Qualla: Leque Island

Leque Island: Introduction

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Dig a hole on Leque Island and you will hit water within a foot. The entire island sits barely above the Stillaguamish River's flow, a flat, marshy expanse of grass and ditches formed where the old river channel splits at Leque's Point -- the South Pass emptying into Port Susan, the West Pass draining into the southern end of Skagit Bay. It is the kind of place that looks like nothing from a car crossing the bridge between Camano Island and Stanwood, a green smear beneath the guardrails. But Leque Island's ecological significance far outweighs its modest appearance, and its human history carries more weight than its soggy ground would suggest.

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Leque Island: Split-Lip Jim's Enterprise

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Indigenous peoples occupied the land around Leque Island for thousands of years before European settlers arrived. The surrounding waters provided abundant fish and marine resources, and the island served as a portage point for travel to the Olympic Peninsula. Early written accoun...

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Leque Island: Dikes, Ditches, and Disappearing Ground

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Farming Leque Island required fighting the water that defined it. Dikes were built around the perimeter to hold back tidal surges and river flooding, and man-made drainage ditches channeled the groundwater that seeped up through the saturated soil. For decades the system worked w...

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Leque Island: Two Populations of Chinook

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A study by the Stillaguamish Tribe's Natural Resources Department, funded through Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery grants, established something remarkable about the waters around Leque Island: the Port Susan area hosts two genetically distinct populations of Chinook salmon. Juven...

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Leque Island: Between the Hunters and the Herons

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Today Leque Island operates as a Wildlife Recreation Area managed by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Birdwatchers come for the shorebirds, raptors, and waterfowl that use the delta as a feeding and resting ground. Photographers stake out positions along the dike t...

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