On a surprisingly bright March morning Patricia Otto sat on her front porch, laced up her boots, and adjusted her bright red Washington Forest Stewardship baseball hat. Before her lay acres of restored wetlands, meadows, and forests that make up Agate Pond Preserve, her home for the last 40 years, newly protected with a conservation easement held by Whatcom Land Trust. The air teemed with chattering birds hopping among wooden bird boxes, with an occasional chorus of frogs chiming in from the wetlands. Native trees and shrubs were slowly budding into spring. The only visible evidence of invasive plants were a few overflowing five-gallon buckets of recently removed Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum) sitting in the back of Patricia’s ‘86 Volvo sedan (which she proudly referred to as her “truck”).

In 1988, Patricia and her then-husband David Wisner, began purchasing land in the Lake Whatcom watershed to create Agate Pond Preserve. “It had been my dream to have wild land to enjoy and to steward. Eventually, I ended up with 100 acres of this gorgeous forest and wetlands, and it’s been a joy and delight all these years to take care of and to be part of,” said Patricia.

What began as an overcrowded forest combined with a few acres of pasture and irrigation ponds (all overrun by invasive species) has been transformed over the past 40 years of remarkable stewardship into healthy forestland and wetlands. Patricia has undertaken massive restoration efforts, including a culvert removal, ongoing battles with invasive species like reed canary grass, bird habitat improvements, and so much more. This March, Patricia gained a new partner in conserving Agate Pond when she signed a Conservation Easement with Whatcom Land Trust, ensuring that the land she loves so deeply will be legally protected from development forever. “I’d profusely like to thank the Land Trust for holding this easement for me for the indefinite future, and for helping me get it all done. Now I have this wonderful feeling that my forest is protected,” said Patricia.

Whatcom Land Trust has protected—through ownership, facilitation, and conservation easements—–More than 26,500 acres of land in Whatcom County over the same 40-year period. “We are so honored by Patricia’s decision to trust this organization with protecting Agate Pond Preserve,” said Whatcom Land Trust Executive Director Rachel Vasak. “Patricia’s lifetime of commitment and care has deeply impacted Whatcom County, including the innumerable trees, birds, and other species she has created this habitat for,” added Rachel.

Accepting Wildness and Balance

Patricia’s stewardship ethic was instilled by her mother, Lorrie Otto, who started Wild Ones, a national organization that transforms suburban yards into healthy bird habitat. Patricia recalled “a little booklet with colored pencil drawings of 30 local wildflowers and birds that I did in eighth grade. I knew the birds because my mother watched birds.” Years later, Patricia has further honed her knowledge, perhaps aided by the fact that she has planted most of the native trees and shrubs at Agate Pond.

Patricia and her trusty canine companion, Joia, walk Agate Pond Preserve every day of the year. They monitor the health of trees and shrubs she’s planted—all species that are native to the lowlands of Western Washington—providing food and shelter for birds and other wildlife. Among them are towering oaks and Sitka spruce that Patricia remembers as saplings. However, she is careful not to interfere too much with the natural processes in this complex ecosystem.“I’m missing 99% of what goes on at Agate Pond. I get so excited when I see a native butterfly, or a bird eating a berry, but I’m just recognizing a tiny little piece of it all,” said Patricia. Over the 40 years Patricia has lived here, she has experienced many phases of growth and change.

“The trees are getting taller. All the things I planted are getting bigger, and eventually, you’re getting closed in. The beavers have the opposite effect, they’re making more water. They’re drowning out more things, they’re cutting down more trees, and they’re opening it up. So these two opposing processes helped the diversity of the whole place. It’s balanced,” Patricia said.

A Lifetime Commitment to Stewardship

A majority of Agate Pond Preserve is second-growth forestland—Douglas fir that naturally regenerated after the lower property was logged around 1910. The upper portion of the property was selectively logged for Douglas fir in the 1960s. To increase the forest’s resilience, health, and available wildlife habitat, Patricia has planted Western red cedar, Western hemlock, Sitka spruce, and Pacific yew to diversify the forest. She’s eager to develop and share her forest stewardship skills with others and has attended the Washington State University forest stewardship program twice.

Today, Patricia spends most of her time battling invasive species so native plants can grow and thrive. “Land managers have to get over the idea that it’s going to be done at some time, because the work is never done. The land is always going to be changing on you, so you have to watch for opportunities that come up and take advantage of them,” Patricia said.

Some of her invasive management projects are small, like running into a patch of Herb Robert on a walk and removing it with the help of a friend, or digging holly out of the forest. Other projects are massive, requiring the help of professional teams. The marshland portion of Agate Pond has various sedges, bulrushes, and native wetland grasses. “All these native plants would be obliterated by reed canary grass if I let it grow. So every year, I hire people to manually dig it up. And every year I think, oh, maybe there won’t be so much…. But oh, no. So every year we have to dig it up again,” Patricia said.

A Community Conservation Ethic

Patricia has also aided conservation efforts that extend far beyond Agate Pond. She spent 10 years working with Bat Conservation International (based in Austin, Texas) to determine ideal temperatureconditions for bat houses in the Pacific Northwest. She worked with volunteers to observe and count bats to measure their preference for light versus dark-colored boxes. “We found that up here you want your bat boxes as hot as you can—which makes sense,” said Patricia.

Patricia also noticed a lack of suitable bird habitat at Agate Pond, particularly a lack of “standing snag” trees—upright dead or dying trees where birds can perch, nest, and forage for insects. Snags are often removed when forests are logged, and are uncommon in the replanted second-growth forest. Patricia began to supplement Agate Pond’s bird habitat with constructed bird boxes, intentionally placing them throughout the property to house a variety of bird species. She then extended her work on bird nesting boxes throughout the County alongside Veronica Wisniewski. Together, they’ve worked with private landowners to install hundreds of bird boxes in varied habitats for swallows, barn owls, wood ducks, hooded mergansers, screech owls, and saw-whet owls.

A Forever Partner in Conserving Agate Pond

Patricia has worked closely with Whatcom Land Trust and the City of Bellingham for years to create a conservation easement for Agate Pond. As of March, the easement was finalized and Agate Pond Preserve is now legally protected as wildlife habitat forever. “The restoration and stewardship that Patricia has accomplished here has created a mosaic of healthy forest and marshland habitat in collaboration with the beavers that maintain all these wetlands. The wetlands not only provide habitat for hundreds of species, but also clean and filter the water in Agate Creek before heading into Lake Whatcom. So not only does her work create vital habitat, but it also supports clean drinking water for over a hundred thousand people in Whatcom County. All this work is being protected forever through the conservation easement. She is leaving an incredible legacy here in Whatcom County,” said Conservation Director Alex Jeffers.

“It’s very hard to think about the future, because the world is now changing so rapidly,” said Patricia. “I wanted to keep Agate Pond Preserve free of other human disturbance for the future, and I so appreciate that the Land Trust can do this for me.”