The Whatcom County Council voted to contribute $1.5 million toward the purchase of 550 acres of forestland, the first piece of the Stewart Mountain Community Forest Initiative.
The initiative, currently managed by the Whatcom Land Trust (WLT) and several partnering groups, including the Nooksack Indian Tribe and the Evergreen Land Trust, is a plan to convert 5,500 acres of forest around Stewart Mountain into a community forest.
The first purchase, a 550-acre mostly riparian zone along the South Fork of the Nooksack River, will cost a total of $2.345 million, with $1.5 million coming from the county and another $300,000 from the Evergreen Land Trust, according to council documents.
The goal, WLT’s conservation manager Alex Jeffers said, is to create a community forest that balances recreation, conservation and commercial use.
“We have all of this forest land in our county, but when we manage it in these really segmented ways, there’s a lot of lost opportunity,” Jeffers said. “We believe that we can manage our forests in ways that sort of bring [commercial and conservation] priorities together.”
Jeffers said the priorities include supporting the local forest industry while also ensuring future Nooksack River and forest health.
“There are ways that we can manage this space that promote the health of the forest, and contributes to cooler, cleaner water in the tributaries and the South Fork but also allows for active management, commercial thinning and selective harvests,” he said. “Being able to maintain these industry jobs in the woods and our forest economy that supports a lot of our residents here is important as well.”
The Nooksack River is rife with ongoing health concerns, particularly related to water temperature. Water temperatures in the river continue to test higher than healthy for fish populations. Mature trees, though, provide shade for the river, and in turn, cool river waters in the South Fork, according to a 2018 report from the state Department of Ecology.
Despite the focus on commercial harvest, county council member Ben Elenbaas had concerns a community forest may hinder future commercial use in the region.
“I’d oppose it if it was [agriculture] land and I can’t see supporting it as timberland,” Elenbaas said during the meeting. “I understand we say we’re going to harvest it … but in these community forests we’ve got in other areas of the state, I’m hearing that they’re not really being managed for much timber harvest.”
The WLT has been in discussion with the current property owners, the New Hampshire-based Stewart Mountain Forest LLC, for several years. The Nooksack Indian Tribe has also been vital in conducting research related to the property, the river and forest management practices.
“The Nooksack Indian Tribe has really taken a lead on producing a lot of research on forest practices and how forest management impacts watershed health, particularly how it impacts the South Fork of the Nooksack River,” Jeffers said. “The research and planning they’ve been doing has been an impetus for this community forest idea.”
This purchase marks the first of many toward developing the community forest, which will require several years to finalize.
Because the WLT intends to purchase another 4,950 acres for the community forest, there are still a lot of questions about who will manage the entire property, how long it will take to acquire and how people will access the space in the meantime. The 550-acre property has no public access points or roads at this point, and likely won’t until future land purchases are made.
“With the larger 5,500 community forest, there will be a lot of opportunities for connecting that to recreation planning elsewhere, but this first 550 is sort of tucked in along the river, not adjacent to any public road, so there’s not a plan for public access to this 550,” Jeffers said. “This purchase is sort of getting the property together to be able to start pulling the management and conservation benefits and forest health work, getting all that rolling, and then future purchases will secure that public access.”
At this point, acquisition of the remaining 4,950 acres is still “at least a couple years down the road,” Jeffers said.
The vote for the funding passed 5-2, with council members Elenbaas and Tyler Byrd opposed.
