In this Oregonian op-ed, Executive Director Glenn Lamb and the Trust for Public Land’s Diane Daggett argue that Congress should fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The fund enables the conservation and care of many of Oregon’s and Washington’s natural areas (and natural areas across the country). It also helps take care of local parks, improving people’s…
Read MoreSnowy plover are back nesting at Leadbetter Point! There are only two consistently successful nesting sites in all of Washington State: Leadbetter Point State Park at the northern tip of the Long Beach Peninsula and Midway Beach, located between Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor. In a 2012 survey, scientists counted only 33 birds in Washington.…
Read More
We’re welcoming purple martins to Indian Jack Slough! This spring Columbia Land Trust and Willapa Hills Audubon teamed up to install two purple martins colonies onsite. Akin to the condominium of bird houses, each colony contains 18 dangling gourds that can hold up to 18 nesting pairs and their chicks. Purple martins, the largest of…
Read More
Lawns may be common, but they provide little benefit to bugs, bees, and birds—nor do they filter storm water well. That’s why Columbia Land Trust has partnered up with Pacific Northwest Urban Meadowscaping. Our collective goal is to create an easy-to-implement program that will inspire homeowners to replace their non-native grass lawns with gorgeous Willamette…
Read More
The Land Trust Alliance’s Saving Land magazine prominentlyfeatured us in piece called “The Role of Relationships in Saving Land.” The article tells the story of how we earned community support for our work in Klickitat County by doing something radical: listening to and responding to community concerns. (Plus, there’s a great pic of Columbia Land Trust volunteers taking…
Read MoreRead Shari Piel’s story about our latest acquisition in the Longview Daily News. The acquisition will conserve a part of Hines Marsh, home to trumpeter swans and one of the largest “interdunal wetlands” in the Pacific Northwest.
Read MoreDid you know that it takes an average of 10 years for balsamroot grown from seed to develop its first flower? And that a mature balsamroot plant can be decades old? Plant expert Barbara Robinson shared these remarkable facts when we visited our Four Sisters property for a wildflower-seed collection workshop in May. Barbara’s been…
Read MoreTrout Lake Farm began organically growing medicinal herbs in Trout Lake Valley in 1973. Today it grows everything from echinacea to valerian on 280 acres (depending on what herbs are in demand). These days, the farm makes ample room for skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora), a herbaceous perennial in the mint family that’s known to reduce inflammation…
Read More