It’s been many years since I’ve been skiing, so when I heard the last weekend to ski at Mt. Baker was coming up and I had Friday off, it was a no-brainer.  Literally.  It takes a man of little brain to decide after a long slow winter of sloth to go ski for 6 or 7 hours.  But I used to be an avid skier and knew it would be a blast.

I smartened up that Thursday night deciding that family obligations would prevent me from getting my gear together until the morning.  This effectively cut two hours off my actual hill time and gave me a ski window I might actually be able to work with.  My goal was now to be on the lift by 11 a.m.  And I intentionally didn’t ask anyone to go with me where I’d be tempted to show off my old skills.  Pride being what it is, I didn’t want to collapse at noon.

The morning started great and I drug my skis, boots and poles out of the shed and loaded the truck.  They looked a little tarnished from lack of use and there was a bit of rust on the edges, but otherwise seemed to be in good shape.  Even the weather looked promising.  I had to laugh as I loaded my skis.  They were state-of-the-art “parabolas” about 10 years ago.  I remembered people in the lift line asking how I liked them, and realized today I’d likely get more of a snicker.  At least I wouldn’t have to worry about locking them up in the ski racks.

Then I was back inside pulling out a bunch of warm clothes to wear on the mountain, and out with these came my old ski pants.  I don’t think anybody wears these anymore, but they are warm and comfortable to ski in.  I tried them on and was happy to find they still fit pretty good.  Then I looked in the mirror and showed my wife.  After that I quickly lost them back in the closet before my 5-year-old daughter saw me. She doesn’t need any more ammo.

And there I was riding up the lift at 11 a.m.  The weather was a mix of blue sky and clouds, sunshine and snow.  I soon found out the visibility was just as schizophrenic; the terrain was either perfectly clear or impossible to see.  But overall it was a great day to be skiing as long as you stayed where it was groomed.  I don’t have the old collection of waxes anymore and as soon as I left the tracks it was like hitting a glue board.

Somehow I managed to get in six runs without keeling over and decided to get something to eat and take a break.  I was more than a little overdressed and needed to lose my down jacket as well.  So after pushing myself on that last run I walked into the lodge out of breath and sweating hard.  Dumping my hat, goggles, gloves and jackets at a table, I got a tall glass of water and a beer. I needed to settle my stomach and nerves before eating, and only spilled a little water in my shaking hand on the way back to sit down.

By now the reality had set in and “keeling over” seemed a distinct possibility.  I took my time over lunch and enjoyed the company of a lodge cat that decided to lie in a patch of sun on my table.  From there the weather was nothing but crystal clear blue skies.  Warm, happy and fed, it wasn’t long before I felt invigorated enough to give it another go.  So after dropping off my coat I walked back to the ski rack to gear up and get on the mountain.

Not two steps from my skis, my right boot slipped sideways as it sank in the soft snow…and my back went out.  I didn’t drop to my knees, so that was a good sign.  But I had to stop and catch my breath.  Bending over and holding the rack, I decided it didn’t feel too bad.  I’d try a run and see how it went, maybe the chair would hit it right and the forward lean coming down the hill wouldn’t bother it.  The day had turned too nice to leave now.

The ride up was fine, but the day wasn’t as nice at the top of the hill.  It was socked in and snowing making it impossible to see.  Still, I managed to ski down without incident or pain, so I kept at it.  Some runs were the same, socked, snowy and impossible to see.  But others were bright, sunny and I could see every bump and turn.  And my back held out.

My sixth run after lunch was perfect.  Sunny and fun, I’d finally caught my breath and I flirted with making it the last run of the day.  Usually when you have this thought, it is a good one, so go with it.  I didn’t.  The top of the lift was completely socked in again and the heavy snow made the visibility the worst of the day.

I took off down the mountain and let the unseen hill throw me all over the slope.  I was tired, I was done. But still trying to enjoy this last bit of skiing, trying to ski hard, trying to ski in control, then needed to make a move so I could ski down to the lodge.  This put me on a track I hadn’t been on before and after it threw me down the hill I needed to stop and regroup.  I left the groove and hit the glue board, somehow managing to keep from hurdling out of my skis as I slid to a sudden stop.  Gravity won out anyway and I slowly fell backwards.

Struggling like a beetle to get up, I couldn’t get my skis under me as my poles sank with little resistance into the soft snow.  After one attempt I collapsed somewhat tangled as another older skier slipped smoothly to a stop a few feet away and asked, “Are you alright?”  Probably not, but I told him I was fine before giving up and taking off my skis so I could get up.

Taking off my boots in the sunshine while snow fell into the truck, I had to smile…it was a great day.

Every year the gardening world is tantalized with new introductions of  novel varieties and cultivars. We are dazzled with a variant color of a tried and true plant or a new leaf color of an old garden favorite. So for this year, here are a few of the newer varieties out there.

Many new varieties of Hydrangea have been introduced over the last couple of years.  Hydrangea macrophylla “Pistachio” is one of my favorite new mophead-type Hydrangeas. As part of the “Next Generation Collection,” “Pistachio” has huge 5-6” clusters of brilliant scarlet-red flowers tinged with green with a wide variety in coloration among flowers. “Pistachio” begins to flower in midsummer and re-blooms until frost; it has a compact, rounded growth habit, grows to 2-3 feet tall and 3-5 feet wide, and grows great in containers.

“Vanilla Strawberry” is a newer variety of Pee Gee Hydrangea (H. paniculata “Vanilla Strawberry”). Growing 6-8 ft. tall, “Vanilla Strawberry” has creamy white flowers when they first open.  After a couple of weeks, the flowers turn pink, then become a strawberry red to almost burgundy. Flower color is retained for several weeks, and because it re-blooms through summer, all three color stages will be on the plant at the same time.

Hydrangea paniculata “Fire & Ice” is another new colorful Pee Gee Hydrangea reaching 6-10 feet tall and wide.  Like the previous one, “Fire & Ice” has cream colored flowers that begin to bloom in early summer, turn pink, and then later turn red/burgundy.  Flowers remain colorful into autumn.

Many newer varieties of shrubs are dwarf cultivars bred to appeal to the container gardener. Weigela “Spilled Wine” is one such newer introductions.  With a compact, spreading habit reaching 12-18” tall and 24-36“ wide, “Spilled Wine” works well in containers, borders, mixed plantings. The combination of rich, burgundy brown foliage and vividly colored hot magenta flowers really make this plant pop.

Among bedding plants, there have been many new, exciting varieties of Petunias introduced over the last couple of years.

“Pink Lemonade” is to me one of the most impressive new varieties of Petunia. With a nice dense, trailing growth habit, rich green leaves contrast with clear soft light yellow and pink tones. “Pink Lemonade” is very floriferous and will bloom well into fall with regular water and fertilizer.  Very colorful and different.

For something really different, watch out for the newer varieties of black-flowering Petunias.  “Black Cat” and “Black Velvet” are some of the darkest and closest to completely black flowers that I”ve seen. Also colorful are “Phantom” and “Pin Stripe”; each have that rich black Petunia color punctuated with creamy, light yellow stripes.

But my favorite new plant that I”ve seen this year is Verbena “Twister Pink.”  This trailing Verbena has large very unique, bi-colored hot pink and pure white flower clusters 4-5” wide. The half of the flower that faces the inside of the cluster is hot pink, and the half of the flower that faces the outside of the cluster is white – very unusual. And don”t forget, Verbenas attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

For many new varieties, it may take a few years for the plants to reach your favorite nursery.  Do some research this year to see what”s new.  Visit your favorite nursery this spring and inquire about some of these newer varieties.  Cheers.

Chuck has a master”s degree in botany from Washington State University and has been gardening over 30 years.  He helps others solve their gardening dilemmas and may be reached at orchid fruit@hotmail.com.

“For the very first time, we will have an Everson/Nooksack Celebration Station,” event organizer Mary Cole said. “We haven’t had one this far out in the county before.”

Located in front of Nooksack Valley Middle School, the station will include stickers and other goodies for cyclists who check in. The Celebration Station will also keep track of how many riders pass through.

Mary Cole, library volunteer and event organizer, said she has partnered with several Everson businesses to localize the event. She said most of the prizes pertain to Bellingham-based businesses. She will hold a few contests with prizes localized around Everson- and Nooksack-based businesses. This not only awards prizes closer to home for Nooksack Valley students, but it also increases their odds of winning, as these local prizes will only be available to local students.

Other Celebration Station prizes will be open to all Whatcom County students who bike to a celebration station on their way to school that day. The Nooksack Valley Middle School Celebration Station will be open from 7 to 9:30 a.m.

Bike to Work and School Day has been a mainstay on the alternative transportation scene for about 15 years now. More than 10,000 people rode their bikes to work and school in last year’s event. Bike to Work and School Day is promoted by EverybodyBIKE, a program of Whatcom Smart Trips.

Several local businesses are providing their support for Bike to Work and School Day. One of these, Fanatik Bike Company in Bellingham, happens to have a cycling connection very close to the Nooksack and Everson community.

Emily Smith

For 2007 Nooksack Valley High School graduate Emily Smith, a love for cycling runs in the family. It wasn’t her first choice, however.

“(My dad) rode all through my childhood,” Smith said. “Cycling was never my first choice of sports. Growing up, I competed in show-jumping.”

She competed in equestrian show-jumping from about age 7 to 19. She traveled to compete every year.

“After I went to university and got a little bit busier, I switched gears,” Smith said. “I got a little burnt out on the horses thing, and I started riding with my dad more and more when I transferred back to Western.”

She found a thriving offroad biking community at Fanatik Bike shop in Bellingham, a Bike to Work and School Day sponsor and Smith’s place of work.

“A bunch of the guys there raced growing up,” Smith said. “They guided me throughout he early stages of the sport.”

She entered the downhill racing circuit for the first time in June 2010 and she hasn’t looked back.

“The way that downhill works is you progress from category three to category one in the amateur rankings,” Smith said. “You have to get a certain number of top-three finishes. My movement up through category three and two was in one year. I then moved to category one, which was the top level of the amateurs.”

Smith obviously performed very well in the local circuit, which includes races in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. She also found success in races located in British Columbia.

For the past two years, Smith has competed successfully in the national expert class. This national success culminated with her taking first place at the U.S. National Championships in the women ages 19-29 expert class in Beech Mountain, N.C.

“When you win at nationals, they move you into the professional category,” Smith said. “This is my first year with the pros.”

As a professional cyclecross rider, Smith now moves on to competing primarily at the national and international levels. She said her practice regimen has definitely changed since she broke into a higher level of competition.

“I think as I have taken this a lot more seriously and as I’ve gained sponsorship, I’m not only riding for myself, but I’m representing companies. It has a different weight to it. I think the biggest change for me has been the mental aspect of it. It’s always just fun to ride your bike, and that’s a good way to approach it. But there’s a serious way to approach it, though.”

Smith said that, as an amateur, she got away with minimal race preparation. That is no longer the case.

“When you’re in the amateur categories, I got away with doing very well with a minimal amount of preparation. Now that I’ve gotten to the professional side of things, it’s a bit more of going to bed at 8 o’clock. I think that’s probably one of the hardest things to figure out. I’m lucky enough to work with a great trainer. It definitely is a bit overwhelming. It’s just about working hard to figure that out.”

She is sponsored by a variety of companies, including Cycles Devinci, Troy Lee Designs, Terrain Gym, Leatt, GoPro, Renthal Cycle Products, 100% and Fanatik Bike Company, where she works.

Smith will travel to nationals in Beech Mountain again in July. The best part of the sport, to her, is simple.

“My favorite part of the sport is probably winning,” she said.

Cole said Smith is a good example of where a passion for cycling can take a person. She will set up a display cabinet at Everson McBeath Community Library to celebrate Smith and her achievements for Bike to Work and School Day. Tha names of the businesses sponsoring Bike to Work and School Day will be listed with the display as well.

For more information on the various events occurring around the county on Bike to Work and School Day, visit BikeToWorkAndSchoolDay.org.

Email Brent Lindquist at foothills@lyndentribune.com.

Honeybee colonies are an essential factor in the pollination of many of the world’s crops, and local berry crops are no different. Locally, that means beekeepers are essential as well.

Russell J. Deptuch has owned and operated Bees Choice Honey, located in north Ferndale, for about seven years.

“How I got started was, I bought two existing hives from another beekeeper,” he said. “Right now, I’ve got about 45 hives.”

Bees Choice Honey specializes in pollination services, swarm capture and local honey.

Pollination

Deptuch kicks off berry season by bringing his bees to local blueberry farms.

“What we do is, we wait until the grower is ready to move in,” Deptuch said. “Then I’ll figure out how many hives he needs. We do about one hive per acre for raspberries and three hives per acre for blueberries. They’ll call us up and we’ll arrange a time or a day to move the hives out and load them up on a flat to move them out to the blueberries.”

The hives are then left in the blueberries until the blooms drop off the plants. At that point, Deptuch moves his bees to local raspberry crops.

“We generally move them under cooler temperatures in the early morning or at night,” Deptuch said. “You want to keep all the bees inside the hive. We don’t want to lose any bees or leave any bee behind. No bee left behind.”

Deptuch said he gets most of his information on pollination levels from growers.

“I think (2012) is pretty much on par with most years,” he said. “We did have a little bit of a wet spring there, but I think it’s about right.”

Swarm capture

Deptuch said a healthy honeybee colony may contain 30,000 or more bees. Just 300 of these are male drones, and only one bee in each hive is the queen. The rest are the workers.

As a hive’s population increases and the colony becomes more and more crowded, the colony issues a swarm. Before swarming, the colony begins to raise new queen cells by feeding them a special jelly. The new swarm leaves about two days before the virgin queen emerges.

A new swarm consists of about half the old hive’s worker bees, a few male drones and the old queen.

Deptuch said these swarms appear as a wild, unsynchronized mass. However, swarms follow a predetermined plan that leads eventually to finding a place to rest.

This is often the stage at which local residents notice swarms. The solo queen and her swarm may rest on a tree, porch post, wall or stop sign. The resting swarm is usually about the size and shape of a bee-covered football. The resting swarm then sends out scout bees to find a suitable spot for a new home.

Deptuch said capturing a swarm at this time is the easiest for the beekeeper and best for the property owner. Once the bees swarm to the spot specified by their scouts, they establish themselves and cannot be easily removed without some demolition. Deptuch said the sooner a swarm is captured, the less likely it is that it will become established in an attic, the eaves of a house, a car or any other place considered suitable by the swarm- but unsuitable to you.

Local honey

Bees don’t make much honey from blueberries, Deptuch said, but they make plenty from raspberries. The three varieties of honey sold by Bees Choice Honey are raspberry, wildflower and fireweed.

“After we pollinate the raspberries, we bring our bees up to the foothills to Mosquito Lake Road to make fireweed honey,” Deptuch said.

The 2011 stock of Bees Choice honey ran out in December, but Deptuch hopes to have more to sell at the Ferndale, Lynden and Blaine farmers’ markets before the end of May.

Bees Choice Honey can be contacted at 815-3989 or via e-mail at russ@beeschoice.com.

Email Brent Lindquist at foothills@lyndentribune.com.

As usual, the relay race will cover seven different sports and about 93 miles. The race goes from Mount Baker to Bellingham Bay.

The race begins with a four-mile loop of cross-country skiing followed by a 2.5-mile downhill skiing/snowboarding loop.

After the snow portion, competitors take on the running leg, which takes them eight miles down the Mt. Baker Highway, on a 2,200-foot drop in elevation.

Near Glacier and the North Fork of the Nooksack River, competitors begin the 42-mile bicycle leg, which ends in Everson. Teams then begin the 18.5-mile canoe leg down the Nooksack to Hovander Park in Ferndale, where the 13-mile mountain biking portion begins.

Teams finish the race with a 5-mile/4.3-nautical-mile sea kayaking portion, finishing up in Fairhaven’s Marine Park.

A logjam in the canoeing portion of the race was recently reported on the Ski to Sea Facebook page, but it shouldn’t affect the race, officials say.

“The log jam mostly cleared on its own, but the sweepers have persisted,” the page reports. “The top half of the river from Everson is still a very technical section, so any newer paddlers should go out in groups, hug the right side of the channel and preferably go with some experienced paddlers.”

The snags are at a spot called Mix Master about 2.5 miles from launch at Riverside Park.

Westside Pizza and Subway will open new locations in the Marketplace Business Center building at 102 W. Main St., which also houses Everson Physical Therapy, Ruiz Family Martial Arts and Farmers Insurance.

“On the main floor, the Subway and Westside Pizza restaurants are going into the corner space, but the balance of the space is taken up by Everson Physical Therapy,” said Chad Simmons, who owns the structure under Sucia Bay Development L.L.C.

Simmons said he is looking forward to helping bring some new dining options to town.

“We’re excited to get Westside and Subway going. After working out there for a few years, there are other good options to eat in town for lunch, but not much else,” he said.

Lynden Westside Pizza owner Brian McCurdy said his business will bring much-needed pizza delivery service to Everson.

“I originally looked in Everson a few years back, and I just always thought it was an area that didn’t have delivery service and didn’t have a whole lot of choices,” McCurdy said.

McCurdy first worked at Westside Pizza in high school in Colville, Wash., and opened his first store the day after Halloween in 2008. In the decade that preceded that, he opened stores with the chain’s original owner.

He estimated that there are currently 19 Westside Pizza restaurants in operation. The Everson location will be his second solo-owned store.

Subway co-owner Dorice Wolden said she and her husband first considered opening an Everson store when their idea for a Nugent’s Corner location was looking like it wouldn’t pan out.

“We live up the Nooksack River, so Everson is one of the towns that we go through,” Wolden said. “We first opened our Burlington store in 1994. We’ve been expanding in Skagit, and we moved up here three years ago. We started working on our Everson store when they thought Nugent’s Corner wouldn’t go through.”

Wolden said she is looking forward to adding to the dining variety in Everson.

“I think it’s good that we’re sharing the space with Westside,” she said. “We thought it would be best to come up with something that would accommodate both of us. It’s nice to have multiple food places because there’s a kind of synergy that you don’t get otherwise.”

The Woldens are looking forward to using the store to support local schools, as they do with their other Subway locations.

Like Westside, Subway is set to open in about two months.

Simmons said people might be surprised at how much traffic passes by the building on a daily basis. He and his business partner, Rich Carter, own two commercial buildings in Bellingham as well.

“We decided that Bellingham was getting a little overpriced,” Simmons said. “We felt we could find something reasonable enough so that we could remodel the building. For this one, the traffic surprisingly is approximately an 8,000-trip count per day. That was verified by the city of Everson. On Cornwall Avenue, where our other two buildings are, I don’t believe has more than a 5,000-trip count.”

Simmons and Carter bought the building in November 2007, and they have spent the time since then remodeling the space.

“We’ve spent the last almost five years now remodeling the entire building,” Simmons said. “It only had about three tenants in the entire space. When we inherited it, it only had two.”

McCurdy said Westside Pizza will open in July, depending on permitting. A Subway will also open in the same building, and the two restaurants will share a hallway and restrooms.

Email Brent Lindquist at foothills@lyndentribune.com.

The Nooksack Valley School District has been awarded two grants that will assist the district in adopting various new mandates across the educational spectrum.

Kellogg Grant

A $500,000 W.K. Kellogg Foundation grant will help the Nooksack Valley and Anacortes school districts implement a unique system of new teacher/principal evaluation processes and a staff development model.

The grant will allow Nooksack Valley and Anacortes to combine their respective areas of expertise to help schools toward bettering themselves as academic institutions.

Nooksack Valley brings to the table a job-embedded professional development system that goes against the common job development model used by many school districts.

“We’ve been focused on providing very targeted professional development for our teachers in literacy, math and math-science for a long time, as opposed to what you’d call a traditional model where folks sign up for a conference someplace around a specific topic they’re particularly interested in as an individual but not necessarily related to any district focus,” said Cindy Stockwell, Nooksack Valley assistant superintendent. “For example, if we’re focusing on literacy, then we’re going to bring forward the best professional literacy development we can.”

The system uses a cycle-of-inquiry approach in which teachers examine their own practices and strengths, treating their on-the-job experience like an “action research project,” Stockwell said. In this examination, teachers determine the areas in which they can improve. The process relies heavily on providing actual evidence that these procedures foster measurable change in classroom performance.

“It is pretty organic,” Stockwell said. “It’s continuous improvement, and it’s something that can be replicated over time. That’s what we’re bringing to this partnership. There are two pieces and we kind of meld them together.”

The Anacortes district has set itself apart as somewhat of a pioneer in the area of teacher/principal evaluation.

“Anacortes has been part of the pilot work at the state level to develop the new teacher evaluation system,” Stockwell said. “They’re a little bit ahead of the game in that sense.”

The grant money will go toward supporting the development of these models and the necessary staff development to support them in both districts. Nooksack Valley and Anacortes will also be working with the University of Washington, which will provide a new teacher leadership certification program and evaluation of the project as a whole.

CCSS Grant

Nooksack Valley will also receive a $4,500 grant to assist in the implementation of the state’s new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for language arts and math during the spring and summer of 2012.

Nooksack Valley is one of 50 schools selected to receive a grant; Ferndale is the only other local district.

According to the state’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) website, the funds “will be used for travel and other costs related to participation in standards workshops that are hosted by Educational Service Districts throughout the state.”

Grant recipients must designate an implementation team of four to six people to participate in the project. This team will attend regional 2012 content training and CCSS district team workshops in May and August. These workshops will help engage the teams in learning opportunities to build an understanding of the standards, considering the implications they have on professional learning for educators and providing support in creating district-specific implementation plans and identifying the support needed at various educational levels.

“We have two district leadership teams, one in math and one in literacy,” Stockwell said. “Those are the two main components of the Common Core. From those two teams, I’ve drafted a team that’ll work with me to do the advanced training. They have training dates scheduled. We’ll go and be the advanced learners for those components and bring them back to the district and then share that with the larger leadership teams, who will then work with everybody across the district. These 50 districts will also share strategies for implementation.”

Stockwell said the timelines for both the CCSS and teacher/principal evaluation implementations are almost parallel, which adds up to a long list of tasks for the district to complete. For that reason, Nooksack Valley started early.

“We kind of like to be ahead of the game,” she said.

Funding for the CCSS grants comes from a federal program, Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, that aims to augment the number of low-income students in preparation for college.

The standards are for both the K-5 and 6-12 grade levels.

The CCSS for English language arts focuses more heavily on increasing the complexity of student-read texts and developing students’ skills in argumentative writing and research. The standards emphasize speaking and listening skills as avenues for evaluation and presentation of information. They also call for an increased emphasis on the use of technology and multimedia for information gathering and publishing.

The CCSS for mathematics focuses on preparation for careers and college and include STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) standards for students planning careers in science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics. In addition, students at all levels should develop expertise in eight Standards for Mathematical Practice, including reasoning abstractly and modeling with mathematics.

Email Brent Lindquist at reporter@lyndentribune.com.

The draft Capital Facilities Plan will be available for viewing on the district’s website at http:/www.wcfd14.org/ and at the Kendall Fire Station.

The plan presents an inventory of the current capital facilities of Fire District 14, the anticipated future needs for capital facilities to maintain the adopted levels of service for fire protection based upon projected growth over the planning period, and financing for proposed capital improvement projects. The commissioner will consider adopting the Capital Facilities Plan after receiving public comments at the hearing.

The district is inviting and encouraging the public to submit written comments and/or to attend the hearing to provide oral comments. Written comments may be submitted to:

Whatcom County Fire District 14

P.O. Box 482

Sumas, WA 98295

Email: denise@wcfd14.org

At a meeting held May 3, DNR decided to keep the trails closed. Recreation Program Communications Manager Diana Lofflin said that although there was heavy outcry from community members to keep the trails open, the DNR had no choice but to shut down access.

“The trails were built without the DNR knowledge,” Lofflin said. “When we found out, there was a huge liability risk for personal injury and environmental damage, so we had to close it down.”

In early April, Sen. Doug Ericksen of Ferndale sent a letter to Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark, asking him to suspend the DNR’s plan to decommission the trail system. In that letter, Ericksen asked for the DNR to review all the factors in the decision including neighbors’ complaints and environmental problems.

Ericksen said that Slide Mountain is the only type of trail open to bikers in the area, and closing it down would be a mistake.

“There are no authorized recreational areas on DNR land in Whatcom County,” Ericksen wrote in the letter.  “The user-built mountain-bike trail system is a reflection of the need for such recreational opportunities.”

Lofflin said the DNR’s stance was that there are plenty of recreation trails and plans for the future to fit the needs of those who frequented Slide Mountain. Lofflin said these trails include Blanchard Mountain in Walker Valley in Skagit County.

As for mountain bike trail access right in Whatcom County, Lofflin said the DNR is in the process of developing plans, but there’s one thing in the way.

“Right now we don’t have anything in the budget, so we’re working on getting something funded for it to move forward,” Lofflin said. “We will find an area for the recreation plan that can support whatever trails or facilities are built. We go through a lot of environmental and landscape design processes.”

Lofflin added that the DNR’s goal is to develop a plan that will involve plenty of feedback from members of the community.

Email Braulio Perez at sports@lyndentribune.com.

The council voted 4-3 to approve the plan, with council members Bill Knutzen, Barbara Brenner and Kathy Kershner opposed.

The site contains three separate land parcels southeast of Acme—the Nesset Farm and homestead, the Overby Farm and the Galbraith Farm.

“Public access will be provided from an entrance off Mosquito Lake Road,” a Whatcom County Parks & Recreation press release states. “Two trailheads are proposed with a 20-vehicle parking area and restroom for general trail users and a 10-vehicle parking area and restroom for equestrians. A 4-mile multi-use trail for hikers, equestrians and bicyclists utilizing existing trails and roads will lead park visitors through the park to the historic Nesset Farm located on the southern portion of the property. The Nesset Farm is proposed for restoration and will showcase pioneer life in the valley through the collection of original buildings and artifacts.”

Four of the 603 acres will be impacted by trailhead development. The rest will remain naturally forested.

Several proponents and opponents spoke out at the May 8 meeting. Council member Ken Mann voted in favor of the plan after holding off in March. He said he is still not entirely comfortable with the issue of timber rights on the property, but also said the council has taken adequate time to make the decision.

“It’s not a perfect history, but I don’t think it’s fair to be pointing fingers and making innuendos about back-room deals and dishonesty and conspiracy, especially with our parks department leadership who wasn’t even here when a lot of this happened,” Mann said. “I believe it’s extremely low-impact, and it’s not going to cost a lot of money to implement.”

He said he cannot find any evidence that past county councils did not know what they were voting on.

Cost figures on the park’s improvements have ranged from $750,000 to $1.6 million.

Knutzen has been a vocal opponent of the park. He said the original purpose of the park has been pushed aside.

“I don’t know how we’ve gotten to this point,” Knutzen said. “It started out as the Nessets wanting to give Whatcom County their property so school kids could come and view a turn-of-the-century farm in action. How did it become a 690-acre playground for the backcountry horsemen? It just seems like the original vision that the Nessets were sold has been morphed into something that has no resemblance to what it originally was.”

Brenner said the construction of a new park is not fiscally responsible now. She emphasized the high ongoing costs of operating the park in addition to the initial funds needed to build it.

“At some point, this council is going to have to make a decision as to what our essential public service is and what are nice things to have,” she said. “I think there has been a lot of money spent on all of this. That is the same argument that we have gotten with all kinds of things.”

Natalie Everett, spokeswoman for the South Fork Heritage Association, said the community was not adequately consulted before the plan was introduced in 2007. Her family owns 120 acres between the Nesset and Overby properties.

Concerns raised by the Heritage Association include the potentially harmful effects of the park on local wildlife habitats, an increase in tubing on the river, and a lack of police and fire support for the influx of people that is expected to occur.

Everett said that despite this setback, the Heritage Association will stay involved and will focus on other heritage-related projects as well.

We will stay engaged,” Everett said. “We have not decided on a specific action. We definitely will be engaged.”

Email Brent Lindquist at foothills@lyndentribune.com.