Bellingham buying nearly 100 acres to preserve land around Lake Whatcom
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- Bellingham added nearly 100 acres to protected areas near Lake Whatcom since March.
- City Council approved four land buys to safeguard water quality and limit development.
- New Forest Management Plan will guide use and conservation of 13,000 watershed acres.
Bellingham has added nearly 100 acres of land to protected areas around Lake Whatcom over the past two months, including 48 acres that the City Council agreed to buy last week.
Another 46 acres of land were purchased in March and April, Stefanie Cilinceon of the Public Works Department told The Bellingham Herald in an email.
It’s part of the city’s Lake Whatcom Land Acquisition and Preservation Program, which has preserved 3,680 acres since 2001 through a surcharge on residential utility bills. Lake Whatcom is the drinking water source for about 100,000 people in Bellingham and surrounding areas.
Two of the locations are in the foothills south of Lake Whatcom and two are in the hills above the lake’s north shore. All four purchases that received unanimous approval from the City Council include:
▪ The sale of 37.55 acres at 715 Iowa Heights Drive above the south end of Lake Whatcom, owned by Faunt Visser, was approved Monday, May 19, for $860,000. The deal removes seven development units. The site has pasture and forest with a pond and stream, Cilinceon said.
“The property contains the headwaters of an unnamed stream that flows into Lake Whatcom, including a pond and other environmentally sensitive areas,” she said.
▪ Also Monday, the council approved a deal with Gary and Shirley Patterson for 7.45 acres in the 3000 block of Y Road for $240,000. It removes a single development unit from the watershed. The site is an undeveloped forest with a stream.
“Carpenter Creek bisects the densely forested property, which features sensitive slopes leading down to the creek,” Cilinceon said.
▪ At their April 14 meeting, the City Council approved the purchase of a 42.37-acre site for $635,500 from Jeffry and Rebecca Curtis and Douglas and Marilyn Curtis. The property is at the headwaters of an unnamed creek that drains into Agate Creek and then Lake Whatcom.
“This largely forested site includes a significant wetland area in its southwest corner. Historical aerial imagery confirms that the property has remained forested since at least 1943,” Cilinceon said.
▪ On March 24, the City Council approved the purchase of a 3.3-acre parcel in the 800 block of Iowa Heights Drive, next to two parcels that the city bought in 2024, from Arlene S. Barboza for $162,000. The purchase removes one potential development unit from the watershed, Cilinceon said.
“The property has been undeveloped since the 1910s and forested since the 1950s. The site is covered in alders, maples, Douglas firs, and cedar trees with a native undergrowth consisting of sword ferns. There is a creek that crosses on the east side of the property,” she said.
Both Bellingham and Whatcom County are working together with private ecological forestry consultants to create a Lake Whatcom Forest Management Plan, Cilinceon said.
The goal of the plan is to “protect water quality, improve forest health, and support responsible recreational access (where applicable) in the watershed,” Cilinceon said.
“The plan will help guide forest management across more than 13,000 acres of forests that the city and county collectively manage in the watershed, including the forested properties acquired through our Lake Whatcom Land Acquisition and Preservation Program. We will be developing this plan over the next few months and welcome community input online on our Engage Bellingham page or at an educational forest tour this summer. More information is available on Engage Bellingham,” Cilinceon said.
This story was originally published May 28, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
