PORT ANGELES — North Olympic Land Trust has purchased property near the Lyre River to permanently conserve the 280-acre estuary ecosystem, and the public will be able to use it by mid-2015.
The total purchase price, much of it acquired through grants, was $3.15 million, said Tom Sanford, land trust executive director.
The area on the Strait of Juan de Fuca about 20 miles west of Port Angeles is important to several salmon species, said land trust officials.
Once it is open to the public, visitors will be able to park about a mile from the beach and walk in from there for such day-use activities as bird watching, wildlife viewing, surfing, picnicking and beach walking, the land trust said.
The area will be closed to all motor vehicles.
“This is the largest land protection project in the land trust’s almost 25-year history and will be a terrific place for the community to enjoy local forests and shoreline,” said Karen Westwood of Sequim, who is the land trust board president.
The purchase pushes the value of total land conservation by the land trust to more than $14 million since 2007, agency officials said.
The land includes the estuary at the mouth of the Lyre River, streams, wetlands, tidelands, kelp beds and bluff-backed beaches, as well as a large upland area with a diverse forest at various ages of growth.
The property includes the 3,000th acre that the land trust has conserved in Clallam County.
Other areas permanently conserved through land trust ownership are properties on Elk and Siebert creeks and the Pysht River.
The land trust and local partners bought the property with grants from the state’s Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration fund, Marine Shoreline Protection fund, and Estuary and Salmon Restoration Program.
The land trust also contributed its own money.
The previous land owner also provided a donation to pay for ongoing stewardship of the property.
Critical partners include the North Olympic Peninsula Lead Entity, the Puget Sound Partnership, the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe and the Makah tribe.
The project was ranked eighth among regional large-scale capital projects for funding by the Puget Sound Salmon Recovery Council’s 2013-15 Puget Sound
Acquisition and Restoration program, the land trust said.
The ranking was based on impact to salmon recovery, project readiness and how the individual project would advance Puget Sound Action Agenda targets.
The land trust also conserves land through voluntary conservation easements with private landowners.
Such agreements are in place on properties across the county, from the Bogachiel River to the Miller Peninsula.
For more information about the North Olympic Land Trust, visit www.northolympiclandtrust.org or phone 360-417-1815.
