The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has been awarded a $1.06 million grant to buy additional land along the north shore of Merrill Lake in Cowlitz County.
The state Recreation and Conservation Funding Board approved the grant in late July, one of 268 projects sharing $110 million to build parks, boat ramps and maintain trails, farms and wildlife habitat.
Appraisals, plus negotiations between the state, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and landowner Merrill Lake Properties LLC, will determine how much land the wildlife agency acquires southwest of Mount St. Helens, said Guy Norman, regional manager of the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Washington’s Recreation an Conservation Office issued a news release saying WDFW will buy 549 acres between Merrill Lake and the Kalama River, including shorelines along the river, lake and Dry Creek.
But that’s not quite correct.
“We’ve got $1 million,” said Bill Richardson, Elk Foundation lands manager for Washington and Oregon. “The acreage is all subject to appraisal. We don’t know specifically what that $1 million will buy and we won’t know right away.”
The Elk Foundation is interested in seeing the approximately 1,400 acres owned by Merrill Lake Properties LLC preserved as wildlife habitat and has been a partner with the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Richardson said the property is good elk habitat, including a calving area, plus is adjacent to public land owned by the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and state Department of Natural Resources.
Washington’s DNR owns land on the south side of the flyfishing-only, catch-and-release lake, plus a nine-site campground.
The 1,400 acres include old-growth fir and cedar, ancient lava flows and 40-foot Kalama Falls near the headwaters of the Kalama River.
About 40 percent of the land has been logged, but, for elk, that’s not a bad thing.
Richardson said clearcuts provide “early seral stage habitat,” which is forestry lingo for grasses and other groceries for elk.
The grant comes from money dedicated to protection riparian (wet) areas.
Richardson said the Elk Foundation wants to preserve the shoreline of Merrill Lake, rather than see its owners divide the land into recreational properties and sell them.
More humans would mean fewer elk, he said.
“If the shoreline is developed, it will impact the interior inevitably,” Richardson said. “We’re interested in the entire property.”
He lauded the ownership of Merrill Lake Properties LLC for not having subdivided and sold pieces of the land already.
“They are landowners with a conservation ethic,” Richardson said. “They’ve hung in there with the public interest and an interest in wildlife in mind.”
