Dugualla Heights Conservation Easement
- Status: Protected in 2009
- Location: North Whidbey Island
- Acreage: 29
Public Benefits
Wetlands, forest, scenic vistas, wildlife habitat, aquifer recharge areas, potential for restoration to juvenile salmon rearing habitat
Description
This conservation easement protects mature lowland forest, open field, wetlands and a small lagoon within the Dugualla Heights neighborhood. Dugualla Community, Inc (the Dugualla Heights neighborhood association) owns the land and has partnered with the Land Trust to enhance and restore fish and wildlife habitat in this community open space.
On the north side of the property is an open water lagoon surrounded by scattered trees, mixed shrub areas, and fields formerly and currently used for pasture. The dredged lagoon is brackish, with some saltwater input during high tides through a small culvert connecting the lagoon to Skagit Bay. Every spring, large numbers of juvenile Chinook and other salmonids are carried to Dugualla Bay from the Skagit River Delta by the spring floodwaters coming out of the river, less than 5 miles away. The conservation easement provides an opportunity to improve critical rearing habitat for these young salmon, providing food and shelter in rich, shallow waters before they continue their journey to the open ocean.
In addition to the lagoon area, three acres of mature Douglas fir/western hemlock forest with western red cedar, red alder, big-leaf maple, a lush understory of swordfern and salal, and a small perennial stream provides other important wildlife habitat values for birds, amphibians and other creatures.
Project Stories
2009: Protection
The Dugualla Heights Conservation Easement is one of three Dugualla Bay properties (the other two are Dugualla Flats and Dugualla Bay Preserves) protected in a complex set of negotiations over three years.
Dugualla Bay has long been identified as one of the most important salmon habitats in Puget Sound. The Bay lies approximately five miles due west of the mouth of the North Fork of the Skagit River. Out-migrating Skagit River juvenile Chinook and other salmon are carried to the shallow waters of this potentially very productive nearshore habitat within a day of leaving the Skagit Delta, making the Land Trust’s shoreline properties a top priority for Island County’s salmon recovery strategy. Dugualla Bay also provides habitat for a variety of shorebirds and waterfowl migrating through the area, including Snow Geese, Western Sandpiper, Dunlin, and several duck species.
The three properties, owned by the historic North Whidbey Ducken family, were just days away from being placed on the market when the Land Trust got involved. Together, these three properties protect over 4,500 feet of Dugualla Bay shoreline, which abuts nearly four miles of public coastal tidelands.
With the exception of one acre, the properties were purchased from the Ducken Family LLC, managed by John Ducken. Ducken’s grandfather came to Whidbey in 1911 and purchased land with money he had earned in Alaska’s gold fields. He also helped build the dike along Dugualla Bay and developed the Dugualla Heights neighborhood.
The Land Trust worked with the Ducken Family and Dugualla Commmunity, Inc. to acquire a conservation easement on 29-acres of forest, field, and lagoon. First, it signed an agreement to purchase 28 acres from the Ducken Family LLC and then assigned the agreement to Dugualla Community, Inc. The association took ownership of the 28 acres and simultaneously sold a conservation easement on that property, plus another acre of beach access it owned, to the Land Trust.
“We now have the ability to keep a natural, scenic setting in our neighborhood—something good for the environment and something we can enjoy.” said Peter Hunt, 2009 president of the community association.
Funding to acquire and protect all three Dugualla Bay properties (152 acres total), valued at $2.3 million, was made possible by a number of competitive grants that the Land Trust wrote and secured. These included grants from the Washington State Salmon Recovery Funding Board, Island County Conservation Futures Fund, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s Northwest Wildlife Initiative, and other sources, including private funds raised by the Land Trust. The Ducken Family LLC also helped make the transaction possible with a generous donation of land value.
2010 – 2011: Restoration Feasibility Study
A month after the last purchase papers were signed, the Land Trust began a feasibility study to explore ideas and options for restoring estuarine habitat on two of the properties that were once diverse nearshore habitats benefiting salmon and other wildlife. The study included both the Dugualla Heights Conservation Easement site and the Land Trust’s Dugualla Bay Preserve site just east of Dike Road.
Dugualla Heights lagoon was once a complex mosaic of saltmarsh, beach and pond with an outlet to the Bay that shifted over time as beach sediment accumulated and was moved by storms. The marsh was dredged in the 1960’s to create a permanent open water lagoon and most of the tidal connection was eliminated. The Skagit River System Cooperative estimates that a restored estuary at the Dugualla Heights lagoon could provide rearing habitat for about 17 percent of the 150,000-smolt target recovery capacity for pocket estuaries identified in the Skagit River Chinook Recovery Plan.
The feasibility and design project was funded by Washington State’s Salmon Recovery Funding Board and is nearing completion. One of the design project’s goals is to build and strengthen local stakeholder participation in the project planning process to ensure that the project design and future implementation are supported by the community. As part of the study, the Land Trust has been working with other organizations and neighbors, including the Marine Resources Committee, Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group, WSU Beachwatchers, Skagit River System Cooperative, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Island County, Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Diking District 3, and the Dugualla Heights community.
