A Muddy Future for Herons
The City of Bellingham is considering a proposed 38-home subdivision on the cliffs above Mud Bay, a wetland site at the northern tip of Chuckanut Bay. The area provides feeding grounds for local herons.
A blue heron takes flight as a BNSF train blasts through Mud Bay on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024, in Bellingham, Wash. Most herons that frequent Mud Bay will fish and bring food back for their families living farther north at Post Point. // Photo taken by Imogene Eagan
Story by David Remer // Photos by Imogene Eagan
March 15, 2024
May 8, 2024: Please see the addendum to this story included at the end of the original article.
A brisk afternoon wind slices across the shoreline. The tide rolls gently into Mud Bay as neighborhood residents tread along the rocky shore. A great blue heron wades into shallow water not fifty feet away, scanning for small fish. After a while, the heron glides away.
Wendy Larson faces the water, listening to bird calls and rustling branches. Larson, a co-founder of Protect Mud Bay Cliffs (PMBC) and an experienced environmental advocate, leads community walking tours along the shoreline of Mud Bay to showcase the ecosystem’s beauty and biodiversity.
Mud Bay is a distinct wetland area north of Chuckanut Bay and serves as a feeding ground for Bellingham’s Post Point Heron colony. The colony’s nesting site south of Downtown Bellingham is protected while some feeding areas, like Mud Bay, are not.
A Mud Bay cliffside leans toward the water, trees and boulders securing the land on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024. Many blue herons reside in similar trees farther north at Post Point in Bellingham, Wash. // Photo taken by Imogene Eagan
A recently proposed development could impact the Mud Bay ecosystem upon which herons depend. For Larson, Mud Bay is more than a neighborhood walking area. The unique, intertidal environment represents a piece of Bellingham that is worth protecting.
The Post Point colony of great blue herons fed and nested in greater Chuckanut Bay until developments in 1999 confined them to their current nesting area at Post Point in 2000, according to the City of Bellingham website.
The Woods at Viewcrest, a proposed 38-home subdivision, has drawn local concern over its ecological risks. The homes would be built on the cliffs overlooking Mud Bay and involve intense modification of rocky and unstable terrain.
Many Mud Bay cliffs residences have a direct view of the bay in Bellingham, Wash., on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024. // Photo taken by Imogene Eagan
PMBC is a Bellingham non-profit advocating for adequate environmental consideration of the proposed development site. PMBC was co-founded by community members Larson and Larry Horowitz in 2021, alongside a larger board of volunteers.
PMBC’s volunteers work to keep track of the proposal’s paperwork as it changes hands between the developer and the City of Bellingham. The group also hires experts to review the developers’ documents, as well as meet with the city to express their concerns over ecological and public safety risks, according to their website.
A geotechnical report from Element Solutions evaluated the site’s viability and was the City of Bellingham’s initial reference for the project. The report concludes that the site above Mud Bay is fit for development overall while acknowledging some risk of erosion.
“They’re going to have to try to do excavation with rock-breaking equipment,” Larson said, describing that the terrain is too unstable for blasting and would require tools like cranes or pile drivers. These methods would increase the potential magnitude of heron disturbance from noise.
The City of Bellingham created the first management and protection plan for the Post Point Heron Colony in 2003.
The city has invested substantial resources into heron research and protection. For Larson and other advocates, development like The Woods at Viewcrest undermines past efforts to protect this colony.
A sign advocating for the protection of Mud Bay cliffs in the Mud Bay neighborhood sticks in the ground by a residence that overlooks the bay on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024, in Bellingham, Wash. // Photo taken by Imogene Eagan
Mud Bay is an ideal feeding ground for herons because it is an estuarine wetland that contains a mix of fresh and saltwater year round. Wetlands can be afforded protections from the Washington State Department of Ecology if the function or value of the wetland is too difficult to replace.
According to Ecology’s Wetland Rating System, a Category l wetland warrants protection from disturbance and development. PMBC pushed back against the City of Bellingham’s geotechnical report which failed to mention any wetland category. PMBC asserts that Mud Bay is a Category l estuarine wetland.
“The heron’s preferred feeding areas are within three miles of their nesting site, and Mud Bay is about a mile and a quarter,” Larson said.
Ann Eissinger, a wildlife biologist and heron specialist, researched the Post Point Herons and wrote the 2019 Post Point Heron Colony Management Recommendations Update.
The Post Point Herons typically occupy their central nesting site from Jan. 15 to Sept. 1. However, the colony’s use of their wider feeding habitat is continuous.
“It is likely that herons both feed and roost in the Chuckanut Bay nearshore area year-round,” Eissinger said. This includes the wetland area of Mud Bay that lies just below the project site.
The Mud Bay semi-low tide sits alongside the railroad causeway that cuts through the bay on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024, in Bellingham, Wash. // Photo taken by Imogene Eagan
The potential disturbance from construction that Larson and the PMBC are raising concerns about would affect foraging herons.
The proposed development could eliminate an important food source by preventing herons from foraging in Mud Bay and decrease their population. Less food means less offspring, according to the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Larson and many residents of the area have observed local herons for years. They have become a symbol of natural beauty and ecological vitality in the eyes of the community.
Development near estuarine wetlands is a national issue. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, about 85% of estuarine wetlands on the west coast of the United States have been disrupted or destroyed by development.
The wetlands within Mud Bay form a productive and complex ecosystem. As of now, the City of Bellingham is still reviewing the developer’s response to their request for more information and in January of this year, members of the PMBC met with city officials to advocate for Mud Bay and the herons that depend on it.
Addendum:
Comments on this story after it was published online made it clear to the editing staff that the voices of the developers of The Woods at Viewcrest were underrepresented in our original reporting. Ali Taysi, principal at AVT Consulting, gave us the information included below.
The Woods at Viewcrest, according to the developers, would not have any impact on heron habitat.
“The project was intentionally designed to avoid and minimize critical areas and habitat impacts,” Taysi wrote in an email.
Some of the strategies to reduce the development’s impact include clustering homes on the north side of the property, with a 400 foot shoreline buffer, to minimize impacts to wetland habitat.
The grading of the site was evaluated by a professional geologist and geotechnical consultant. Although construction would occur on steep slopes, the topography of the area would be taken into consideration and certain strategies could be put in place to mitigate risk of erosion.
“Seasonal construction restrictions, temporary erosion and sediment control measures, field inspections and other best management practices are recommended,” Taysi wrote in an email, noting that development on steep slopes happens all over Bellingham.
The family that owns the property on Mud Bay have for over 75 years, and are committed to developing a project that is sensitive to the environment, according to Taysi.
A meeting with the City of Bellingham’s hearing examiner will be held in late summer 2024 to issue a decision on the various permits that The Woods at Viewcrest have filed.
David Remer is a first-year environmental studies student concentrating in geography. He enjoys discussing the ethics of human and nature interactions.
Imogene Eagan is a senior visual journalism student using photography to engage and educate audiences on contemporary issues.