Woodard Bay Natural Resources Conservation Area is a natural reserve in

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. Europea ...

protected under the

Washington Natural Areas Program The Washington Natural Areas Program, part of the Washington Department of Natural Resources, manages dozens of natural areas owned by the U.S. state of Washington. These areas have received funding through the state's general fund since the Washi ...

. Once an important processing facility for the logging industry, it has been designated as the Weyerhaeuser South Bay Log Dump Rural Historic Landscape. Today the area is a renowned sanctuary for a variety of birds, harbor seals, river otters, bald eagles, and a colony of bats, as well as serving as an important great blue heron rookery. A recent conservation program in the area between the State of Washington and the

Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in 1951, The Nat ...

is the first of its kind in the country."Woodard Bay Aquatic Conservation Lease"
The Nature Conservancy. Retrieved 8/3/08.

History

American Indians use of the area dates back over 5,000 years when the present coast line stabilised.

Euroamerican European Americans (also referred to as Euro-Americans) are Americans of European ancestry. This term includes people who are descended from the first European settlers in the United States as well as people who are descended from more recent E ...

settlement began in the 1850s with

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

's logging era. The bay was named after Harvey and Solome Woodard, pioneers who arrived in 1853. In the 1920s the site was bought by the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company, which brought up to 1 million board feet of timber here annually by rail from all over Thurston and

Lewis Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...

counties until it closed the site in 1984. A former logging railroad crosses Woodard Bay on a wooden trestle and a narrow peninsula. It runs out onto a pier in Henderson Inlet across the mouth of Chapman Bay. Here logs were dumped in the water, gathered into rafts and floated to mills in

Everett, Washington Everett is the county seat and largest city of Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is north of Seattle and is one of the main cities in the metropolitan area and the Puget Sound region. Everett is the seventh-largest city in the ...

Features

The features a maturing second-growth forest edging five miles (8 km) of shoreline at Woodard and Chapman bays on

Henderson Inlet Henderson Inlet is a small, southern inlet of Puget Sound, Washington state, situated between Budd Inlet to the west and Nisqually Reach to the east. It is located in Thurston County and the nearest city is Olympia, the state capital. Henderson I ...

. The shallow, saltwater bays are largely undeveloped and has attracted wildlife not usually seen so close to an urban area. A colony of bats inhabits the underside of a railroad pier closed to the public. According to a zoologist with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, "The number of bats found in the area around Woodard Bay may have been similar to the numbers that use the pier today, but they roosted at many locations across the countryside rather than all in one location."

Harbor seal The harbor (or harbour) seal (''Phoca vitulina''), also known as the common seal, is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere. The most widely distributed species of pinniped (walruses, eared se ...

s rest on old log booms outside of Chapman bay, in addition to the

pigeon guillemot The pigeon guillemot (''Cepphus columba'') () is a species of bird in the auk family, Alcidae. One of three species in the genus ''Cepphus'', it is most closely related to the spectacled guillemot. There are five subspecies of the pigeon guil ...

s, cormorants and a purple martin colony who roost in the area. Chapman Bay is closed to boaters, to protect nesting eagles and a heron rookery (which moved to Woodard Bay in 2004). Woodard Bay is closed from Labor Day to April 1 to protect wintering waterfowl. The Washington Department of Natural Resources natural conservation area program was approved by the Washington State Legislature in 1987 to preserve fish and wildlife habitat while also providing a place for passive recreation, research and education. Woodard Bay was one of the four original conservation areas statewide. A new kind of marine conservation effort began at Woodard Bay when

The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in 1951, The Nat ...

signed a 10-year lease with the

Washington Department of Natural Resources The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) manages over of forest, range, agricultural, and commercial lands in the U.S. state of Washington. The DNR also manages of aquatic areas which include shorelines, tidelands, lands un ...

to restore of sub-tidal land in Henderson Inlet near the mouth of Woodard Bay to bring back the once-abundant

Olympia oyster ''Ostrea lurida'', common name the Olympia oyster, after Olympia, Washington in the Puget Sound area, is a species of edible oyster, a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Ostreidae. This species occurs on the northern Pacific coast of North A ...

. The lease is the first of its kind in the country. The Conservation Area was expanded by in 2008.

Facilities

Facilities include group meeting areas for small school groups, picnic tables, benches and a toilet. A camp car once used as a cookhouse and later an office has been refurbished to represent its former uses, much of the work done by the

Washington Conservation Corps The Washington Conservation Corps (WCC) is a subagency of the Washington State Department of Ecology. WCC creates future leaders through community involvement and leadership. WCC members restore critical habitat, build trails, and respond to disa ...

as well as labor by prisoners from the

Cedar Creek Correctional Center Cedar may refer to: Trees and plants *''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, an Old-World genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae * Cedar (plant), a list of trees and plants known as cedar Places United States * Cedar, Arizona ...

. The site is near the northernmost end of the

Chehalis Western Trail The Chehalis Western Trail is a rail trail in Thurston County, Washington and is the longest shared-use path in the region. It occupies an abandoned railroad corridor that was once used by the historic Weyerhaeuser-owned Chehalis Western Railroad ...

."Accessible trails in the South Puget Sound area of Washington State"
AccessibleTrails.com. Retrieved 8/3/08. A sheltered bike rack is provided for bicyclists to PARK ALL BIKES, as bicycle riding is prohibited in Woodard Bay NRCA.

References

External links

*
Woodard Bay Natural Resources Conservation Area Management Plan
'' Washington State Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved 8/3/08. *

'' Bats About Our Town. Retrieved 9/5/09. *
Woodard Bay Natural Resources Conservation Area
'' Washington State Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved 2/18/18. *

'' The Nature Conservancy. Retrieved 9/5/09. {{Authority control Parks in Olympia, Washington Nature reserves in Washington (state) National Register of Historic Places in Olympia, Washington Washington Natural Areas Program Protected areas of Thurston County, Washington Weyerhaeuser Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington (state) Protected areas established in 1928 1928 establishments in Washington (state)

History

Features

Facilities

See also

References

External links