In our third year of mitigation reporting for our trail and boardwalk installation, we were faced with the obstacles of the pandemic and came up with some creative solutions to getting it all done! Dig in for the background story of a unique community collaboration: Recreation Northwest looks to Western’s Wetland Ecology Students for help Reporting.
The partnership of Western’s students and Welch Ecological Services came together quite smooth! As a result, we were able to submit our annual report to the City of Bellingham and the Army Corps of Engineers for our mitigation project. Here’s the 2020 Fairhaven Park Mitigation Report (PDF)
The report highlights the work we accomplished over the past three years and it’s a rather interesting read. For those that like pictures, scroll down to page 11 to see the documentation of the growth of our native plants over time. For those who like data- there’s plenty of that in here too!
We Thank:
Welch Ecological Services
Western’s Wetland Ecology Students & Dr. John Rybczyk
Our work party volunteers
Our donors and funders who support these efforts.
Photos from the first three years of monitoring and reporting:
Year One
Year Two
Year Three

Todd Elsworth is one of the many “Mossy-haired lunatics roaming the dripping peninsulas”, described in “I’m Here for the Weather” by Tom Robbins. As executive director, he works to fulfill our mission to teach the health benefits of nature, promote outdoor recreation, and steward the places where we play.
yay for restoration, well done team!