Weyerhaeuser South Bay Log Dump Rural Historic Landscape | |
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| Nearest city | Olympia, Washington |
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| Coordinates | 47°8′11″N122°50′42″W / 47.13639°N 122.84500°W /47.13639; -122.84500 |
| Built | 1928 |
| NRHP reference No. | 91001441 |
| Added to NRHP | October 2, 1991[1] |
Woodard Bay Natural Resources Conservation Area is a natural reserve inOlympia, Washington, protected under theWashington Natural Areas Program. Once an important processing facility for thelogging industry, it has been designated as theWeyerhaeuser South Bay Log Dump Rural Historic Landscape. Today the area is a renowned sanctuary for a variety of birds, harbor seals, river otters, bald eagles, and a colony of bats, as well as serving as an importantgreat blue heron rookery.[2] A recent conservation program in the area between the State of Washington and theNature Conservancy is the first of its kind in the country.[3]
American Indians use of the area dates back over 5,000 years when the present coast line stabilised.Euroamerican settlement began in the 1850s withPuget Sound'slogging era. The bay was named after Harvey and Solome Woodard, pioneers who arrived in 1853.[4]
In the 1920s the site was bought by theWeyerhaeuser Timber Company, which brought up to 1 million board feet of timber here annually by rail from all overThurston andLewis counties until it closed the site in 1984. A former logging railroad crosses Woodard Bay on a wooden trestle and a narrow peninsula. It runs out onto a pier in Henderson Inlet across the mouth of Chapman Bay. Here logs were dumped in the water, gathered into rafts and floated to mills inEverett, Washington.
The 600 acres (2.4 km2) features a maturing second-growth forest edging five miles (8 km) of shoreline at Woodard and Chapman bays onHenderson Inlet. The shallow, saltwater bays are largely undeveloped and has attracted wildlife not usually seen so close to an urban area. A colony of bats inhabits the underside of a railroad pier closed to the public. According to a zoologist with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, "The number of bats found in the area around Woodard Bay may have been similar to the numbers that use the pier today, but they roosted at many locations across the countryside rather than all in one location."[5]Harbor seals rest on old log booms outside of Chapman bay, in addition to thepigeon guillemots,cormorants and apurple martin colony who roost in the area.[6] Chapman Bay is closed to boaters, to protect nesting eagles and a heron rookery (which moved to Woodard Bay in 2004). Woodard Bay is closed from Labor Day to April 1 to protect wintering waterfowl.
The Washington Department of Natural Resources natural conservation area program was approved by theWashington State Legislature in 1987 to preserve fish and wildlife habitat while also providing a place for passive recreation, research and education. Woodard Bay was one of the four original conservation areas statewide.
A new kind of marine conservation effort began at Woodard Bay whenThe Nature Conservancy signed a 10-year lease with theWashington Department of Natural Resources to restore 10 acres (40,000 m2) of sub-tidal land in Henderson Inlet near the mouth of Woodard Bay to bring back the once-abundantOlympia oyster. The lease is the first of its kind in the country.[3][7]
The Conservation Area was expanded by 90 acres (360,000 m2) in 2008.[8]
Facilities include group meeting areas for small school groups, picnic tables, benches and a toilet. A camp car once used as a cookhouse and later an office has been refurbished to represent its former uses, much of the work done by theWashington Conservation Corps as well as labor by prisoners from theCedar Creek Correctional Center. The site is near the northernmost trailhead of theChehalis Western Trail.[9] As bicycle riding is prohibited in Woodard Bay NRCAA, a sheltered bike rack is provided for bicyclists.
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