News - Local News

POSTED: Sunday, Jan. 04, 2009

Nature Conservancy buys Lily Point land for reserve

POINT ROBERTS - The Nature Conservancy has bought 146 acres, including tidelands, at Lily Point and will turn over the land to Whatcom County as part of the new Lily Point Marine Reserve.

The conservancy purchased the property from Welsh Developments Inc. for $2.5 million in a deal that closed Dec. 29.

The sale is the latest effort to protect a piece of land that is seen as ecologically vital - not only for Whatcom County but the entire region.

In April, Welsh sold 90 acres of undeveloped shoreline and 40 acres of tidelands for $3.5 million to the Whatcom Land Trust, which then deeded the land to Whatcom County to form the reserve.

The Nature Conservancy acquisition includes 4,200 feet of natural shoreline and 94 acres of tidelands.

"With the great work of The Nature Conservancy, the protection of Lily Point is now complete," said Rand Jack, who is on the board of the Whatcom Land Trust. "It's got the richest marine life in Puget Sound I've ever seen. You go out there in low tide and it's spectacular."

The land the conservancy bought is north of the acres acquired by the Whatcom Land Trust. The entire acreage will be used for conservation and public recreation, with the Whatcom County Parks and Recreation Department overseeing the entire Lily Point Marine Reserve.

Mike McFarlane, director of the county department, said trails will eventually tie together the southern and northern sections of the reserve.

PROTECTING LILY POINT

Located in the southeast corner of Point Roberts, Lily Point boasts stunning views of Boundary Bay and the Strait of Georgia with a backdrop of a 200-foot sandy cliff and mature forest of big-leaf maple, Douglas fir and red alder trees.

Protecting Lily Point will protect wildlife and the web of marine ecology of Puget Sound, according to Whatcom Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy. That includes sea stars and seaweed, Pacific herring, chinook salmon and orcas, as well as birds such as bald eagles, great blue heron and marbled murrelet.

Lily Point's shallow tide flats support more than 5 million migratory shorebirds and waterfowl annually, according to The Nature Conservancy.

It also has a rich cultural heritage.

Native Coast Salish people, including the Lummis, gathered hundreds of years ago at Lily Point to catch salmon and to pay homage to the fish that sustained them. They were followed in the late 1800s by non-native fisheries, most notably the Alaska Packers Association cannery from 1884 to 1917.

Cannery remnants remain and plans call for removing them and pilings, said Melisa Holman, the conservancy's Marine Conservation project manager.

At some point, an interpretive kiosk and interpretive trails along the shoreline and upper bluff will highlight Lily Point's ecological, cultural and historic significance, including that of the Alaska Packers Association cannery.

"We recognize the cultural and historic significance of this site and the connection that community members may have to cannery relics," Holman said.

The next step is for Whatcom County to buy the land from The Nature Conservancy. The county has applied for two grants - each totaling $1 million - from two state agencies.

A $1 million grant from a U.S. Fish and Wildlife program to protect coastal wetlands supported The Nature Conservancy's acquisition. The conservancy is continuing to look for more grant funding so it can sell the acres at a discounted price to the county, said spokeswoman Robin Stanton.

Whatever grant dollars the conservancy gets will be subtracted from the sale price.

McFarlane said grants will pay for the county's purchase of the 146 acres during the second phase of the Lily Point project.

Money for the first part came from a combination of state grants, private donations, federal dollars and the Whatcom County conservation futures fund.

The county expects to hear in April or May whether it received the funding for the second part of the Lily Point project.

"This is a very important step in the right direction," McFarlane said, "but it's just going to take some time."

Reach Kie Relyea at kie.relyea@bellinghamherald.com or 715-2234.