POINT ROBERTS — Whatcom Land Trust has purchased Lily Point for $3.5 million and set it aside as Whatcom County’s newest reserve — protecting what supporters call an ecological and cultural jewel from future development.
The trust bought 90 acres of undeveloped shoreline and 40 acres of tidelands from Welsh Developments Inc. in a deal that closed Wednesday, then deeded the land to Whatcom County as the new Lily Point Marine Reserve.
The county now has parks on each of the four corners of Point Roberts. The public will continue to have access to Lily Point via trails. The land trust will retain a conservation easement.
“It’s astounding that we were able to get the property. I think in a few years it would have been gone,” said Rand Jack, a Whatcom Land Trust board member who negotiated the deal. “It’s a beautiful project to look at.”
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.
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 nonnative fisheries, most notably the Alaska Packers Association cannery from 1884 to 1917.
Jack first saw Lily Point 15 to 20 years ago.
“I didn’t understand how important ecologically it was at that time,” he said.
Protecting Lily Point will protect wildlife and the web of marine ecology of Puget Sound, according to the land trust and other project backers. That includes sea stars and seaweed, Pacific herring, chinook salmon and orcas, and birds such as bald eagles, great blue heron and marbled murrelet.
“It’s probably one of the very few remaining properties in all of Puget Sound that possesses so many largely undisturbed environmental qualities,” said Richard Grout, manager of the Bellingham field office of the state Department of Ecology.
The department provided $550,000 for the property, which was appraised at nearly $4.4 million, according to the land trust.
“We thought it was an exceptional opportunity to help them acquire an exceptional piece of property. That kind of thing in Puget Sound is almost gone,” Grout said. “This is a jewel.”
‘IT’S A MILESTONE’
Point Roberts is 55 miles north of Bellingham, 23 of them through British Columbia. A round trip requires four border crossings, as the lobe of land dangling from Canada south into the U.S. was separated from the mainland by the 1846 Treaty of Washington. It is home to Canadians and Americans, although just 1,467 people live there yearround.
That isolation may have kept Lily Point from being built on. After Welsh Developments acquired the property, the county approved a permit that would have allowed condominiums, houses, a golf course and a resort, but the permit expired in 2003, according to the land trust.
Welsh Developments representatives could not be reached for comment.
Whatcom County officials are among the project’s backers, having contributed $600,000 of county funds.
“This is a very important acquisition for our natural heritage and parks plans. It’s so rich in natural resources as well as historical and cultural aspects,” County Executive Pete Kremen said. “Lily Point is one of the most beautiful spots in the area.”
Jack said Lily Point’s beauty, and relevance, created a great deal of interest from residents on both sides of the border and from numerous agencies, including the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. The agency administers
the Estuary and Salmon Restoration Program, which awarded a $1.75 million grant for the acquisition of Lily Point. That represented 20 percent of the available funds in a pot of money sought by 72 other applicants. Earning such a large grant was crucial.
“That was a turning point. Once we got that, we could get people to pay attention to us,” said Jack, adding it was unlikely the nonprofit land trust would have been able to buy the property without the grant.
Whatcom Land Trust has worked for more than two decades to protect land against development and protect wildlife and marine habitats. By the end of December, members had conserved more than 7,698 acres and helped to create nine county parks. Some of its bigger, and best-known, projects include the creation of Canyon Lake Community Forest, Stimpson Family Nature Reserve and Clark’s Point.
Jack said buying Lily Point was among the trust’s three top projects.
“Certainly, in terms of the history of the land trust, it’s a milestone,” he said.
Land trust members aren’t the only ones excited by the acquisition. A group of Canadian residents with second homes in Point Roberts worked to raise between $5,000 and $10,000 for the project.
“We all use Lily Point. We all walk Lily Point. We’re also people who like birds,” said Samantha Scholefield, a Vancouver, B.C., resident who has a cabin in Point Roberts that she uses each weekend.
“This is really an exciting step that we’re now going to have a park at Lily Point,” Scholefield said. “We’re so lucky to have all that work that (Whatcom Land Trust) has done for us.”