Catalyst

 

Why would Whatcom Land Trust want to purchase a scraped-bare former poplar plantation?

Because WLT loves baby salmon.

This former pulp farm just south of Acme is a key piece of the WLT riparian holdings along the South Fork of the Nooksack.  With a grant from the State Salmon Recovery Funding Board, the Catalyst property has become a conservation Cinderalla story. Two miles of spawning stream now flow through the area. Replanted with native shrubs and trees, the property will perform a significant water storage function that will help maintain stream flow in the South Fork during dry summer months when salmon can suffer from high temperatures and low water levels.

Several conservation partners have collaborated to restore this tract: Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA), Nooksack Tribe, REI (which co-sponsored a major volunteer work party), and the individual conservationists who donate money, time or services to WLT every year. In keeping with WLT’s conviction that conservation and human economic pursuits are not mutually exclusive endeavors, the plan for this property includes the restoration and replanting of 90 more acres and the resumption of agricultural activity on another 40 acres.

 

 

 

We need an environmental ethic that will tell us as much about using nature as about not using it… some kind of responsible use and non-use that might attain a balanced sustainable relationship. — William Cronon, On Common Ground, 1996