By Tim Clark
Special to the Islands’ Weekly
Watmough Bay gets a lot of use, especially during the summer months. This island jewel is maintained and managed through the work of lots of volunteers, the Bureau of Land Management, Land Bank and San Juan Preservation Trust. Even with the loads of people enjoying Watmough, you can’t see a lot of wear and tear.
But impacts happen where you can’t see them. Watmough is a nursery and snack bar for many marine organisms, including juvenile salmon. The bottom of the bay is used for food and protection by everything from salmon to sculpins, crab to cod, and gunnels to greenlings. The same bottom is used by boaters for anchoring, which destroys vegetation such as the eelgrass that marine species depend upon. The number of boats has increased over the years and the vegetation is receding.
The Land Bank, through an eelgrass protection cost-share program administered by the Friends of the San Juans and funded by the Washington State Salmon Recovery Funding Board, plans to install new mooring buoys to protect the marine vegetation while still supporting access for boaters.
Plans call for two new “screw-type” buoys, which will keep boats from anchoring in those sensitive areas and dragging and pulling up vegetation. Another, existing buoy will be retrofitted with an eelgrass friendly design, bringing the total of public buoys to three. There is presently also one private buoy at Watmough, which is in good shape and not negatively impacting eelgrass. The new buoys will be placed to minimize impacts to the views. A map of possible placements is available at http://sjcgis.org/ps2/default.aspx?action=displayMap&mapid=2649, with the new buoys and trail shown in red.
Also, along the shoreline to the south (to the right as you enter the beach), an addition to the existing trail will allow hikers to climb through the hillside and access the BLM property at Point Colville without trudging under the powerlines. Thanks to groups like the Lopez Island Conservation Corps, the San Juan Preservation Trust and the Lopez Community Trails Network, the trail is now ready to go. It’s marked with a small red flag on the right of the old trail, just before the powerlines and it ends at the top of the knob where the BLM land starts.
To express how you feel about Watmough and preservation efforts, email Tim Clark at timc@rockisland.com, or leave a message during the day at 468-2010.
Tim Clark is the Lopez Preserve Steward for the San Juan County Land Bank
