The Nisqually River (nuh-SKWAH-lee) is a river in west central Washington in the United States, approximately 81 mi (130 km) long. It drains part of the Cascade Range southwest of Tacoma, including the southern slope of Mount Rainier, into the southern end of Puget Sound.
It rises in southern Mount Rainier National Park, fed by the Nisqually Glacier on the southern side of Mt. Rainer. It flows west along the Pierce-Lewis county line, then northwest through the foothills, forming the boundary between Pierce and Thurston counties. It traverses the Nisqually Indian Reservation in its lower 10 mi (16 km) and enters Puget Sound approximately 15 mi (24 km) ENE of Olympia.
Time and again, the 1987 NisquallyRiver Management Plan approved by the state Legislature, and the dozens of past and present NisquallyRiver Council members who have breathed life into it since, were singled out as shining examples of how to make watershed planning work.
To many, the Nisqually watershed was, and is, a crown jewel, blessed with a national park at its headwaters and a national refuge 78 miles downstream where the river empties into Puget Sound.
Perhaps the images of the lower NisquallyRiver watershed and an imposing Mount Rainier in the background will come in handy in the years ahead when the refuge managers ask their boss for money to turn pasture into estuaries, too.
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