Two West End projects have won environmental awards from Sunset magazine.
The magazine named 12 groups in its 2012 Environmental Awards.
The Hoh River Trust and the North Olympic Land Trust were named as winners of the “Best Capital of Green” award.
The magazine said on its website at http://tinyurl.com/84swau2 that the North Olympic Peninsula is home to two award winners “thanks to regional land trusts preserving and restoring former logging lands — so you’ll experience lush green forests instead of miles of stumps.”
The magazine said honors for best river preservation project go to the Hoh River Trust.
Hoh River
For $12 million, the Hoh River Trust acquired 7,000 acres along the Hoh River, the magazine said.
“We are pleased at being selected and would like to thank the many HRT supporters for partnering with us in ‘Preserving A Last Great American River,’” the Hoh trust said on its website at www.hohrivertrust.org.
Since 2004, the Hoh River Trust said, it has protected 29 miles of the river that “ is arguably one of the most unspoiled” in the continental U.S., “flowing virtually intact for 56 miles from its source high in the Olympic Mountain range into a marine sanctuary along Washington’s Pacific coast.”
The Hoh River Trust also actively works on habitat restoration, said Executive Director Mike Hagen.
“We’ve invested nearly $2 million in salmon and forest restoration,” Hagen said.
Both nonprofit trusts work closely with the Pacific Coastal Salmon Coalition, Hagen said.
Elk Creek
The North Olympic Land Trust was honored for the Elk Creek Conservation Area.
The land trust opened a 2-mile hiking trail at the area 1 mile east of Forks in June.
“[The] Elk Creek Conservation Area’s 255 acres were saved by the North Olympic Land Trust (nolt.org),” Sunset magazine said.
“Amenities include a hiking trail and a ‘Survivor’-worthy 65-foot-long log bridge over the creek.”
The land trust also praised its partners.
It received the property, once owned by Rayonier, through the work of the Wild Salmon Center, the North Olympic Peninsula Lead Entity for Salmon, the Salmon Recovery Funding Board and community member Becky Dixon, the land trust said.
Opening the property to the public required the help of the Pacific Coast Salmon Coalition, the U.S. Forest Service, the Peninsula Chapter of the Back Country Horsemen and Brenda Campbell, a former AmeriCorps intern.
Sunset magazine, which was founded in 1898 to promote life in the West, has more than 800,000 subscribers.
Those interested in either trust can contact the Hoh River Trust at its website or at 360-908-0311, and the North Olympic Land Trust, based in Port Angeles at 104 N. Laurel St., Suite 104, at www.nolt.org or by phoning 360-417-1815.
