Story Photos
 Willapa National Wildlife Refuge project leader Charlie Stenvall walks near Willapa Bay last spring. Roger Werth / The Daily News
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Nature Conservancy acquires 320 acres near Willapa Bay
Friday, September 12, 2008 10:08 PM PDT
By The Daily News
Printable version
E-mail this articleThe Nature Conservancy announced Friday it has acquired 320 acres of forest at the south shore of Willapa Bay, a purchase it says will significantly benefit marbled murrelets, a threatened seabird.
In completing the acquisition, the Conservancy salvaged part of a land deal that nearly unraveled last spring.
The new acreage is part of the Bear River Tree Farm and is covered with trees in the 25- to 65-year-old range. It includes many streams and tributaries that flow into the bay.
The parcel so provides habitat for rare fungi, lichen and mollusks, as well as many native amphibians such as the tailed frog and Pacific giant salamander.
In a Friday press release, the Conservancy said it will work to restore the area forest to conditions that will enable the marbled murrelet to thrive. The shorebird nests on the limbs of giant old-growth trees, so the effort will take decades.
The Bear River area is adjacent to the Conservancy’s 8,000-acre Ellsworth Creek Preserve on Willapa Bay. Together with forests already part of the federally owned Willapa National Wildlife Refuge, some 15,000 acres of forested habitat is protected in the area.
The Conservancy wanted to buy the entire Bear River Tree Farm, about 500 acres, but was unable to come to an agreement on price with the two couples -- Fred and Linda Pickering and Dave and Valerie Larwick.
The partners separated the properties, and the Conservancy reached an agreement with the Larwick family for 320 acres. The deal closed Wednesday, said Robin Stanton of the Conservancy. Neither side is revealing the purchase price, and the deal had not yet been recorded with Pacific County.
Funding for the purchase came from a federal grant to protect habitat for endangered species, according to the Conservancy.
In 2004, the Pickerings sold 442 acres of the Bear River Tree farm to the refuge for $800,000.
The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people.
Related article:
Willapa Bay refuge proposal in peril (May 8)
country gal wrote on Sep 12, 2008 1:46 PM:
cheney119 wrote on Sep 12, 2008 6:07 PM:
Atrucker wrote on Sep 12, 2008 8:51 PM:
The land may be in part in Pacific county
And if your trying to save the land why in the h!@# would you log it ?
Most of Wahkiakum County is logged over that is the problem. Does Nature Conservancy mean any thing to you country gal ? It means to leave STUFF ALONE . "
Aconserve wrote on Sep 13, 2008 12:57 PM:
cheney119 wrote on Sep 13, 2008 4:31 PM:
The birds that lay eggs on the beach is the Golden Plover, but as a conservative you think your entitled to you own opinions and I guess your own facts. "
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