Editor’s note: This is the first in an occasional series talking about the reasons for growth in our community and the best ways for all of us to plan and prepare for future generations. We call the series “Growth 101.”

Driving through Whatcom County’s bucolic rural areas it is easy to get lost in the quiet beauty of the fields and farms. It is easy to look up from the road around you and see the mountains to the east, Mount Baker, the Twin Sisters, and the closer foothills of Stewart Mountain, Sumas Mountain and Van Zandt Dike.

It is hard, sometimes, to put that vision of nature together with what is happening with people on the ground.

More and more people are moving here, and people who live here continue to have children. That growth can be a threat to the natural beauty around us. How foolish would we be as citizens of this day and time, if we didn’t make sure the threat never becomes a reality.

But looking at our county’s population there is one more truth that should be self-evident. There are have been more people coming every year for more than 100 years. More will come in the next 100.

In 1800, there were few people in what we now call Whatcom County. Though there was no census in those days, it seems fair to say the population was in the low thousands. At that time, most of the county was covered in the thick, dense forests we now see only in the eastern part of the county.

In 1900, when the U.S. Census began counting people here, there were just more than 24,000 people living in Whatcom County. By 1950, there were nearly 67,000. In 2000, at the last U.S. Census count, there were nearly 167,000. This year, according to state of Washington figures, there are 191,000.

Soon the population of our little piece of natural heaven will surpass 200,000. And if the past continues to project the future, the time will come when there are 300,000, and 400,000, and more.

We state these numbers not to scare people, but to state what we feel is obvious, but that sometimes feels debatable in our community. There are those in Whatcom County who will tell you that they want to do whatever they can to stop population growth. But they cannot do so.

Instead, the intelligent answer is to find a middle ground in the conflict between the proximity to a pastoral lifestyle that we hold dear and the future with thousands more people. We must do what we can to protect the things we love while making room for the people who will join us, and our children and grandchildren, here in Whatcom County.

There are many reasons why our communities continue to grow.

First, we live in place with nearly unmatched natural beauty. How many counties in this nation can claim to be home to a 10,000 foot volcano surrounded by a national park and wilderness area that in some places are untouched by the hands of man? That beauty is what has drawn so many of us here. That allure continues to work its magic on people from all over the globe, especially those from cities on the West

Coast of the United States where trails and trees and farms and fields have been replaced by blacktop and shopping malls and lines of traffic miles long.

Second, we have thus far done little to spoil what we have. Whatcom County residents remain committed to the nature that drew us here. We see evidence of that commitment all of the time. We have county laws aimed at preserving agriculture and levies in which city residents tax themselves to pay for parks and trails and open space. The result of those efforts, though, are that more people love what we have created. We should be proud of the result, even if the increasing population makes us nervous for the future.

Third, state and federal law promote growth and mobility. Those who would argue for no growth in our community lack understanding of the state and nation in which we live. Our nation allows people free choice of where they live. They are free to move from city to city or state to state at any time. Our state goes one step further. Wanting to promote a healthy economy, Washington has passed a growth management law that encourages growth in all of our state’s communities and requires governments in those communities to plan to accommodate it.

There is, we believe, a misunderstanding of the growth management law that it somehow seeks to impede or stifle growth. But the provisions of that law do much to encourage more and new population and investment in all of our communities.

Given these realities, it is absolutely incumbent upon us as citizens to try to direct the population growth in ways that protect what we love about Whatcom County. When there are 200,000 people here, there still should be quiet country roads that run next to working farms and fields. When there are 300,000 people here, this generation will have passed. We must work to leave future generations untouched mountains without the scars of housing developments and multitudes of trails and open spaces and natural beauty left to love.

Next time in Growth 101: The choice between changing our current urban neighborhoods or changing our natural surroundings.