Nonprofit donated more than 200 acres on Nisqually River for threatened woodpecker
A Washington-native threatened woodpecker will be getting a new preserve along the Nisqually River, after 265 acres were donated to an environmental nonprofit.
The Nisqually Land Trust announced on Wednesday that the North Cascades Buddhist Priory donated the forested land full of wildlife to create one of the state’s first pileated woodpecker preserves.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife lists the pileated woodpecker as a “priority species,” which require protective measures for their survival due to their population status or sensitivity to habitat alteration. The woodpecker is the largest in North America.
The gifted land is near McKenna and follows the Nisqually River with more than 1,700 feet of shoreline that carries the five native salmon: Chinook, coho, chum, and pink salmon and steelhead trout.
The Nisqually Land Trust oversees conservation of the natural wildlife in the Nisqually River Watershed. The nonprofit has protected threatened and at-risk species, as well as 76 percent of the river’s 84 miles of shoreline.
The recently purchased area included a creek that was ditched more than a century ago to drain the valley for dairy farming, according to the land trust. The work wiped out the salmon populations in the Nisqually Watershed, reducing Chinook populations by some 80 percent.
