqually River delta sprawling to your west was nearly destroyed in the nineteen sixties, when planners announced a deepwater superport here. The Nisqually Indian Tribe, state wildlife officials, and a coalition of environmentalists fought back and won, convincing the federal government to create the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge in nineteen seventy-four. The initial purchase was funded through the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission to protect migrating birds and spawning salmon from industrial encroachment.
In twenty fifteen, Congress renamed it for Billy Frank Junior, a Nisqually tribal leader who was first arrested at age fourteen for fishing in violation of state law. He was arrested over fifty times in the decades-long fight for treaty fishing rights, which culminated in the landmark Boldt Decision of nineteen seventy-four. Frank spent the rest of his life restoring this watershed.
