||| FROM PETER GUILLOZET, ORCAS PRESERVE STEWARD |||
On behalf of your Conservation Land Bank, I wanted to share some updates about several Orcas preserves. First, we are thrilled to see friends and neighbors enjoying North Shore Preserve. After two years of preparing the property for use, it was a joy to open the trails and over 1,800 feet of shoreline to the public on September 28.
North Shore Preserve is now open seven days a week from sunrise to sunset. Access is controlled by an automated gate. And as with all Land Bank preserves, Day Use Only, No Campfires, and Dogs on Leash rules apply.
Neighbors to our preserves are unique in this community. They border well-used public lands and interact with preserve users and Land Bank staff in various ways. We endeavor to know and address their concerns and, along these lines, would like to remind visitors to the new preserve that the beaches to the east and west are privately owned. While the Land Bank beach is accessible from these private beaches, we ask that preserve users stay within our posted property boundaries.
Next week, we will release a draft long-term management plan of North Shore Preserve for public review. Please review the plan to learn more about the conservation values of this special place, and our goals for responsible stewardship.
Other Orcas-specific updates include forest health projects at Crescent Beach and Turtleback Mountain preserves. At Crescent Beach, we’re still in the planning stages and collaborating with the Department of Natural Resources to refine the nearly 70-acre treatment area, and the implementation practices for this grant-funded work. Intended efforts here will parallel those accomplished along the southern slope of Turtleback Mountain Preserve: removal of small-diameter conifers and establishment of a shaded fuel break along the trail to improve forest health and fire resiliency. This winter, we will host a forest walk for interested community members to review the work area, and bidding and contracting for the project is likely to begin in early 2025.
We are also preparing to extend our forest health activities on Turtleback Mountain Preserve. This is part of a long-term effort to enhance Garry oak habitat, improve forest health, and increase fire resilience. On Saturday, November 23, we will mark the end of the Seasons of Turtleback walks with a tour of the project area and provide demonstrations of small-diameter thinning and pile burning. Please visit our website to learn more.
Along with Orcas staff member, Tyler Goodman, I look forward to seeing you out on the preserves.
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Thank you, Peter, for all that you and the Land Bank people do. It is a priceless gift to the community.
Why are beach fires not permitted in the north shore preserve? Couldn’t you add designated fire rings for fires? This would be so great for kids and families who want to hang out by a fire. Also why does it close at sunset? Feels unreasonably conservative for the islands new and most accessible beach.
In alignment with the mandate of the SJI land bank mission of preserving culturally significant lands, I’d like to request that the rules prohibiting fires be rescinded. What is more culturally iconic to island life than a beach fire? If the land is preserved in such a manner that it disrupts significant island cultural practices, is it truly fulfilling its mission? Some of my best memories growing up and living in these islands happened around beach fires. This connection to place and landscapes has helped to I stop an ethic of care and responsible stewardship, as I know it has for many. We rob both ourselves and future readings of a vital cultural opportunity by prohibiting beach fires on land bank beaches, and instead create a false separation from our natural environment that can only lead to further degradation and neglect. The ability to directly interact with the natural environment is critical to human health and ecological conservation, as well as preserving the island culture we live here for.
With gratitude,
Ryan Woofenden