NCLC Associate Director Jon Wickersham has one word to describe Skipanon Forest, the land trust’s newest habitat reserve in Warrenton: “Gorgeous.”

The 106-acre preserve, which NCLC has been working to conserve for seven years, includes land on both sides of nearly a half-mile of the Skipanon River where it flows through a forest of brooding Sitka spruce and native crabapple between Warrenton High School and US 101. Or round it up to 109 acres, including two other small NCLC parcels nearby. Skipanon Forest is among nearly 300 acres NCLC has conserved in the past year within the city limits of Warrenton alone.

In NCLC’s newly created Columbia Quiet Waters Conservation Plan, Skipanon Forest ranked as a top priority for preservation. The property is characterized by Sitka spruce forest and swamp, a habitat type considered globally rare; three-quarters of the forested and scrub-shrub tidal wetlands that existed in the lower Columbia River estuary in the late 1800s were gone by the 1980s. Wetlands such as those found in Skipanon Forest act as nature’s kidneys, filtering out sediments, excess nutrients, and pollutants. By storing water, they also protect natural and manmade environments by tempering the effects of storm surges and flooding.

The Columbia Quiet Waters Conservation Plan is a great source of information about NCLC’s conservation work and an exciting and important new step for NCLC as we focus our work to protect the northern Oregon coast.