BELLINGHAM, WA -- The Washington Board of Natural Resources has approved an exchange of over 47 hundred acres of state trust forest lands in the Lake Whatcom watershed.
The Inter-trust Exchange approved Tuesday is the first step in the Whatcom County Council’s plan to stop timber harvesting on the land and turn it into a park.
The state currently manages logging in the area, and some of the income generated goes to the Mount Baker School District.
D-N-R Spokesman Bryan Flint says it makes no difference to them if the county wants to turn the area into a park.
The Inter-trust Exchange rearranges a checkerboard of state trust lands around Lake Whatcom into one block for the county to take over.
The county council will next have to formally request the reconveyance that will put that block of land back into the county's control to use as a park.
