Black River is an overlooked treasure

By John Dodge | The Olympian • Published June 23, 2008

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BLACK RIVER – If you’re looking for whitewater rapids and the danger of submerged boulders and logs, the Black River is not the place for you.

If you’re looking for a slow-moving river teeming with fish and wildlife and safe to canoe or kayak on with friends and family, the Black River beckons.

Little known to the recreating public, the 25-mile meandering river that flows from the bayou-like freshwater wetlands south of Black Lake to its confluence with the Chehalis River near Oakville is the lifeblood of a vast south Thurston County area targeted for preservation by conservation groups and state and federal agencies.

“It’s been one of our top two or three priority areas for a long time,” said Capitol Land Trust executive director Eric Erler as he paddled his kayak on a 5-mile trip this week on the middle stretch of the river, between Littlerock and the Rochester area.

Black River Preserve

This stretch of the river is home to birds, beavers, salmon and frogs, but not too many people. It’s also at the center of the so-called Black River Preserve, a mosaic of prairies, wetlands, farms, forests and riverfront property that is off-limits to development thanks to the efforts of the land trust, The Nature Conservancy, Thurston County, the state departments of Fish and Wildlife and Natural Resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Chehalis River Basin Land Trust, and other conservation partners.

They have acquired and conserved about 5,500 acres on 41 parcels, including the old hippie gathering ground called Rainbow Valley Farms and the more than 1,000-acre Thurston County Glacial Heritage Preserve.

Since 1996, the federal fish and wildlife agency has acquired about 1,300 acres of a proposed 3,600-acre Black River National Wildlife Refuge, which encompasses the maze of wetlands south of Black Lake.

Plan to protect more

And if all goes well in the months ahead, the largest remaining parcel of forestland, wetlands and riverfront in the watershed, the 1,923-acre Scatter Creek Tract, will be purchased and protected from development through a federal Forest Legacy grant, Erler said.