INSIDE

Lily Point acquisition shy by $750,000

By Meg Olson

The Whatcom Land Trust is looking to put the last pieces in the financial framework that will allow them to purchase Lily Point for conservation and public use.

“We need half a million to finish the transaction and another $250,000 to manage the property and pay the transaction costs,” said land trust conservation director Gordon Scott.

On August 8 the proposal to buy 90 acres, which includes Lily Point itself, for $3.5 million got a significant boost when it was awarded a $1.75 million grant from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Estuary and Salmon Recovery program.

The proposal was ranked number two out of 73 applications. “Protection of existing high-functioning sites is a critical element of Puget Sound nearshore ecosystem restoration,” wrote Tim Smith, program director for the Puget Sound Nearshore Partnership, which administered the grant. “Located at the junction of Georgia Strait and Boundary Bay, undeveloped but privately owned, Lily Point is one of the most culturally, scenically and ecologically rich properties in the greater Puget Sound region.  Lily Point’s healthy reefs, rocky tidelands, sandy beaches, mature marine shoreline forests, and two extensive feeder bluffs – contribute substantially to the vitality of the South Georgia Basin.”

Scott said Lily Point was critical to the interconnected natural systems that link eagles and orcas to tiny particles of sediment that slough off the bluffs. “That bluff at Lily Point is sending off material of a certain size that surf smelt and sand lance like to spawn in,” he said. Those forage fish in turn provide food for juvenile Chinook salmon, and salmon are an anchor to a larger Northwest food web. “Protecting that bluff and that natural process becomes critical,” he said.

In looking for additional donors to support the purchase, the land trust is also highlighting the cultural significance of the property as a summer village and important fishing site for Coast Salish native people. Members of the Lummi Nation perform their annual “first fish” ceremony there each year, according to a land trust fundraising document.

Scott said they could ask for an extension but hoped to be able to complete the transaction by the current December 15 closing date. They are looking to private foundations, state agencies, and individuals for help. “We are looking for larger donations,” Scott said. “If someone sent us a check for $25 we’d happily take it, however we’d like to encourage people with the means to donate $50,000.”

The Point Roberts Taxpayers’ Association has been working with the land trust and president Michael Rosser had hoped the purchase agreement could be expanded to include the purchase of an additional 40 acres along the bluff to the east of Lily Point itself.

The organization has taken over the non-profit shell of the old Resource Management Group that opposed proposed Lily Point development in the 1970s and 1980s. “Now the focus has changed,” Rosser said. “We need to make some adjustment to the bylaws and change the name.” The taxpayers association is also looking for larger donations that would support fundraising to purchase the eastern portion of the property. Rosser said they were also hopeful the International Marketplace would agree to a “top-up” program, in which shoppers could donate their change.

Whatcom County Parks will take over management of Lily Point after the land has been acquired, and director Michael McFarlane has said they will primarily focus on conservation with limited public facilities – trails and restrooms but not picnic facilities and volleyball courts.

Rosser said more facilities would give the Point a greater economic benefit. His group had hoped to work with Stanton Properties, who have plans to develop the land to the west of Lily Point, but Rosser said he feared changes to the area’s transitional zoning may have eliminated incentives for the developer to set aside land for public use. “I need to talk to the county and see what’s changed,” he said.