Skagit County’s Blanchard Mountain is the only place in Washington where the Cascades reach salt water. Its rare beauty is no secret to the thousands who visit it each year. Its trails lead to lakes and to Oyster Dome from where you can gaze past soaring eagles to the Salish Sea.
This unique natural treasure is in grave danger.
In 2007 the Blanchard Strategy Agreement was created to permanently protect from logging 1,600 acres of Department of Natural Resources managed forestland surrounding Oyster Dome. To fulfill the agreement, DNR would purchase forestlands near Blanchard Mountain to log in their place. DNR’s deadline for obtaining the remaining $7.7 million needed to buy replacement forest has arrived. Without it, logging of parts of the forest surrounding Oyster Dome will begin this summer.
I was pleased to learn from her aide that state Sen. Barbara Bailey has always supported proposals to fund the Blanchard Agreement, and that though the recently released Senate budget did not include funding for the Blanchard Agreement, Sen. Bailey did support an amendment to add the needed funding to the budget. Unfortunately that amendment failed.
The House budget does, however, include full funding for the Blanchard Agreement.
I urge Sen. Bailey to double her efforts to convince her fellow senators to support full funding of the Blanchard Agreement as the House and Senate work together to reconcile their budgets.
With Senator Bailey’s effective leadership, the irreplaceable natural beauty of Blanchard can be saved for future generations.
Anne Winkes
Conway
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