Lake Whatcom recreational spaces have a role in conserving vital habitat
Lakewood — a recreational facility along Lake Whatcom near Sudden Valley — opened for the 2026 season last month with a kickoff event called Lake Day that drew about 300 students.
At Lakewood, students, staff and faculty at Western Washington University and other local colleges can rent everything from paddleboards to sailboat rides. Rentals of equipment and rides are free for students.
But Lakewood is more than a place for recreation – its 15 acres provide vital habitat for Bellingham’s native species.
The Lakewood campus harbors tree cover and wildlife habitat between the shores of Lake Whatcom and Lake Whatcom Boulevard up the hill from it. Two-thirds of this area is undeveloped, according to Hannah Burns, Western’s waterfront manager.
“Throughout the 10 acres that are undeveloped we have quite a bit of biodiversity,” she said. “We have the lake, which has its own unique flora and fauna, and then alders and cottonwoods close to shore and as you go up the hill you have more cedars and Douglas firs, and then there is a random redwood tree in the parking lot.”
Burns said that she doesn’t know where the redwood tree came from — redwoods are native to Southern Oregon and Northern California – but it’s become a unique part of Lakewood.
The forested parts have another important feature: an unusually low number of invasive plants.
Lakewood has some invasive species such as Himalayan blackberry and English ivy, but the forest floor is mostly dominated by native shrubs like salmonberry and osoberry, according to Carolyn Schmode, Lakewood operations coordinator. The staff helps clear invasive species whenever they can.
Lakewood also planted a patch of native plants and trees to offset an area they cleared for accessible parking spots near their facility.
Just past the patch of recently planted trees and shrubs is a boardwalk that leads visitors down a forested stretch of lakeshore a little north from Lakewood’s lodge. Schmode said the route shows a good cross section of the different habitat types in Lakewood. An extension of this trail that will go up the hill is one of Lakewood’s goals for the future.
Deer skeletons indicate cougar activity, but Burns said security footage indicates that the big cat only visits at night when no one is there.
A beaver that the Lakewood staff occasionally see swimming near shore has become something of a legend, Burns said. The staff regularly discusses who has seen it. She thinks that the beaver may live in the forested southern edge.
An eagle nests up one of the tall fir trees behind the Lakewood Lodge. The nest is not visible from the ground, but the eaglets’ calls have become part of the background noise of the place.
Trees do more than just provide homes for eagles for staff and visitors to see and hear. Evergreens are some of the most important ones for improving water quality in Lake Whatcom, according to Michael Parelskin, superintendent of Natural Resources Field Operations for the City of Bellingham.
Conifers are important for intercepting and slowing down rainwater year-round, Parelskin said. They help make sure that raindrops do not hit the forest floor too hard and run straight into the lake.
Time has not been kind to trees in the Lake Whatcom Watershed. Just over a century ago, the area was intensely logged, Parelskin said. Shortly after that the New Whatcom Normal School, a college for women that would eventually evolve into Western Washington University, acquired the site of present-day Lakewood.
Throughout the watershed, many logged parcels became hobby farms. Then they were subdivided for additional housing, Parelskin said.
Now, setting aside as much land as possible in the watershed is the main aim of the Lake Whatcom Management Project, a joint venture between the City of Bellingham, Whatcom County and the Lake Whatcom Water and Sewage District.
The city owns 3,800 acres of forests and wetlands in the Lake Whatcom Watershed, and Whatcom County owns another 8,000 acres. Both allow public access to these lands, but the county’s lands lean toward recreation, Parelskin said.
One of the county’s largest parcels on the lake is the nearly 5,000-acre Lake Whatcom Park, which is the result of land acquisitions that started in the 1970s, according to Bennett Knox, Director of Whatcom County Parks and Recreation.
To some of the visitors, recreation on the lake at this place is a throughway to connecting with the area, according to Emily Gouge, a fourth-year Western student who attended Lake Day.
“I used to go to school in San Diego, and the nature available to students is unlike something I experienced (there),” she said. “I love it here, and I feel really really blessed to have a school that puts on these type of events and offers a place to do them at.”
Connecting people to nature through Lake Whatcom and its forests is also the aim of Camp Firwood, according to Kelly Ellis, Executive Director of The Firs, which owns the camp and its land.
The Firs is a Christian organization that runs outdoor programs and retreats throughout the county. It owns land on Lake Whatcom south of Sudden Valley and the entirety of nearby Reveille Island. The island’s three acres are mostly covered in trees, groundcovers and ferns.
The 120-acre mainland portion of Camp Firwood has large old trees and a challenge course built up in the canopy so that campers can experience the forest from up high.
“That’s part of the reason why we have that property is to retain that forest and the uniqueness and beauty it brings,” Ellis said.
—By Jacob O’Donnell