As they say, “A plan without action is a daydream. Action without a plan is a nightmare.”

In 1987 the Washington State Legislature adopted the Nisqually River Management Plan. In 1989, to accomplish the plan’s goals, a team of Nisqually Watershed partners created the Nisqually Land Trust. As founder George Walter said, “It simply offered the best way to protect the Nisqually River in the long term. Acquire property – that’s permanent.”

And here we are, thirty years and 7,132 permanently protected acres later.

The Early Years
We started by acquiring wildlife habitat in the lower, or salmon-producing, portion of the Nisqually River — the forty-two miles above the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, on Puget Sound.

In 1989 we acquired our first property, a 2.5-acre donation along the river’s Wilcox Reach, above Yelm. “There couldn’t be a better place to put our land,” the donors, Larry and Beverly Hauge, wrote us.

In 1993 we made our first “big” purchase, the 65-acre Gold property, along the river’s Middle Reach. Today, it’s in the heart of our 461-acre Powell Creek Protected Area.

By 1999, we’d acquired 269 acres. We were on a roll!

Moving into the Upper Watershed
In 2006 we expanded into the upper watershed to protect timberlands, endangered-species habitat, recreation lands, and scenic vistas near Mount Rainier National Park, where the Nisqually River has its source.

By 2010, we’d acquired 2,000 acres in our Mount Rainier Gateway Reserve, a wildlife corridor connecting federal, state, and county lands near the main entrance to the park.

And we’d added 1,200 acres of shoreline along the Nisqually and Mashel rivers and Ohop Creek, connecting large blocks of protected habitat.

“Small Watershed, Big Ideas”
In the Twenty-teens we started pushing the conservation envelope:

• We executed the state’s first “environmental services” project, creating a conservation easement that helps protect the City of Olympia’s water supply by protecting forest cover.
• We completed the first carbon-credit transaction in the Pacific Northwest and sold the credits to Microsoft – the company’s first conservation project in the U.S.
• We restored lower Ohop Creek, converting 1.6 miles of ditched creekbed back into 2.4 miles of curving, salmon-friendly stream and installing 86,000 native plants – one of the largest stream restorations on the West Coast.
• And we launched the Nisqually Community Forest Project, creating a block of 1,920 acres of timberlands with over 22 miles of protected shoreline along upper Busy Wild Creek and its feeder streams – a working forest managed to support recovery of threatened Chinook salmon and steelhead trout while also providing jobs, recreation, and environmental benefits to our local communities.
  

  A portion of the restored Ohop Creek, 2014

 

Pushing into Puget Sound
In 2016 we extended our work into the marine environment of Puget Sound and the Nisqually Aquatic Reserve. In 2017 we partnered with Forterra and the Anderson Island Park and Recreation District to expand Jacobs Point Park on beautiful Anderson Island. Last year, we acquired another 72 acres and over one-half mile of marine frontage near the park. This year we won $1.8 million for new acquisitions.

Today
We continue to play a central role in the watershed’s recovery plans for threat-ened salmon. (Fun fact: All told, the Nisqually Watershed partnership has protected 77 percent of the Nisqually River’s salmon-producing shoreline.)

We also work with our many partners to steward and restore our lands. Each year hundreds of volunteers and over a thousand students help us. Since our founding, we have planted over 300,000 native trees and shrubs.

Our Future
The next thirty years will be tough. We have multiple species threatened by extinction. Climate change is real. But if the Nisqually Watershed is about anything, it’s about solutions. (Nothing gobbles carbon like a tree!) It’s about partners, and putting our collective shoulder to the wheel. Our deepest thanks to all who’ve been – and are – a part of this journey.

 

It’s no secret that much of Washington’s old-growth forest has been cut down. Walk through almost any forest and you’ll find slowly decaying cedar or Douglas fir stumps, often with springboard cutouts still visible. Oddly, but often, these monuments of what once was are also markers of what will be.

Every year, while millions of seeds battle for growing space in the forest understory, a few land atop an old log or stump and take root. The first time I observed this phenomenon, I saw a young hemlock stemming from a six inch Douglas fir stump which was sitting on a much larger Douglas fir stump! Clearly it’s just confused, I thought.

As I continued to explore, though, I noticed that not only was this hemlock not an anomaly, but also that in some forests, the only trees in the understory were those sitting on the old stumps!

Did they not need soil? Would they not fall when the stump rotted away? Wouldn’t their roots freeze? And if they could survive in these conditions, why can’t I keep my garden alive?

Well, it turns out there are good reasons such pedestals are perfect places to start new trees.

The tops of stumps typically sit above the base layer of ferns, mosses, and small shrubs, providing better access to the sunlight that is so crucial for seed germination and growth. And the decaying wood is a great substrate, providing a firm base with ample nutrients, better moisture retention, and less leaf and needle loading, which can smother seedlings buried under a thick layer on the forest floor.

Stumps also decay at about the same rate that they grew. A sapling on a 200-year-old cedar stump will have plenty of time to grow strong and support itself.

Next time you are in the forest, keep a lookout for these “nurse” logs and stumps. They help to showcase the amazing resiliency of the natural world!

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