By Isaac Hansen, Conservation Associate, Lands and Transactions
A small but significant 80-acre acquisition at our Ellsworth Creek Preserve in southwest Washington protects the headwaters of this 8,000-acre watershed where we’ve been working for more than 20 years.
The new property was harvested about five years ago, leaving our Preserve vulnerable to high winds on its boundary that blew down trees, and sediment runoff into Ellsworth Creek. With the acquisition, made possible by generous private donors, we’ll be able to restore it.
I visited the site with the Conservancy’s Washington Forest Manager Kyle Smith a few months ago, before travel restrictions, and saw an example of this blow down in the form of a Sitka spruce that had fallen over onto the roadway. I took this selfie as Kyle cleared the road with a deftness of a seasoned sawyer.
It’s been about five years since the site was harvested. Even in its disturbed state, we can see the potential for the future. The ridge provides a diversity of unique topographic variability with multiple aspects, slopes, and soil types found within a relatively small area.
Saplings are emerging that will improve wildlife habitat and forage for a diversity of species, including elk, deer, bear, cougar, and bobcats, as well as nesting songbirds, marbled murrelets, owls, macroinvertebrates, and amphibians.
This tract will be incorporated into the Ellsworth Creek Preserve, which serves as an important research site where we are learning how to restore the conditions of a temperate old-growth rainforest.
Banner photo © Chris Crisman
