County Council helps Whatcom Land Trust save old-growth trees, help salmon. Here’s how
Whatcom County is helping the Whatcom Land Trust buy more than 1,000 acres of forest, including some old-growth trees, to provide public access, to preserve the land from commercial logging and to help restore habitat for spring Chinook salmon.
In a 5-1 vote Tuesday, June 1, the County Council agreed to spend $1.25 million from its Conservation Futures Fund to buy the 1,130-acre site from the timber company Weyerhaeuser.
Councilman Ben Elenbaas voted against the measure, and Councilwoman Kathy Kershner was absent.
Alex Jeffers, conservation manager for the Whatcom Land Trust, told the council in a committee hearing Tuesday that the remote site is above the east end of Saxon Road — past the Lummi Nation’s fish hatchery and several miles up a forest road.
“It’s just at the base of the Twin Sisters range,” he said.
Tyler Schroeder, deputy county executive, said the county’s Conservation Futures Fund — which is supported by a tax on real estate — helped fund Lily Point Park in Point Roberts and buy a site for a future park in Birch Bay.
“This is a really cool potential acquisition,” said Councilman Todd Donovan. “I’m really excited that this is going forward.”
Jeffers said the $3 million purchase is being funded with $1.96 million in grants, Whatcom Land Trust funds and private donations, including $875,000 from the state’s Washington Wildlife Recreation Program.
He said the property consists of forest and wetlands along nearly 2.5 miles on both sides of Skookum Creek, the major tributary for the Nooksack River’s south fork.
Whatcom Land Trust will own and manage the land, and Whatcom County will hold a conservation and public-access agreement.
An assessment of the site by The Nature Conservancy called the site “essential to salmonid species,” according to documents attached to the funding request.
“This purchase is one of the largest near-term conservation opportunities for the South Fork Nooksack and has outsized significance to the water quality, quantity and habitat benefits to all the living communities that rely on the South Fork Nooksack,” The Nature Conservancy said.
That’s critical to the Nooksack ecosystem, and salmon and orca recovery, according to the state Department of Ecology.
Chinook salmon are the preferred food of the Southern resident orca.
“Bringing fish back to the South Fork is vital to rehabilitating the watershed to what it may have been in the past, which will give fish and other species a greater chance to survive. Nooksack spring chinook are a critical population to the overall Puget Sound salmon recovery plan,” Ecology said.
This story was originally published June 2, 2021 at 12:25 PM.
