About 100 acres of forested coastal land is now preserved in Whatcom County. Take a look

Rachel Showalter
·4 min read
3

A total of 98 forested acres and nearly 5,000 feet of shoreline along Chuckanut Bay are now permanently preserved after the land was officially donated to the Whatcom Land Trust, a local nonprofit dedicated to preserving and protecting wildlife habitat and open space land.

Governors Point, a 125-acre peninsula, has been at risk of experiencing significant development for decades. At one time, more than 100 homes were proposed for construction on the site.

“This has been a really long-term project for the Whatcom County Community in terms of thinking about, ‘What is the future of Governors Point?’” Whatcom Land Trust Conservation Director Alex Jeffers said in an interview with The Bellingham Herald.

But after years of pushback from community members and the Whatcom Land Trust — and a developer choosing to prioritize preservation — about 80% of the land is now protected as a public nature reserve.

Randy Bishop, who purchased Governors Point in 2018 for $5.7 million dollars, plans to build 16 custom homes on about 27 acres of the land. The homes will be designed with a ‘nature-first approach’ to help integrate the architecture into the landscape.

Randy Bishop signed the deed to 98 acres of land on Governors Point over to the Whatcom Land Trust on Wednesday, Sept. 13, at a public signing ceremony at Boundary Bay Brewery in Bellingham, Wash.
Randy Bishop signed the deed to 98 acres of land on Governors Point over to the Whatcom Land Trust on Wednesday, Sept. 13, at a public signing ceremony at Boundary Bay Brewery in Bellingham, Wash.

Roger Sahlin and his family, who had owned Governors Point since the 1960s, sold it to Bishop as part of bankruptcy proceedings that went back to May 2015. Opposition to the number of homes proposed for the peninsula, as well as access to enough drinkable water, squashed previous development proposals, which date back to the 1970s, according to previous reporting by The Bellingham Herald.

Bishop signed the deed to the remaining 98 acres of land over to the Whatcom Land Trust in a public ceremony Wednesday, Sept. 13.

The ceremony included speeches from Whatcom Land Trust Board Members along with a blessing and celebration song from the Lummi Nation West Shore Singers.

“It was a beautiful evening. Many people thanked me (during the ceremony), but the thanks belong to a much broader group,” Bishop said in a statement to The Herald. “In the end, this was a true collaboration - special thanks should be acknowledged to Rand Jack and the Whatcom Land Trust, the Lummi Nation, Whatcom County and City of Bellingham staff, Wayne Schwandt and all of the great consultants and trades who worked on the project. Also, the local community who embraced the vision so wholeheartedly and passionately were a big part of making this all happen - having such consensus seems rare in these times.”

Rand Jack, one of the founders, of the Whatcom Land Trust gave a presentation about the Governors Point land donation during a public deed signing ceremony at Boundary Bay Brewery on Wednesday, Sept. 13, in Bellingham, Wash.
Rand Jack, one of the founders, of the Whatcom Land Trust gave a presentation about the Governors Point land donation during a public deed signing ceremony at Boundary Bay Brewery on Wednesday, Sept. 13, in Bellingham, Wash.

Rand Jack was a founding board member of the Whatcom Land Trust in 1984. He played a key role in securing the land for preservation and spoke at the ceremony.

“When I first met (Randy Bishop), one of the first things he said was, ‘I’m going to (preserve this land) in a way that respects and honors the community, and respects and honors the environment,’” Jack said publicly at the ceremony. “And not once, in five and a half years, did he back away from that commitment.”

Jeffers told The Herald that preserving this land is a unique opportunity.

“There aren’t 100-acre chunks of mature coastal forest left,” Jeffers said. “Definitely in Whatcom County, it’s the last mature coastal forest of this size that was privately owned and unprotected. And the Chuckanut coastline is the only place where the forested foothills of the Cascades actually reach the Salish Sea between the B.C. border and Olympia.”

The land provides shelter and habitat for a number of diverse species including pigeon guillemots, black oystercatchers and Great Blue Herons. The land also supports forage fish like sand lance, surf smelt, and Pacific herring which are all vital food sources for threatened and endangered Pacific Northwest species like Orca whales and Marbled Murrelet, according to the Whatcom Land Trust.

About 2.6 miles of trails will be built on the land to provide public access to the mature coastal forest. There will also be non-motorized paddle access to beaches on the east and west sides of Governors Point. A parking lot will also be built for people to access the trails.

Public access is expected in the next one to two years after the proper infrastructure is developed.

Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu stands with Deputy Executive Tyler Schroeder and Rand Jack, a board member of the Whatcom Land Trust, and others, during a summer 2020 visit to Governors Point.
Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu stands with Deputy Executive Tyler Schroeder and Rand Jack, a board member of the Whatcom Land Trust, and others, during a summer 2020 visit to Governors Point.