Whatcom County is adding 1,600 acres to the Stewart Mountain Community Forest, thanks to a $3 million state grant.
County Council members voted 4-3 on Aug. 6., acting as the Whatcom County Flood Control Zone District Board of Supervisors, to accept funding from the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office.
Council members Tyler Byrd, Ben Elenbaas and Mark Stremler voted against the plan for the second phase of planned forest expansion to 5,550 total acres.
“As noble as a cause it might be, we have much more pressing issues than maintaining logging roads and thinning forests and keeping culverts open,” Stremler said.
About 2,600 acres in total will be acquired for the full phase two, with another 2,500 acres remaining to buy for the third phase of the project, said Chris Elder, a watershed management planner in the Whatcom County Public Works Department’s Natural Resources Division.
Stewart Mountain Community Forest was formed in 2022 with 550 acres as part of a plan to protect the tract on the east slopes of Stewart Mountain above the South Fork Valley in the Nooksack River watershed.
Plans are to allow limited commercial logging and eventually unrestricted public access.
“I’m really excited about this. There are just so many interesting recreational opportunities up there on Stewart Mountain,” Councilman Jon Scanlon said.
Scanlon said the forest will improve the health of both Lake Whatcom on the west side of the mountain and the Nooksack River on the east side.
“The more we’re able to have a good healthy forest above those watersheds, the more likely we are to have clean, cold water — which is the best for people, the best for fish, the best for a lot of different purposes,” he said.
New way of thinking
A community forest is land that is owned and managed by several organizations or agencies, with the goal of restoring the environment and generating income — a win-win for both conservationists and timber interests, according to previous Bellingham Herald reporting.
Selective timber harvesting can solve an annual summer problem of warm weather and low water in the Nooksack, which kills the spring Chinook, forester Ian Smith said in a video linked at the Whatcom Land Trust website.
“The larger the scale that we can maintain a forest and grow forest out, forestry with longer rotations, the more water we can recover for in-stream flows in the summer,” Smith said.
It’s a new way of looking at forest management, Whatcom Land Trust Executive Director Gabe Epperson told The Bellingham Herald in 2022.
Who manages the land?
This second phase will be owned by Whatcom County and managed with partner agencies that include the Whatcom Land Trust, the Evergreen Land Trust and the Nooksack Indian Tribe. The U.S. Forest Service has been assisting, Elder said.
It will “promote long-term forest health and watershed resilience, support local jobs in the woods and produce high-quality wood products,” according to a memo describing the purchase.
Stewart Mountain is the forested peak that rises above the northern and eastern shore of Lake Whatcom and stretches to the south fork of the Nooksack River on the mountain’s eastern flank.
It consists of mostly second- and third-growth Douglas fir, western red cedar, alder and big-leaf maple, with several creeks that cut through steep canyons and feed the Nooksack River’s south fork. It’s home to a host of wild animals, from cougar and black bears to bobcats, elk and some rare bird species.
