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photo by Keith Lazelle

The Nature Conservancy purchases 5,600 acres near Willapa Bay
Acquisition puts Ellsworth Creek watershed into protection

Naselle — March 27, 2003 — The Nature Conservancy of Washington has purchased 5,600 acres at Ellsworth Creek near Willapa Bay, safeguarding an entire coastal watershed as well as some of the rarest and most biologically diverse forestlands remaining in the Northwest.

The Conservancy made its first purchase within the watershed about three years ago. With this latest acquisition, all but 120 acres of the watershed is now protected, making the Ellsworth Creek basin the only fully protected coastal watershed between the Canadian border and the central Oregon coast.

The purchase puts into protection approximately 300 acres of ancient temperate rainforest, where some of the trees are more than 800 years old and measure 35 feet in circumference. This remnant old-growth forest supports a significant population of the federally threatened marbled murrelet as well as one of most diverse concentrations of amphibian species found in the state. The purchase also ensures the health and future of Ellsworth Creek, a stream that teems with some of the best wild, native salmon runs remaining in Willapa Bay.

The watershed, located about 10 miles east of the Long Beach Peninsula, is part of the coastal temperate rainforest of North America, a globally rare and threatened forest type that once extended from Northern California to Alaska. Only remnants of the original forests remain, and, as a result, coastal temperate rainforests have become a high priority for conservation worldwide.

The original forests of the Willapa Hills, where Ellsworth Creek is found, are especially rare. Only about one-half of one percent of Willapa’s old-growth forests still stands.

"I’ve seen few places like the Ellsworth Creek watershed," said Tom Kollasch, the Conservancy’s Ellsworth Creek forest manager. "It sustains a remarkable stand of ancient cedars and spruce, towering columnar trees that provide habitat to a wide range of species in a part of the state where very little is protected. It’s also of huge importance to this community, an important legacy of the forests that supported this region for so many years. People here appreciate seeing some of the habitat they’ve cherished saved."

Dr. Jerry F. Franklin, professor of ecosystem analysis at the University of Washington’s College of Forest Resources, agreed. "There is no higher priority for forest conservation in Washington state than protection and restoration of a forested watershed in the Willapa Hills," he said. "Essentially, all of this extremely productive and diversity-rich landscape has been devoted to intensive forest management, leaving an entire geographic region of the state without any significant forest conservation reserve."

The watershed also contains 350 acres of healthy estuarine wetlands at the mouth of Ellsworth Creek, which provide habitat for salmon, trout, birds, and other animals. This, too, is critical habitat in the state, which has lost more than 70 percent of its coastal wetlands to development and other human manipulations.

With the acquisition complete, the Conservancy now plans to focus its efforts on restoration—decommissioning roads that are in danger of eroding and using various forestry prescriptions to hasten old-growth characteristics. The Conservancy recently received a grant to do some of this restoration work from the federal Jobs in the Woods Program, which assists displaced natural resource workers in finding new employment. The Conservancy will hire local people who used to work in the timber or fishing industry.

The Conservancy will also continue to keep the watershed open to public use, although some of the roads will remain gated.

The Conservancy purchased the land from Pacific West Timber Company LLC, which is managed by The Campbell Group. The Campbell Group, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, acquires and manages forestland for individuals, trusts, and institutional investors. It currently manages about 800,000 acres valued at more than $1.5 billion in the United States.

"Both Pacific West and The Campbell Group worked well with us, and we appreciate their coopration in this transaction," Kollasch said.

Said Jerry Brodie, managing director of The Campbell Group, "We support many conservation efforts, including those of The Nature Conservancy, that lead to protection of truly unique habitats."