The Whidbey Camano Land Trust announced acquisition of 3,160 acres of tidelands in Livingston Bay, Camano Island, the largest conservation project in the Land Trust's history.

Livingston Bay, on the southeast side of Camano Island, is a critical stop for waterfowl and other migratory birds on the Pacific Flyway.  It also provides vital estuarine rearing habitat for salmon, steelhead, cutthroat trout, and other fish species.

The acquisition was made possible by a $400,000 grant from the Washington State Salmon Recovery Funding Board, matched by a generous private donation from Floyd Jones of Seattle.

Jones' wife, the late Delores Jones, was a member of the Sundin family, Swedish immigrants who purchased farmland on Livingston Bay in 1905.  The family still owns property there.

"It's a special place," Floyd Jones said.  "I've always thought it was a wonderful beach for kids."  That was one reason he donated money for the acquisition "and I'm glad I did."

"Now we won't have to worry about it in the future."

Jones and his wife also were involved in the Land Trust's earlier acquisition and protection of the Davis Slough heron rookery on Camano Island.

For Livingston Bay, the Land Trust wrote the grant application and put the deal together.  The Land Trust also secured a $928,000 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant that will be used by The Nature Conservancy to purchase critical uplands.  Other partners in the project include Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington Trout, Pacific Coast Joint Venture, Stillaguamish Tribe, and individual community members. 

“Acquisition of the Livingston Bay tidelands caps off a banner year at the Land Trust.  Thanks to our members and wonderful donors like Floyd Jones, we’ve been able to conserve almost twice as much land in 2006 than in our previous 21 years combined,” said Land Trust Executive Director, Patricia Powell. 

The purchase will mean permanent protection for Livingston Bay.  The Land Trust plans eventually to donate the 3,160 acres to The Nature Conservancy, which already owns more than 3,000 acres of tidelands in the adjacent Port Susan Bay.  This will allow for consolidated management of the entire tideland system.

The Livingston Bay tidelands are part of the Greater Skagit-Stillaguamish Delta, which also includes the state's 13,000-acre Skagit Wildlife Area.  More than 90 percent of Western Washington's migrating waterfowl rely on the delta for wintering areas, including half the nation's population of Wrangell Island snow geese.  The area also is vital to hundreds of wintering trumpeter and tundra swans and hosts the highest density and diversity of winter raptors in the United States.  All five North American falcon species are found within the Livingston Bay project area.

The tidelands also are used by juvenile and adult salmon and are especially important for juvenile Chinook salmon migrating from the Stillaguamish and Skagit Rivers.  They also provide important spawning areas for Pacific sand lance and surf smelt and migratory pathways for endangered bull trout.

Most of the Livingston Bay shoreline is privately owned but public access is available to the southwest portion of the bay at Island County's Iverson Spit Reserve, a popular spot for bird watching and beach walking.

Some interesting facts:

• More than 90% of western Washington’s wintering waterfowl rely on the Skagit-Stillaguamish Delta, a key stop along the Pacific Flyway for hundreds of thousands of migratory waterbirds.
  
• The USA and Russia have an international treaty to manage and protect the Wrangell Island Snow Goose population, about half of which (30,000 – 65,000) winters in Port Susan Bay.
  
• Migrating gray whales visit Port Susan Bay and feed on the nearshore by taking great bites from the sediment and filtering out the abundant mud shrimp, crabs, flatfish and other benthic animals.
  
• Salmon runs play a key role in supporting local pods of killer whales, which almost totally rely on salmon as a food source.