Imagine: A Lake Whatcom Forest Preserve

Seth Cool lives in the York Neighborhood with his wife Marissa and their new daughter Isadora. He works at Conservation Northwest.

Whatcom County has proposed creating a huge new forest preserve, which would protect one-fifth of the Lake Whatcom watershed. These lands are currently managed by the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for commercial timber to generate revenue for beneficiaries. The exciting proposal would create an 8,400-acre preserve in two parcels, one on Stewart Mountain above the Hertz (Northshore) Trail and the other on Lookout Mountain above Sudden Valley.

The area is forested, extremely rugged and wet. According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, these forests are home to marbled murrelets, rare because they nest in old-growth forests. Other wildlife living in the proposed preserve are bald eagle, osprey, tailed frog and the Salish sucker (a small native fish). Common loons at one time nested in the area, though they have not been seen for several years.

I went out to hike around on some of these lands a few weeks back. The forest is beautiful, reminiscent of a more lush and rugged Blanchard Mountain. The area is mostly second-growth forest, but here and there are patches of old growth, which were never logged. I discovered several dramatic sandstone formations and a sheer waterfall. The creek beds are unlike anything I’ve seen in Washington. Streams cut deep- tumbled ravines and often expose dramatic sandstone steeps covered in lush moss.

The size of the proposed preserve is hard to comprehend and as I hiked I became all too aware that I would see just a small part of it. Eight thousand-plus acres is one-half the size of Bellingham at its city limits. The eight-mile loop I attempted to hike began at the lakeshore (300 ft. elevation) and if I had not been stopped by snow cover would have taken me to 3,000 feet, nearly to the summit of Stewart Mountain.

The ruggedness is one reason why logging and logging roads are inappropriate for this area. Nonetheless, DNR has two timber parcels up for sale right now — the 39-acre “White Chanterelle” above the Northshore Trail and the 51-acre “Look North” above Sudden Valley.

While these sales follow logging rules set by the state for the watershed, they still involve clearcutting and they add to the miles of logging roads, which have already caused problems in the watershed. Just these two sales could result in 2.5 miles of new logging road, and are examples of the type of management we can expect for this area if the forest preserve is not created.

Unstable soils are another reason why logging is not suitable for many areas in the watershed. Smith Creek blew out in the winter of 1983 during a rain-on-snow storm event, as have other creeks that flow into south Lake Whatcom.

The Smith Creek failure was huge. Snow had accumulated in the clearcuts on Stewart Mountain when a warm, wet front rolled in. The rain washed the snow down the mountain and brought logging debris with it. Logging roads turned to muddy streams and culverts clogged and failed. The debris jammed up the narrow ravines until the dams failed, sending the whole mess of rock, soil and logs down the creek and into lakes and homes below.

Today, the creek is still scoured to sandstone bedrock. Keeping forests standing in the watershed as firmly rooted anchors can only help prevent such future catastrophes on the unstable soils of the watershed.

The Lake Whatcom forest preserve proposal is made possible by a state law that allows counties to “reconvey” or transfer back to county management a type of DNR land called Forest Board land. These are tax-foreclosure lands from the early 1900s, which the state DNR manages on behalf of the counties. State law is strict in only allowing transfer for park purposes.

The state will not allow counties to manage these lands for commercial timber, because if done statewide it would circumvent DNR and reduce state general fund revenues.

If these lands are protected as preserve and no longer logged by DNR, Whatcom County will lose a fraction of revenues. Because revenues are distributed like property taxes, much of which go to the state general fund, the local loss is minor. DNR revenue projections indicate that about $185,000 in annual revenue would be lost locally. Moreover, the state-mandated distribution of logging revenues would not allow these funds to be used for protecting Lake Whatcom.

The county parks director envisions a forest preserve managed much like the lands around Pine and Cedar Lakes. He imagines low-impact day hiking and the occasional backpacker. As in the Chuckanut Mountain area, there would be no new access roads and most of the trails will be built along old logging grades. In a few areas an entirely new trail would be built to connect the old grades.

Whatcom County should be applauded for its efforts to create the forest preserve. A new preserve would provide biking, hiking and hike-in camping, excellent forms of recreation with minimal impact to the lake and the watershed.

It would protect nearby residents from landslides, which can be triggered by logging, and the preserve’s trees, uncut, would mature over time into old-growth forests like those that once graced our watershed. Most important, a new forest preserve in the Lake Whatcom watershed would protect the very forests that filter our drinking water. §