The Land Bank protects Judd Cove…

Judd Cove - photo by Kurt Thorson.

Good news – the Land Bank is getting funds to help with Judd Cove, over on our sister-island Orcas. Here’s more from the Land Bank’s Judy Cumming:

Public Agencies Work to Expand and Restore Land Bank’s Judd Cove Preserve

The Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office announced this week that the San Juan County Land Bank will receive $650,000 from the Aquatic Lands Enhancement Account (ALEA) grant program for expansion and restoration at the Judd Cove Preserve near Eastsound on Orcas Island.
The Land Bank has already provided the funds to match this grant by purchasing 7 acres adjacent to the Land Bank’s holdings at Judd Cove from Mike & Julia Carlson last year.  The transaction to purchase had been held up for a year as the county applied for the ALEA grant and negotiated with the Trust for Public Lands (TPL) who provided partial funding for the purchase.

“Judd Cove was a perfect project to access ALEA State funding–its history, habitat, and public access made a really great case. But–even more important, the Land Bank had matching funds on hand.” said Elizabeth Butler, TPL’s Project Manager. “That gave us the confidence to invest and buy the cove for the County before the grant was awarded.”

Lincoln Bormann has singled out the Carlson family who patiently waited for the pieces to fall into place to put it into public hands, and TPL’s role as being especially important in making the deal go through.

The property was acquired by Mike and Julie Carlson in 2005.  According to Carlson, the Judd cove property was the last remaining log dump in the county.  “It’s the end of an era,” Carlson said.  “It’s something important to the county’s history.”

The Land Bank’s restoration efforts have included removal of a large dock with associated pilings and other infrastructure that served as a log-boom holding operation for over 50 years.  The Department of Natural Resources removed leftover creosote from the pilings on the parcel, which was in the Fowler family for many years and used as a log dump.  As part of the clean-up, 40 yards of fill were removed to help re-establish the natural shoreline’s shape and function.   The Judd Cove Preserve includes forests, shellfish beds, healthy eelgrass beds and herring spawn habitat.

Restoration work continues at the Judd Cove Preserve, which the Land Bank hopes to open to the public in September 2009.  For additional information, please call 378-4402.

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