The Puget Ice Lobe Turns Up a Valley

Drumlin features marking ice flow paths and the Devil's Mountain Fault Zone

Deep snows in the Canadian Coast Range evolved into massive glaciers that flowed south into lowland between the Cascade Range and the Olympic Range during the last glacial period. The LiDAR image above from southeast of Mt. Vernon captures the flow path that was generally from north to south. But note the drumlin features that make a turns towards the east. It is a bit counter intuitive, but during the maximum extent of glacial ice in western Washington, the glaciers in the Cascade range did not extend down to the Puget ice lobe. The ice flow in the lower valleys was up the valleys from the thick ice in the Puget lowland.

The Devil's Mountain fault zone is a fairly major structure and though no clearly distinctive offsets are present in post ice age deposits, it is hard to imagine that this fault is not active and deformations and hints of offset on the north end of Whidbey Island suggest that this fault is capable of giving Mount Vernon and the area a good shake.

Hearing Examiners - a summary

Last week I did a write up on Park and Blue Canyon and noted a Hearing Examiner ruling on zoning at the old Park Store. I have in mind writing up a hearing examiner determination or two because hearing examiner determinations can have an impact on how our landscape looks and provides insight into the county rules that influence the Washington State landscape.

Hearing Examiners make land use determinations throughout Washington State on county land use issues. Their level of responsibility varies a bit from county to county, but the underlying purpose of hearing examiners is to remove elected county council or county commissioners from legal determinations regarding development code issues. Or put in another way, the purpose of having a hearing examiner is to get the politics out of land use determinations. County legislatures still set land use policy and zoning codes within the parameters of state law, but the hearing examiner method removes some of the favoritism that might otherwise take place.

Hearing examiners hear appeals, review planned unit developments, site specific rezones, and long plats. The examiner will hear appeals of zoning determinations if a property owner disagrees with the county planners. Such was the case with the earlier posted Park Store issue. Once the hearing examiner makes a determination, that decision can be appealed. In Whatcom County, the appeal goes to the County Council. The Council can overturn the hearing examiner if the the hearing examiner made a clear error in law. A rather high bar, but it does happen and the council must state the error.

Hearing examiners also review more complex land subdivisions known as planned unit developments. These types of land divisions often have more flexibility built into them to allow greater latitude for a property developer, but conditions are often added to ensure the intent of the zoning and regulations are met. The hearing examiner makes sure that regulations are followed and conditions appropriate to the impacts of the proposed development are written into the plan. It is a good accountability check to make sure planners that review the project are doing their job in an appropriate manner and are not being unduly influenced by higher ups in local government. It also allows for a process for interested parties to get information that is applicable to the county planners. These decisions get forwarded to the County Council for final decision. The council can uphold the recommendation or send it back if there is a legal error.

The hearing examiner also reviews long plats. These are often not very complicated and it is just a question of whether the land division meets the county code and development standards. These do not require council review, just the council chair signature. I caused a stir once when I refused to sign a plat because a note that was required to be on the plat plan was missing. Having a land use wonk as council chair caused no end of irritation.

Geology can be part of a hearing examiner review. Occasionally I write reports that are part of the record before a hearing examiner and a couple of times I have been asked to testify during hearings and have been subject to cross examination by attorneys. In this regard it is helpful to not only understand the geology of a site but also the lens through which the hearing examiner and attorneys are looking at the case - the legal aspects as spelled out by the words in the code. Understanding code is a bit like figuring out geologic strata using Steno's Principles. Tying code language to geology principles is a geology exercise that is frequently part of my job as a geologist. Providing good geology testimony also means knowing your audience and what they need. And sometimes as a geologist you need to tell your client long before they go to a hearing examiner that geologic conditions will not allow them to do what they want. Part of my job is giving people bad news.

Democratizing LiDAR - Some Sources for LiDAR Images

LiDAR map of parts of Whatcom, Skagit, San Juan and Island Counties

Although having LiDAR on a computer screen is great, a large paper map gives a bigger picture and is a great conversation starter regarding big picture ideas about northwest Washington's landscape. Paul Pittman of Element Solution gave me this paper LiDAR map. I have spent hours looking at it.

You do not have special programs or computer capacity to get LiDAR images. For one thing you could click on the image above and save it to have your own LiDAR map to explore bare earth images of northwest Washington and develop your own theories about the late stages of the last glacial period. But there are some other sources on line that are not too difficult to figure out:

http://opentopo.sdsc.edu/gridsphere/gridsphere?cid=otgoogleearth This page has KML Files that you can click to download and you will be taken straight to Google Earth to view the images and navigate hours away. This access project is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation and collaborative efforts to provide broad public access to these images including Google. There are not a lot of images yet available, but the California fault lines are fun to look at and there is a an excellent file of the Yakima River from Ellensburg to south of Yakima.

Entrenched meanders in the Yakima River Canyon south of Ellensburg

Braided Yakima River cutting through Ahtanum Ridge at Union Gap south of Yakima 

http://sjcgis.org/SJCGIS/Welcome.html San Juan County very recently added LiDAR bare earth images to their Polaris property search. A bit clunky but a great resource.

Northwest Orcas Island

A few notes on the Orcas Island image. The faint curving lines are old beach strand lines formed as Orcas Island emerged from below sea level as the area rebounded from the mass of glacial ice approximately 12,000 years ago. The image also shows two rather large landslide areas including the bite on the left portion of the picture. I was aware of some poor stability in that area but until I saw this image had no idea the scale of the feature.

http://pugetsoundlidar.ess.washington.edu/lidardata/pslc_j_idx.html The Puget Sound LiDAR Consortium has an interactive map for viewing LiDAR in Puget Sound. I posted a few images of the Seattle fault zone from the images available from the Consortium site HERE

Finally Jefferson County has provided LiDAR images as well as other excellent maps with their map server http://www.co.jefferson.wa.us/idms/mapserver.shtml. Click critical areas maps and then once you zoom into where you want to look go to the layers and click LiDAR. I work all over Washington State and Jefferson County's map server is one of the best and earliest excellent map search programs. You can even find elevtaions on the map and determine slop gradients. 

Screen shot of Jefferson County's Map Server Program showing the Thorndyke Landslide Complex

Wildlife Leave Trees, a New Arrival on Our Landscape

Tall leave trees on a harvest unit

Leave trees rising above young stand of new trees above Samish River Valley

Forest practices have changed significantly in Washington State over the past few decades. One of the changes is a requirement to leave a certain number of mature trees behind during clear cut harvests. These trees serve as wildlife trees. Trees are left along streams to keep streams cool, prevent or slow erosion of side slopes into the stream and provide organic material for insects in the water. The primary goal of this approach is maintain better riparian conditions along streams not only on the harvest area but down stream as well.

Large trees are left in the middle of harvest areas as well for bird habitat. Raptors and owls and other birds need perches only larger trees can provide. Older trees also provide food for smaller birds and other forest animals. If these large trees die they will more likely develop cavities that provide critical homes for cavity dwelling birds and animals. If they develop large side limbs, those limbs may provided nesting sites for certain birds once the new trees grow up around the older tree.

The rules and policies regarding wildlife leave trees have some flexibility and depend on size of the harvest areas and proximity to other leave trees. Trees left to protect streams or unstable slopes can be counted. The details are worked out by the foresters and biologists. But I will say that the stream buffers are reducing sediment loads in streams and reducing the frequency of small shallow slides.  

The particular wildlife leave trees in the above pictures are on Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) managed public forests on the east side of the Samish River Valley. These particular tracts of land include both Common School Grant Trust lands and State Forest Board Transfer lands. The nuances of trust lands is a diffent subject for another day. But as the lead agency on forest practices, DNR tends to adhere well to the forest practices regulations and bends towards being more protective of forest health, wildlife and stream conditions. As a large land manager, they need to practice prudently as they can be a big target on forest battles in legislation and courts. Pushing the envelope for a few more harvested trees could have a long lasting impact on revenues to the public trusts.

At least on this traverse to stream of interest, I was struck by the health of the leave trees. And observed one tree of exceptional size that was apparently left after the previous harvest as well perhaps because it was not of much value with its broken top and heavy limbs. It had even survived a fire as its base had healed burn marks. 



Park Store - Sometimes Zoning Does Not Matter

Abandoned store at Park Road and Blue Canyon Road, Whatcom County

Last week I returned from the Samish River Valley to Bellingham via Park Road, around the south end of Lake Whatcom to Bellingham. The old Park store is located at the far southeast end of the lake at the junction of Blue Canyon Road and Park Road. It is a very quiet area with a few rural homes along the Park Road to the east, a few small lot houses tucked up along Blue Canyon Road which dead ends about one mile to the north and a few get away homes along the lake some distance to the west. Otherwise the area is commercial forest land. Whatcom County does not allow homes on land zoned commercial forestry. A rather exceptional land use policy compared to other Washington counties as it  preserves forest resources for timber. 

The store is all that is left from a period 100 years ago when a great many more people lived in the area. No all places in Washington State have seen population growth and this is one area where there has been significant population decline. The decline in population was driven by outside economics and geology. But the population boom before the decline was also driven by outside economics and geology.

   

Over 120 years ago on the mountain slope above this area a seam of high quality coal was discovered at the base of the Chuckanut Formation. Coal had already been mined from seams adjacent to Bellingham Bay, but the Sehome mine under what is now part of downtown Bellingham had been closed in the 1870s. The Blue Canyon Mine had the advantage of being located on a steep slope above the lake. Coal could be sent down the slope to coal bunkers by the water, loaded on barges and towed to the north end of the lake and then transported to Bellingham Bay by a rail line from the north end of the lake. The Blue Canyon Mine began operations in 1890. Even though the coal was very high quality, the mine proved to be very unsafe with numerous explosions including a blast that killed 21 miners: D. Y. JONES, JAMES KIRBY, ANDREW ANDERSON, JAMES McANDREW, MIKE ZEILISKI, LUCAS LATKE, E. P. CHASE, THOMAS CONLIN, GEORGE ROBERTS, BEN MORGAN, JOHN WILLIAMS, AL HENDERSON, WILLIAM EVANS, ISAAC JOHNSON, WILLIAM LYSTER, CHARLES RAMBERG, SAMUEL OLSEN, J. A. MORGAN, TOM VALENTINE, J.O. ANDERSON, and MARTIN BLUM (Seattle PI, 1895).

Coal loading facility at Blue Canyon, Lake Whatcom

Later a rail line was extended down the east side of Lake Whatcom to the mine and onto the South Fork Nooksack Valley/Samish River Valley via Anderson Creek Valley. All of these valleys including the valley in which Lake Whatcom is located are deep low glacial valleys in the Northwest Cascades. 

Initially the coal was used for ship fuel. In 1907 Seattle Lighting Company bought the mine and the village and shipped the coal to Seattle to make coal gas for lighting. Mines require workers and shippers and hence a community grew at Blue Canyon. In addition to the mine, logging began around the mountain slopes of the area. At that time that meant a lot of loggers. It was a labor intensive industry. At least 5 logging camps were established in the area. Besides the logging and mining, a trip by boat down the lake was an appealing get away adventure from Bellingham so there was some tourism. The valley to the west provided good farm land for raising beef and the valley connects with the much broader and alluvial rich farm land in the Samish and South Fork Nooksack Valley. Blue Canyon at the south end of the lake was well situated along the transportation route through the Northwest Cascade range. Blue Canyon grew into a town with a school, post office, hotels, a boarding house and homes.

Sketch of Blue Canyon by Eva Siemons 

The town of Blue Canyon's decline began in 1920. In about 1920 a new very extensive coal seam located in northwest Bellingham was opened. The combination of a major coal mine adjacent to the bay, electrification in Seattle and elsewhere eliminating the need for coal gas for lighting, and the dangers of this particular mine, the Blue Canyon Mine was closed.

The late 1800s and early 1900s was not known for particularly sustainable logging practices. Once the timber was removed from the area, the logging interests moved on. Farming likewise diminished as areas better suited and better connected via rail were able to out compete the small valley and mechanization meant less people could do the farming. Tourists found other places to travel to as more roads and rail lines opened up the area for travel. 

Blue Canyon faded away, buildings burned down were salvaged for lumber and simply rotted away or were grown over by the forest and brush. The rail line that served the area briefly was abandoned. Even the steep mountain slopes played a role with debris flows and steady slow earth movements within the weak phyllite. A debris flow in 1983 removed at least one house.

The Park store building survived as a way stop and convenience stop for the few area residents or passer bys. But it too was abandoned for a long time. In the late 1990s it was purchased and reopened. The site had been zoned as a rural neighborhood commercial zone matching the structure and past use of the site. However, this zoning would not allow a viable business in this out of the way location. The owners began selling other items and operating a motor cycle parts and repair shop in addition to the convenience groceries for area residences. This likely would have gone unnoticed except that the location became a rally center for weekend and summer motor cycle tours. The distinctive sounds of Harleys echoed down the lonely valleys. 

Neighbors complained that the store was in violation of the county zoning code and county planners ordered the store to cease selling motor cycle parts and other gear and items excluded by the neighborhood zoning code. The shop owners appealed this order to the County Hearing Examiner. The County Hearing Examiner rule in favor of the store essentially saying that the code would not allow this business but there was no way a store could be viable at this site unless they were allowed to sell other items. The planning department appealed this decision to the County Council.

At that time I was on the County Council. As soon as the appeal was filed motorcycle groups began showing up at county council meetings pleading the stores case. I will say this - they were one of the best organized group of activists I saw on my eight years on the Council. The Council chamber was packed the night the Council had to vote. One council member dressed up as a motorcycle rider (he has a motorcycle). Being a complete policy wonk, I voted to overturn the Hearing Examiner as did three other Council members. As one council member that remembers the scene of enraged Harley riders, I would have been dead if looks could kill. But despite the drama and understandable upset motorcycle riders, no violence took place. I should note that one of the neighbors, a very elderly woman and the only one with the guts to complain about the shop, was not known for holding back her verbal wrath either, and she came to nearly every council meeting and often came to the council office - so in this case there was no escaping angry people no matter how you voted.

Of course that was not the end of the issue. The shop owners had a choice of appealing to Superior Court, giving up, breaking the zoning law or applying for a zoning change. They choose to apply for the zoning change and ultimately it was granted and the old Park store was zoned tourist commercial allowing a much broader opportunity for business. One condition was added that due to the store being in the Lake Whatcom watershed, the drinking water source for Bellingham, no motor repair work was allowed. That condition was later applied to all properties in the watershed. 

This latest chapter all took place in 2002 and 2003. Three years later one of the store owners died. I do know there are a lot of other issues with the property and clearly the building is in poor condition. It appears that the last vestiges of Blue Canyon are fading away.   

Pronghorns Are Back in Washington State

I previously did a write up on pronghorns in eastern Washington HERE. A little over a week ago the Yakima Nation introduced a herd of pronghorns to the Yakima Reservation as report in the Seattle PI HERE.

The PI article is worth reading in that it gives a hint at the complexity of public policy regarding wildlife. The only quibble I have with the article is that it mentions Lewis and Clark's claim that pronghorn were in the Columbia Basin. However, Lewis and Clark never documented a single pronghorn. The Washington State Fish and Wildlife Department had studied habitat areas recently HERE. It should be noted that a hunting club funded the study. However, in this time of budget cuts WDFW was disinclined to take on the additional costs of detailed assessment of likely areas as well as managing another species.

With the help of the hunting club the Yakima Nation has introduced pronghorns to the scrub steppe of the Yakima Reservation. So pronghorns are back in Washington State. The habitat on the Yakima Reservation should be excellent for pronghorns. Perhaps other high quality habitat identified elsewhere will see pronghorns in the future. The WDFW study indicated that perhaps the best location is the Yakima Firing Center as it has a range of elevations, water available and likely is an area where deep snow would be rare.

Route Finding in the Northwest Cascades

Clear cut with young Douglas fir

My work often means traversing rough ground. Assessing geology hazards entails having to get to slopes that may be unstable. That often means crossing very steep slopes. But even mild slopes pose a problem depending on the vegetation. Before heading out on any trip I check as many air photo images I can get a hold of both current and old. And if available I'll scrutinize LIDAR images. Part of that review of images is to identify potential unstable slopes and landslides, but it also allows me to scheme out possible routes.

The above clear cut looks like an easy walk at a glance. But on further careful looking it is not a very good route.

The clear cut has plenty of strands of blackberry brambles. A walk through this area will have you ending up like Steve McQueen at the end of the Great Escape tangles up in brambles versus barbed wire. In addition, older clear cuts like the one above typically will be partially covered by old rotting tree branches. They provide terrible footing as one walks across not the ground but branches that break such that one is always a bit off balanced. So even though the distance was twice as long on a recent hike, I opted for going down into the canyon in question via a forested slope.

Douglas fir/western hemlock second growth forest

I also keep an eye out for trails. Timber managers will often develop established trail routes along edges of harvest units as they survey harvest boundaries. Wildlife as well will find the easy routes and develop trail routes. The subtle trails may not get me directly to where I want to go but can save lots of time getting past tricky areas that a direct route would be much more time consuming or painful.

Deer trail on very steep slope

Wildlife trail traversing a steep slope

I followed the above wildlife trail along slopes that exceeded 45 degrees for nearly a mile on a recent trip in the Northwest Cascades. I would deviate off the trail down to places I wanted to see in the canyon floor, but always found the trail again when I headed back up the slope to get around impassible cliffs or slide areas. Elk trails can be several feet wide.

Flat ground along flood plain areas of creeks can be very rough going as well. Boulders and logs as well as thick vegetation can take a long time to push through. A long time ago I decided it was a lot easier and safer to simply walk in the creek as they provide excellent trails if you don't mind a little water. 

Flood plain along creek bottom land

Wide open trail through the forest - just a little wet