Spruce Roost

Location: Southern bank of the North Fork Nooksack River
Size: 17.4
Public Access: No
Property Acquired: 2005
Owner: Whatcom Land Trust

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Whatcom Land Trust purchased the property from Jack Curtis, Kenneth Curtis and Gloria Curtis on June 15, 2005 with money raised during the 2005 Great Outdoors Auction “Save an Acre.”  Whatcom Land Trust used Spruce Roost as a match to purchase the 25 acre Bell Creek property, which encumbered the deed with a Deed of Right for Salmon Recovery.

The property is a 17.35 acre tract of land located on the southern bank of the North Fork Nooksack River between South of Maple Falls. The property contains functioning salmon habitat including 1,500 feet of riparian forest along the North Fork River and side channels.

The project intends to benefit Spring Chinook and Bull Trout through habitat restoration and riparian protection of the North Fork of the Nooksack as well as a roost area for bald eagles. Bald eagles roost in the large trees on the property and hunt spawning salmon in the North Fork.  The Spruce Roost property complements the Whatcom Land Trust’s Salmon, Eagle, Elk habitat conservation properties along the North Fork of the Nooksack River.

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