COMPLETE!
Climbing the Hill to Conservation CONTINUED FROM COVER
VOLUNTEER AT NASON RIDGE Come join the restoration effort at Nason Ridge! WRC and Chelan County would love your help on April 24th, 2021 (all things permitting), doing vegetative rehab on the decommissioned roads and disturbed areas at Nason Ridge. We will undertake some combination of planting trees, shrubs and wildflowers and possibly even some trail building. If you’d like to receive more information about this, please email WRC’s stewardship director, Mik McKee, at mmckee@westernrivers.org. We hope to see you there!
“Big Red” is a giant ponderosa pine on the Nason Ridge Trail, just off the Nason Ridge property. It’s a favorite stop for a photo.
BILL MILLER
Western Rivers Conservancy
westernrivers.org
PORTLAND
OLYMPIA
SAN FRANCISCO
DENVER
(503) 241-0151
(360) 528-2012
(415) 767-2001
(303) 645-4953
News from Nason Ridge AN UPDATE FROM WESTERN RIVERS CONSERVANCY
SEPTEMBER 2020
Nason Ridge: Climbing the Hill to Conservation
LEE RENTZ
A SHORT HISTORY OF NASON RIDGE The Giant Overlooking Lake Wenatchee —By Rollie Schmitten, Neighbor and Historian Ever since the United States parceled up the West and gave alternating sections of land to the railroad companies, the Nason Ridge property was in private, mostly corporate hands. It has a long history of lumber company ownership, going back to the beginning of the 19th century. That’s when the Lamb/Davie Lumber Company purchased 50,000 acres from Great Northern Railway to supply its lumber mill in Leavenworth, Washington. The mill went bankrupt in 1915, and my great grandfather, F. W. Schmitten, who owned Schmitten Lumber Company near Cashmere, purchased the land we know as Nason Ridge today. CONTINUED INSIDE
Conservation of Nason Ridge will ensure a healthy forest above the two-plus miles of Nason Creek that flow along the property’s eastern edge. The stream is vital to the Wenatchee River’s salmon, steelhead and bull trout populations.
—By Sue Doroff, President, Western Rivers Conservancy Summer at Nason Ridge is peak season, with hikers and mountain bikers taking to the trails, wildflowers in bloom and the mountain air above Lake Wenatchee warming everyone’s spirits. In the midst of a pandemic, when people are turning more and more to the great outdoors, the importance of places like Nason Ridge becomes exponentially greater. And it becomes as clear as the water in Nason Creek why people have been trying so hard to protect this special place. If you don’t know Nason Ridge, grab a map and locate Lake Wenatchee. Nason Ridge is a forested
mountainside that rises steeply from the southeast shore of the lake. At the top, dense trees give way to an open ridge, with stunning views and even the occasional elk or mountain lion. The Nason Ridge property, which Western Rivers Conservancy, Chelan-Douglas Land Trust, Chelan County and the community of Lake Wenatchee are all working to protect, spans 3,714 acres on both sides of the mountain. On the south side, 2.5 miles of Kahler Creek flow through the property, and over two miles of Nason Creek form the eastern boundary. The streams are a crucial source of cold water for the Wenatchee River and prime habitat for Chinook, CONTINUED ON BACK
JOHN MARSHALL
community to raise the millions of dollars still needed to transfer the lands to the county. While Nason Ridge is in WRC’s ownership, the property is being managed for conservation, restoration and recreation. An exciting development is that Chelan County hopes to become the long-term owner of the property and create a community forest and a recreational resource that will benefit everyone. Until permanent funding can be secured to make that happen, WRC is keeping access to the ridge’s robust trail system open to the public and working with the county to conduct critically needed restoration work. That includes the decommissioning of old logging roads, minimizing fire hazards, and removing culverts to improve conditions for fish and wildlife, especially salmon. While permanently protecting Nason Ridge is still a work in progress, we are excited about the headway we’re all making together. The show of support for this project, both locally and at the state level, is a real testament to just how important this place is—and it gives us hope that Nason Ridge will soon be conserved forever. g
JOHN MARSHALL
With a tremendous show of support from the Lake Wenatchee community, the Nason Ridge Community Forest Management Plan was completed and adopted! WRC, CDLT, Washington State Parks, local landowners, recreationists and others all turned out for a series of stakeholder meetings led by Chelan County, and the partners crafted a 70-plus page plan that will guide the future management of the property by the county. The plan was submitted to the state legislature and was a huge step forward for the project. What’s more, the plan will serve as a model for other community forest efforts in the state of Washington. g
coho, sockeye, steelhead and bull trout. The mountain itself is crisscrossed by a network of excellent trails that link to the adjacent Lake Wenatchee State Park. Until recently, Nason Ridge was owned by Weyerhaeuser, which allowed public access for the countless hikers, mountain bikers, crosscountry skiers and others who flock to the property year-round. For many years, the local community and CDLT had been concerned about the future of Nason Ridge. So, when the property went up for sale, Western Rivers Conservancy negotiated a deal to purchase it, with the goal of protecting Nason and Kahler creeks and eliminating any possibility that Nason Ridge could be closed to the public, heavily cut or parceled up and developed—all likely outcomes in this highly desirable part of Washington. After WRC gained control of the property, it joined forces with CDLT and the local community, which unleashed an incredible show of support, raising more than $1 million to help pay for the cost of protecting Nason Ridge. In 2018, WRC purchased the property and is now working with CDLT, the state, Chelan County and the
JOHN MARSHALL
Community Forest Management Plan Adopted