Thursday, Brooks Anderson, president of Fairhaven Neighbors, and I met with Mayor Kelli Linville in her office at City Hall. In that meeting, the mayor indicated that the City of Bellingham will acquire, through purchase, the large undeveloped plat on Shorewood Drive to give permanent protection to the Great Blue Heron colony at Post Point. Readers will recall that this plat was slated for development of the “Heronwood Cluster” of two homes next to the birds’ nesting trees. We mobilized to thwart the Critical Areas Permit awarded to the developer for this project. This opens the way for the City of Bellingham to acquire the land from the current owner to create the Post Point Great Blue Heron Reserve.
We can thank the mayor for taking action to permanently protect the herons, and we will hold her to her commitment to do so. Our attention now turns to City Council. Contact your councilmember NOW and urge her/him to bring forward action on the land acquisition in order to create the Post Point Great Blue Heron Reserve.
You can find links to your council member’s email HERE. Or send one email that will reach all members: ccmail@cob.org
Want to do more? Print out the quarter-sheet flyer and distribute it to friends and colleagues.
Comments by Readers
Michael Lilliquist
Jul 29, 2019Geoff Middaugh
Jul 29, 2019Actually, there are TWO citizen advisory boards. Greenways is tactical, and works from the system of priorities that are with the Greenways Strategic Plan. The Park and Recreation Advisory Board (PRAB) is strategic and works from the system of priorities in the PRO plan (Parks, Recreation and Open Space). Both should be used, respected, and provided with a deliberative process to assure that the Greenways Funds are used to benefit all the citizen’s of Bellingham.
Jamie K. Donaldson
Jul 29, 2019Advocates for a permanent heron reserve at Post Point have stepped back from recommending that the city use the Greenways program for the land acquisition up on Shorewood Drive. It’s clearly not up to us to advise city government on how to fund anything. We do believe, however, that the ball now lies in the court of City Council to take action to create the reserve through acquisition of ALL remaining undeveloped land on Shorewood Drive—land that has been sitting vacant for a very long time.
We had been sending messages to Mayor Kelli but since she has indicated her support for the acquisition and heron reserve, the focus now shifts to council. I’d be more than happy to provide council with information about the colony, the undeveloped plat, the history of this issue that’s been knocking around since at least 2003. There is a lot of great data and scientific findings that were gathered for the hearing before the Hearing Examiner on the matter of the Critical Areas Permit. I would like all this research to be part of the public record since the hearing was cancelled. And I also urge council members to call upon the expertise and knowledge of the Great Blue Heron expert that has been contracted by the city since 2003 to monitor and report on the health of the colony.