Five maintenance projects, but no new acquisitions, are set for discussion May 16 at a public meeting of the citizens’ advisory board to the county’s Conservation Futures Fund.
“Last year we did some major acquisitions, and our cash flow this year only allows for maintenance and operations,” said Don Mason, the fund’s coordinator.
This year’s proposed projects on Whidbey, to be executed next year, are:
$25,414 for two years of noxious weed-control work, including a survey and mapping, at Oak Harbor’s 25-acre Swan Lake and environs. “It is imperative” to contain an infestation of hairy willow-herb at Swan Lake, according to the proposal. Over about 20 years, that weed spread to 100 acres, from an initial 20 square feet, in the wetlands near Crockett Lake, according to the proposal.
$25,000 for Double Bluff Park, near Freeland, including $10,000 for new fencing, $8,000 to improve parking and for a separate entrance for off-leash dog owners, and $7,000 for drainage improvements.
$14,500 for the Trillium Community Forest in Freeland — $10,000 to remove invasive species, $4,200 to reimburse the Whidbey Camano Land Trust and $300 for signs.
The land trust ended up paying $4,200 over budget last year for trail infrastructure work.
Two projects are proposed on Camano Island:
$50,000 for maintaining the Camano Ridge Preserve/Dillon Acquisition.
$10,000 to trim or remove trees at Four Springs Lake Preserve.
During the May 16 meeting, applicants will make presentations on their proposed projects, and the citizens’ board will ask questions and take public comments.
It will then score and rank the proposals and make recommendations to the county commissioners.
Among the projects funded in 2015, those yet to be concluded are the $1-million Fakkema Farm purchase in Oak Harbor; the $165,000 purchase of 30 acres of farmland along Lone Lake’s southern shoreline; and a $37,900, two-year noxious-weed-control program at Camano’s Iverson Preserve. An $85,000 purchase to protect 4.8 acres on Camano’s Dillon property closed in December.
The commissioners last year denied funding to a proposed fifth project, which would have put $30,000 toward keeping open 56 acres on the north side of Dugualla Lake.
The Conservation Futures Fund was created in 1991 to acquire rights and interests in open-space land, farm and agricultural land and timberland.
It raises money countywide through a property-tax assessment of not more than 6.25 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.
