Conservation Northwest

Celebrating a Lake Whatcom watershed park Circles show approximate areas of the new park. Photo © Tore Oftness two bills directing the DNR to reform operations. Years of further work produced the 2004 Lake Whatcom Landscape Plan, regulating road-building and logging in the watershed to standards higher than anywhere else in the state to protect public safety and water quality. But while the landscape plan for the lake didn't entirely settle those concerns, awareness grew of the extraordinary value of these two mountains for recreation. In 2007, Dan McShane, a county councilmember, and Pete Kremen, county executive, rolled out a strong vision of how the county could use a little-known law to return these acres to local control for recreation. What followed was countless advisory committees, public meetings, preliminary steps, lawsuits, and other drama. But it is this vision that led to the epic decision to create the park. Meeting community values At this point you might be wondering how a county can assume ownership of state land. The answer is that these acres used to belong to the county, having been acquired through tax defaults a century ago when people either couldn't afford to pay excise taxes or simply skipped town after stripping the timber. Washington counties found themselves in possession of over a million acres of defaulted, denuded timberlands without the wherewithal to manage them. So the legislature shifted ownership to the state, directing DNR to manage the lands in trust for the respective counties. This isn't the first time a county has taken back, or reconveyed, some of this type of state trust land. But every previous example was paltry compared to this deal. (Note this is altogether different from school trust lands, such as those we protected on the Loomis State Forest, which were granted by Congress at the time of statehood.) Conservation Northwest does not oppose logging in the foothills. Real sustainability involves communities sourcing their building material locally, to reduce carbon use and sustain rural economies and viable timber markets. Front-country forests should not be limited to just two choices: parklands one way and residential sprawl the other. But here, superlative ecological and recreational values combined with hazardous geology and watershed risk, made Lake Whatcom's forests much more valuable as a park than forest for industrial logging. That argument was powerfully made by a coalition of interests including the neighborhoods below slide-prone slopes, Bellingham City Keeping the Northwest wild Council with its concern for our drinking water, university scientists with expertise in slide risks, conservation groups like us, and the ranks of avid hikers, trail runners, mountain bikers, and backcountry horsemen. I spent the first pleasant weekend of the spring season hiking with friends on both mountains, admiring the expanse of lush forest and occasional open, territorial views that are the silver lining of clearcuts. One major logging road that we walked was slumping in surprisingly places, evidence of the unstable geology that drove so much concern. The deciding factor for the park was a letter to the county from local businessman Rud Browne, co-signed by more than 100 local business owners. They expressed sympathy for timber jobs lost, but explained the role of geography in drawing tourists for vacations and events like the annual Ski to Sea Race and in providing businesses a leg up in competing for top talent. Many people strongly consider community values like access to outdoor recreation when weighing job offers. The new Lake Whatcom Forest Preserve Park will help solidify Bellingham's brand as an extraordinary place to live. The Whatcom County Parks Department plans to tear out old logging roads and construct up to 55 miles of quality trail, linking up with the broader trail network that includes gems in the western Chuckanuts and the Pacific Northwest Trail. Already one can take public transit from downtown Bellingham to hike or bike on these stunning lands. Some day you will be able to start a hike at a coastal trailhead, perhaps after breakfast at the Chuckanut Manor, and end it three or four days later in the South Fork Nooksack valley, having camped on ridges with world-class, 360-degree views. Celebrating success This was a hard won success. The reconveyance was opposed at every step by timber interests and in the home stretch by a conspiracy-ranting Far Right. At times the outcome seemed in doubt. In the final public hearing, before council members Continued next page Joggers atop the new park. © Daniel Probst The benefits for wildlife, recreation, and the local economy are sure to be extraordinary. Spring-Summer 2013 5

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