This magical forest is known by several names. Here’s what Bellingham wants to call it
Bellingham residents overwhelmingly want a new forested park on the city’s south side to be called the Hundred Acre Wood, according to a pair of surveys conducted at the Engage Bellingham website.
A report from a survey on the Chuckanut Community Forest Master Plan in September 2021 showed that 63% of people favored the name Hundred Acre Wood for the area that extends south from Fairhaven Park, between Chuckanut Drive and the Interurban Trail.
A second survey from April 2022 — which narrowed the choices — showed that 95% favor the name Hundred Acre Wood, an affectionate term that’s well-known to fans of children’s literature as the home of Winnie the Pooh.
“Hundred Acre Wood(s) is unique. I grew up biking in there, and my 5-year-old and I now bike there,” said one respondent.
“OK, so it’s a bit short of 100 (acres). But that is the name we the people have used, and championed in (its) protection. Please keep that name,” said another survey respondent.
Survey respondents’ names are removed from reports at Engage Bellingham.
Chuckanut Community Forest, an 82-acre tract, had been slated for housing construction, but voters in 2013 created a special taxing district to repay the city of Bellingham for an $8.2 million purchase of the land that prevented the development of the site, which was also known as Chuckanut Ridge.
Its south end links to Arroyo Park and the extensive city, county and state trail system through the Chuckanut mountains.
Hundred Acre Wood has been a south-side neighborhood hiking and biking spot for decades, with well-worn homemade trails.
Recent purchases have increased its size to just over 100 acres, so the term that Bellingham residents have called it for years is even more appropriate, said Nicole Oliver, director of the Bellingham, Department of Parks and Recreation.
As it is being developed with shared hiking and biking trails, Parks Department officials build boardwalks or reroute trails that cross wetlands, add gravel to some trails, close some trails and add trash cans, dog poop stations and directional signs, Oliver told The Bellingham Herald.
But all that depends on City Council approval later this summer — including the name, Oliver said.
“The City Council is the ultimate namer of everything,” Oliver said. “It’s up to them.”
This story was originally published June 15, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
