Land trust purchases 55 acres along Eld Inlet

Mud Bay: $850,000 in state, federal grants fund conservation group deal

JOHN DODGE; Staff writer | • Published January 20, 2010

Comments (0)

The Capitol Land Trust is making headway in its long-range plan to preserve and protect lower Eld Inlet.

Land trust officials announced this week that they have purchased 55 acres of lower inlet property just south of U.S. Highway 101 in the Mud Bay area.

“It’s another fantastic step forward by the Capitol Land Trust,” said Ralph Munro, a Mud Bay resident, land trust supporter and former secretary of state.

With the latest acquisition using $850,000 in state and federal grants, the Olympia-based land trust has protected 625 acres and 6 miles of marine shoreline along lower Eld Inlet on 17 sites, land trust director Eric Erler said.

“We started with nothing 10 years ago when we decided to make lower Eld Inlet a conservation priority,” he told 30 Eld Inlet neighbors and land trust members who gathered on the shores of Mud Bay late Monday afternoon to celebrate the newest conservation success.

The property purchased from Anderson & Middleton Co., a Hoquiam-based logging company, features 1.25 miles of shoreline where McLane Creek feeds into Eld Inlet.

The new site is an important salmon habitat, including a robust chum run, Erler said. It is home to large mammals including black bear and a mineral deposit that attracts band-tailed pigeons, a state and federal game species that was subject to a 10-year hunting ban from 1992 to 2001 because of declining numbers. The birds need the minerals found along marine shorelines to produce their eggs and milk for feeding their young, according to a state Fish and Wildlife species-status report.

Without protection and under existing county zoning, the 55 acres of Mud Bay property could have been home to three or four estates, Erler said.

“The bottom line is, we’re going to save this bay,” said Munro, whose family farm includes 203 acres of tidelands and uplands and 3.5 miles of marine shoreline permanently protected by a conservation easement purchased by the Capitol Land Trust in 2006.

John Dodge: 360-754-5444

jdodge@theolympian.com