Columbia Land Trust

1351 Officers' Row, Vancouver, Washington 98661
360.696.0131 voice, 360.696.1847 fax

3 MILES OF WILD DEVELOPER'S LAND GIFT MAKES LACAMAS TRAIL A REALITY IN CAMAS Thursday, October 21, 1999 By ANNE HART, Columbian staff writer The neighborhood already has a lake, a 300-acre park, a rustic camp and a historic turn-of-the-century house and barn.     And by the end of this month, the Lacamas Lake area will have another attraction: a recreational trail that stretches about 3 miles through woods and along shoreline southwest of the 315-acre lake, one-half mile north of Camas. AT A GLANCE What: An addition to make Lacamas Heritage Trail about 3 miles long Where: The trail is in the Camas area. It runs along the south shore of Lacamas Lake from Northwest Lake Road just west of the Moose Lodge, through Lacamas Shores, along Lacamas Creek to Northeast Goodwin Road. When: The trail extension is expected to open next week. How: Developer Tom Shipler donated 30 acres for the trail addition. Donations: About half of the donation went to Columbia Land Trust, a nonprofit conservancy group. To donate or become a member of the trust, call 696-0131 or contact the trust at 1351 Officers Row in Vancouver.     Local developer Tom Shipler donated almost 30 acres, worth about $1.8 million, to create the addition to Lacamas Heritage Trail.     Starting in the late 1980s, Adolf Hertrich of Sandy, Ore., Shipler's partner and owner of Vanport Manufacturing Co. in Boring, Ore., donated the first portion for the public trail and developed it. That part has already been in use and is partly maintained by residents of Lacamas Shores, a subdivision of high-end homes also developed by Shipler and Vanport Manufacturing.     Walkers, runners, in-line skaters and cyclists soon will be able to do a 6-mile loop on the trail, which has three foot bridges. The new addition is undergoing finishing touches and is expected to be completed next week.     The trail is "quite scenic with old, big trees, kind of almost a wilderness experience in a downtown, and that's what we wanted," said Shipler, who lives in the Lacamas Lake area. He and Hertrich are developing nearby Camas Meadows, a 320-acre project that includes a golf course surrounded by a business park.     Future amenities to the trail include mile/kilometer markers, restrooms at the trailhead near Goodwin Road and a trailhead parking lot. Vancouver-Clark Parks & Recreation Services, which worked with Shipler on the project, plans next year to landscape a lot between the trail and a road to the industrial park. Long-range plans are to continue the trail up Lacamas Creek, said Jeroen Kok, regional parks planner with Vancouver-Clark Parks & Recreation Services.     Half of Shipler's donated property went to Columbia Land Trust, a nonprofit conservancy group that purchases ecologically sensitive and valuable lands for preservation. The other half of the land went to Vancouver-Clark Parks & Recreation Services and eventually will go to the city of Camas. Vancouver-Clark Parks & Recreation Services used that donation as a match to obtain a roughly $550,000 state grant to develop the trail.     "Not only did (Shipler) provide the land on which the trail was built, but he also provided development of the trail," said Glenn Lamb, executive director of the Columbia Land Trust. "There is no way this trail would have been developed without his donation of land."     The Columbia Land Trust also bought a lakeside wilderness camp, J.D. Currie Youth Camp on Northeast 232nd Avenue, from Fort James Corp. in 1998 for $2.6 million as part of a 240-acre purchase on the north side of Lacamas Lake.     The trust also owns about 43 acres near Fallen Leaf Lake (once known as Dead Lake) on the east face of Prune Hill and 40 acres along Little Matney Creek north of Fern Prairie. Columbia Land Trust is looking to acquire even more parcels near Lacamas Lake.     Shipler began buying acres around Lacamas Lake in 1977 from the Leadbetter Estate. Fred W. Leadbetter founded the paper mill in Camas in 1923-24. In five weeks' time, 100 Chinese laborers built the historic Queen Anne-style Leadbetter house for the family in 1901. The house, at 114 S.E. Leadbetter Road, and nearby barn are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.     Shipler's purchases from the Leadbetters included a 50-foot lease around Lacamas Lake. The lease once was used to prevent public access to the lake, which is still managed by the Camas paper mill. However, Shipler said he and Hertrich chose to allow public access to the shorelines.     The lake and the nearby 300-acre Lacamas Regional Park surrounding Round Lake at the southeast tip of Lacamas Lake, draw boaters, anglers, hikers and picnickers. But the Lacamas Lake area isn't limited to natural settings and subdivisions.     Near the north tip of the lake and north of WaferTech's futuristic-looking foundry, Shipler and Vanport are turning 130 acres around the 18-hole golf course into a business park, Camas Meadows Corporate Center. Shipler, now president of the golf course, is marketing nearly two dozen light-industry sites there. One parcel has been sold and two sales are pending, Shipler said.     The 330-acre combination business park-golf course, set to open in June, is expected to create as many as 2,600 jobs in the Camas-east Vancouver area.     Shipler, an avid walker who takes daily treks on the Camas Meadows golf course, is looking forward to using the nature trail. He said he wants to balance the development by conserving nearby nature.     "We have quite an area that will stay natural now, we hope forever," Shipler said. "It's a pristine area right in the heart of civilization."

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