a special town meeting. In 1947, due in large part by intense lobbying by Thurston County legislators, the state legislature approved funding for the construction of the dam in order to create Capitol Lake. A shantytown known as "Little Hollywood" developed along the shores of the Deschutes River, at the foot of the Capitol Campus. The people living in the shanties dumped raw human waste and trash directly into the Deschutes River. This became an eyesore (July 7, 1948, The Daily Olympian) and probably a health hazard. Damming the Deschutes River destroyed the estuary, but also prevented the urban blight of the shantytown from recurring. Capitol Lake was finally created in 1951 when the dam was completed consistent with the Wilder and White plan. This allowed for the retention of the outflow from the Deschutes River to cover the tide flats. In the 1990s and 2000s, the North Capitol Campus Heritage Park was created with the Arc of Statehood from the Western Washington Inlet to the Eastern Washington Butte along the eastern edge of Capitol Lake and the North Campus trail and Law Enforcement Memorial with views across Capitol Lake to the borrowed landscapes of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. The February 2001 Nisqually earthquake did considerable damage to the 4th Avenue Bridge just north of the lake, as well as to the Deschutes Parkway on the west side of the lake. Capital Lakefair, centered on the lake, is held annually in July. The trail around the lake is 1.5 miles long. Recommendation for Estuary Restoration In 2009, after 12 years of intensive and independently verified scientific study, members of the Capitol Lake Aspect Insight Management reached a consensus regarding the Department of Natural Resource's efforts to remove the 5th Ave. dam and restore Deschutes Estuary. The DNR put out a report, and on page 6, issued this recommendation, stating: "The Department of Fish and Wildlife, Department of Ecology, Department of Natural Resources, Squaxin Island Tribe, and a majority of the Thurston County Commissioners are forwarding their recommendation to return the Capitol Lake Basin to an estuary." In response, CLAIM argued that the invasive species New Zealand Mud Snail (Potamopyrgus antipodarum) found within the lake are at such high quantities, that their potential to cause "unpredictable environmental degradation" suggests that their release into the Southern region of the Puget Sound should be avoided at all costs. Biologist Howard Durrael,