Summer 2010 Newsletter.Pub

CAPITOL LAND TRUST NEWS Furthering collaborative and strategic conservation of southwest Washington’s essential natural areas and working lands. IIISSUE 494949 SSSUMMER 2010 Eric Erler Eld Inlet Acquisition Conserves 1.25 miles of Puget Sound Coastal Habitat By Eric Erler More than a decade ago, Capitol Land Trust owned this property for many years and we can identified lower Eld Inlet’s coastal habitats as a attest to its unique and special character. Capitol strategic conservation priority. Now, ten years of Land Trust will be a great steward of this property investment have culminated in the conservation of going forward. From our perspective, this was a six miles of Eld Inlet marine shorelines and more win-win for all of us," said Rick Middleton. than 600 acres of surrounding upland habitat, spanning 17 individual sites. The site is located along the eastern shoreline of lower Eld Inlet (Mud Bay), just south of Capitol Completion of the Eld Inlet Coastal Preserve Land Trust’s Randall Property and the Highway 101 project, the Trust's latest Eld Inlet success, is the Bridge. The property encompasses 1.25 miles of result of extraordinary collaboration and an high-quality, undeveloped Puget Sound estuarine agreement between Anderson & Middleton shoreline, 40 acres of saltmarsh and freshwater Company and Capitol Land Trust, with support from wetlands, and 15 acres of mature forest. McLane many other partners. Anderson & Middleton is a Creek, recognized for its hearty, native salmon family-owned agri-business company involved in runs, flows through the property and into Puget forestland management, table grapes, wine grapes Sound. The vegetation on the Preserve consists of and wine production. Anderson & Middleton was continued on page 2 founded in Aberdeen, WA in 1898 and today is headquartered in Hoquiam, WA. Capitol Land Trust Hood Canal Paradise Protected 3 began working with cousins Jim and Rick Middleton Kayak Hood Canal 5 more than three years ago to explore the potential Capitol Land Trust Welcomes Jamie Morgan 6 for purchase of the site. Rick Middleton and his Remembering Pete Holm 6 family live on Eld Inlet and the Middletons were Thank you Supporters 7 personally invested in the outcome of this effort. Close Encounters of the Wild(life) Kind 9 Volunteers Clean-up Green Cove Preserve 10 "It was a pleasure to work with Eric Erler and Capitol Land Trust on this project. Our company Found Treasures 11 Inside thisInside issue: this issue: Inside thisInside issue: this issue: Habitat Restoration Work Parties & Events 11 PAGE 2 CAPITOL LAND TRUST NEWS Eld Inlet Acquisition continued from page 1 saltmarsh and wetland emergent grasses near the shoreline, and native coniferous and hardwood forests. The property also conserves an area of great cultural and historical importance to the Squaxin Island Tribe. The new Preserve provides intact habitat for five salmon species and anadromous coastal cutthroat trout. Large numbers of juvenile salmon smolts produced in McLane Creek use the waters along the property for feeding and transitioning to life at sea. Forage fish species and numerous 209 Fourth Ave E. #205 waterfowl, shorebird, waterbird and landbird species also take advantage of Olympia, WA 98501 (360) 943-3012 the property’s unique coastal habitat. [email protected] www.capitollandtrust.org The site also contains a rare mineral salt deposit which is an important source of nutrients for the Band-tailed pigeon, a Bird of Conservation G Concern as identified by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Approximately 350 Membership & Outreach Band-tailed pigeons visit the property in early morning every day from late Coordinator June to September. There are fewer than 100 documented mineral sites in Kathleen Ackley Oregon and Washington frequented by these pigeons. Executive Director Capitol Land Trust wishes to thank all of the project partners, especially the Eric Erler former landowners, Anderson & Middleton Company, for their support and commitment to seeing the project to completion. Generous funding support Stewardship Coordinator and project oversight was provided by the WA Department of Ecology and Cailtin Guthrie the US Fish and Wildlife Service through the National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program, and the WA Recreation and Conservation Office Conservation through a Salmon Recovery Funding Board grant. According to Jeanne Projects Manager Koenings of the Department of Ecology, “Protecting the shorelines of Kathryn Moore Washington State, particularly Puget Sound, is a job that the Department of Ecology and local Office Manager governments can’t do Jamie Morgan on our own. Partnering Eld Inlet Coastal Preserve with groups like Capitol Conservation Land Trust is crucial to Projects Manager our success. Thanks to Laurence Reeves the high quality projects Capitol Land Trust works on, Wash- G Board of Directors ington State has been Pene Speaks (President) able to secure more Cathy Wiggins (V.P.) funding from the US Bill Scheidt (Treasurer) Fish & Wildlife Service Mary Ann Firmin (Secretary) and NOAA than most Bonnie Bunning other coastal states.” Diane Cooper Steve Hyer Finally, completion of John Konovsky the Eld Inlet Coastal J. Paul Malmberg Tom Terry Preserve project would Michael Welter not have been possible Chris Wickham without generous private contributions G from Taylor Shellfish Legal Counsel Farms, the Squaxin Mark Peternell Island Tribe, Margery Sayre and other Capitol Land Trust members G Newsletter Editor and supporters. Lisa Johnson Eric Erler is Capitol Land Trust’s Executive Director. Masthead photograph courtesy of Thi Dang Kathryn Moore ISSUE 49 PAGE 3 WA Dept. of Ecology Dept. WA Hood Canal Paradise Protected By Robert Carson In December of 2009, the Carson family donated a conservation easement over 47 acres of their property overlooking the Hood Canal. The property is in northern Mason County, near the Mason/Kitsap border and contains more than 1,300 feet of Hood Canal shoreline, mature native forest, and several freshwater seeps, streams and springs. The property's forested habitat, freshwater resources and marine shorelines provide crucial habitat for a variety of amphibian, fish, mammal, and bird species. Years ago, my wife Clare and I fell in love with the water. Near the cabin we have planted dozens of dynamic landscape of Hood Canal and the Olympic trees, shrubs, and flowers native to western Peninsula with their contrasting mountains, forests, Washington but not originally on the property. inland seas and the diverse flora and fauna. Clare, About 3 km of trails in the uplands and along a biologist, and I, a geologist, began studying the Hornet and Heusser Creeks are maintained. We area in 1968. In 1973 we decided to purchase a built the cabin and the trails ourselves as if we small piece of land that, ideally, had these were early homesteaders (our sons are fifth attributes: wilderness, large acreage, splendid generation Washingtonians). We often feel as if we view, a potable stream, and waterfront. have entered a time warp when we plan our meals around the tide. Daily we walk the access road, the Bit by bit over the years we added to the original trails, and the beach, picking up litter along 5 km tract to acquire nearly 20 hectares of forest, with of shoreline. Hood Canal, and particularly its east almost half a kilometer of beach, on the east shore shore, is a peaceful retreat worthy of protection of Hood Canal. The view is over this westernmost from the rapidly developing areas of the Puget arm of Puget Sound to the Olympic peaks including Lowland. Mounts Ellinor, Washington, and Pershing. We call the property Brothers Beach because the view also Brothers Beach has become sacred to us. Four includes the three peaks of The Brothers, and generations of our family and close friends have because we have three sons Ben, Chris, and Henry appreciated its beauty for the past four decades in who have shared in our love of the place. Decades all seasons of the year and in sun, rain, wind, and ago, our parents visited and helped us build our snow. The sound of the rain on the metal roof at dream of having a forest retreat; now it is reward- night, and the image of moonlit snowy peaks ing to see our grandchildren enjoy the cabin, the beneath sparkling starry skies are but a few of the woods, and the water. We hold vivid memories of lasting memories of Brothers Beach. We have seen quiet evenings spent in the cabin listening to the killer whales in Hood Canal, river otters sliding waves on the shore, the creek below the spring, down our snow-covered trail to the gravel beach, and sometimes an owl in the surrounding trees. and bears scavenging for food in the forest. We have observed the snow accumulate then melt on The forest, which had some logging in the late the Olympic peaks, the hummingbirds arrive in 1800s (from the water) and early 1970s (for road March and then disappear in August, the first building), contains giant Douglas firs (many over flowers on the maples in spring and the fall of their 60 m tall), western red cedars, western hemlocks, huge yellow leaves in autumn, the sound of loons and bigleaf maples, as well as more than a dozen and gulls, and the arrival of rafts of grebes, other species. Over the years, we have recorded buffleheads, and goldeneyes during migration. We 115 bird species and 20 mammal species near have felt the cold water hit us as we dropped from Brothers Beach. a rope swing into the water, and paddled into the wind, waves, and current. We have sat in awe of a In 1980 we felled five trees, and using a portable thousand sunsets. sawmill, cut most of the lumber for a small cabin. A wood stove is used for cooking, heat, and hot My favorite definition of an old growth forest is one continued on page 4 PAGE 4 CAPITOL LAND TRUST NEWS Leave a Legacy for Conservation Thank you to our many members who have already included Capitol Land Trust in their wills and estate plans.

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