City donation allows preservation of undisturbed Columbia shoreline
Tuesday, March 1, 2005
By ERIK ROBINSON and JEFFREY MIZE, Columbian staff writersA last-minute donation by the Vancouver City Council will help conserve a rare piece of relatively undisturbed Columbia River shoreline.
For the past year, descendants of a Vancouver pioneer family have worked to put together enough money to buy back a 4 1/2-acre parcel along a small creek considered critical to the conservation of imperiled chum salmon.
Vancouver developer Bill Maitland bought the parcel from an intervening landowner in 2001 for $1 million. He will sell it for $2 million, thanks in part to a contribution by the city of Vancouver.
Purchase price: $2 million
Wood family and Louise Wood Trust $1,250,000
Clark County Conservation Futures $375,000
City of Vancouver drainage funds $350,000
Private donations and legal settlements $25,000
SOURCE: city of VancouverThe city council voted unanimously Monday night to provide $350,000 in drainage fees to help pay for the purchase. The sale will close today, with a ceremony planned for 9 a.m. at Clark County Title in downtown Vancouver.
"It's a huge accomplishment in that it's a tremendous sense of relief," said Rebecca Wood Hardesty, who worked together with her siblings to buy back the family's old property.
It includes a 68-year-old house built by Erskine Wood, the son of famed Fort Vancouver military officer C.E.S. Wood.
It also includes a rare stretch of prime spawning habitat for chum salmon, one of only three major spawning areas remaining between the Columbia River Gorge and the mouth of the river. Late each fall, groundwater springs attract spawning chum salmon by the hundreds.
Erskine Wood III and his wife, Sandy Hunt, will move into his grandfather's old house after the family agreed to pay $1.25 million for 2 of the 41/2 acres. Columbia Springs Environmental Education Center, nearby at the old Vancouver Fish Hatchery on the Evergreen Highway, will own and manage the rest of the property for public use and conservation. The center will also gain a permanent conservation easement for the entire property.
Brian Carlson, Vancouver public works director, said one of the city's goals is to enhance fish and wildlife habitat.
"This is obviously one of those key properties that happens to be in the city of Vancouver," Carlson said before Monday's council meeting. "We are going to be leaving a legacy for our children and our children's children. It will be nice to bring my grandchildren down there some day, (to) see the chum salmon still continuing to spawn."
Mayor Royce Pollard said the Nez Perce Tribe considers this piece of ground to be sacred.
"You can't say enough about the power of good partnerships," Pollard said.
Councilwomen Jeanne Stewart and Pat Jollota praised the project for its environmental aspects.
"It came forward out of an almost emergency environmental need," Stewart said. "Everyone jumped on board."
"You look at this last intact part of the river and think about what development would do to the salmon," Jollota said. "This preserves it forever."
Island of nature
Situated amid a sea of rooftops and asphalt a half-mile east of the Interstate 205 Bridge, the area appears on aerial photographs as a small oasis in a fast-growing city.
Piece by piece, humanity's footprint has squeezed out the undisturbed spawning grounds that salmon rely upon. Since Erskine Wood's great-grandfather bought 360 acres of farmland along the river more than a century ago, the original family estate has been winnowed to about six acres after a series of property sales and donations. The property at issue today was sold by the family in 1979.
As one of the last undeveloped pieces of prime riverfront property in Vancouver's city limits, the area's natural attributes may be matched only by its economic potential.
In 2001, Maitland bought the 41/2-acre parcel across Joseph Creek from the remaining six acres of Wood family property, and soon proposed subdividing it for homes. Fast access to the airport, riverfront views and city living all point to the potential for a high price on the market.
Conservation groups objected. Aided by public donations and the mediation of Vancouver-based Columbia Land Trust, the family has spent the past year putting together the deal that will become final today. The family paid $25,000 a year ago to buy an option on the property, which is due to expire today.
Hardesty Wood said the family is relieved, although frustrated by the high cost of buying back the property.
"It's unfortunate we have to pay so much money to protect nature, when it should be the reverse," she said.
Grant requests are pending with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation ($75,000) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ($50,000) that could be used to partially offset the city's contribution.
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This page was last updated on March 30, 2005Site maintained by staff of Columbia Land Trust.
