Birch Bay County Park

Located on Birch Bay, Birch Bay State Park has camping and both saltwater and freshwater shorelines. It's a great place for crabbing and clamming (recreational license required for anyone over the age of 15). North of the park on Birch Bay, there are also opportunities for swimming, boating, bird watching, biking, and enjoying sand activities such as kite flying and building sand castles! For those who do want to swim, the water is best at the central part of the bay. It's much rockier in the south end by the state park. The park is open all year for camping and for those just looking for a day trip destination.

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COVID-19

Keep your distance from other people.

Practicing social distancing is still essential. Only go to the beach if you are able to keep 6 feet or 2 meters away from others. Follow the instructions provided by your local health authorities. If your community has asked that you remain indoors and away from others, do so. Spending a day in any crowded place is the worst thing we can do for our most vulnerable right now and will counter our efforts to curb the virus’s spread.

Water Quality

Met water quality standards less than 60% of the time
Historical Status
This status is based on the latest sample, taken on September 9th, 2022. Puget Soundkeeper Alliance updates the status of this beach as soon as test results become available. These results were posted to Swim Guide on September 9th, 2022 at 8:50 PM.

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Monitoring Frequency

Source Information

The Washington Department of Ecology BEACH program tests water quality at salt water swimming beaches every week from Memorial Day to Labor Day for enterococcus bacteria. During the sampling period, Puget Soundkeeper regularly updates the Swim Guide to reflect the most current information. The saltwater swimming criteria are in two parts:

The geometric mean* should not exceed 30 enterococci/100 mL, based on results from a minimum of five weekly samples and a maximum of 12 weekly samples. The statistical threshold value* should not exceed 110 enterococci/100 mL, based on results from a minimum of five weekly samples and a maximum of 12 weekly samples. If either of these criteria is exceeded, a beach advisory should be issued at the beach.

To protect swimmers' health, BEACH also uses a Beach Action Value. If enterococcus levels exceed 104 enterococci/100 mL, a beach advisory is issued.

A beach is marked green if it meets all of the above criteria.
A beach is marked red if it exceeds any one of the above criteria.
A beach is marked grey if no current data is available.

Sample results are also shared on the Department of Ecology BEACH program website: https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/coastalatlas/Tools/BeachClosure.aspx

More information about sampling protocols is available here: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/eap/beach/program.html

* The geometric mean and statistical threshold value concentrations are based on the arithmetic average of the three samples collected at a single beach for the day

Water Quality Graph