This story map presents historical and contemporary distributions of kelp forests along the Strait of Juan de Fuca in Washington State. Kelp forests are critical to biodiversity because they create unique habitat for many species. Kelp forests are sensitive to many factors, such as climate, animal grazers and pollution. The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) manages and monitors kelp forests as part of its stewardship responsibilities. Recently, DNR scientists teamed up with scientists from the University of Chicago and Marine Agronomics to study DNR’s long-term monitoring data along the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Outer Coast. This study compared contemporary kelp distribution from the ongoing monitoring with historical kelp distribution from maps summarizing field surveys from 1911-1912.This story map allows you to explore the historical and modern maps that we compared in order to assess changes in kelp abundance over the last century.