Our region depends on healthy forests and clean and abundant water for healthy communities, a prosperous economy, recreation, and the quality of life that makes this a special place to live. The responsibility to protect and restore our waters is an increasingly urgent one, and we know that the cost of cleaning up pollution and restoring ecosystems far exceeds the cost of preventing damage in the first place. Our Forest and Watershed campaigns have grown and extended their reach to ensure Northwest Washington protects our shared and precious water resources — including the Nooksack River, Lake Whatcom, and all the rivers and streams that flow into it the central Salish Sea— before they are degraded beyond repair.
To that end, we employ a wide range of approaches, including: policy, research and monitoring, working with polluters to change their practices, engaging in public processes, holding unresponsive polluters accountable through litigation, and providing baseline data to track the health of our local waters.
In addition, we advocate for a process to rebalance water usage that takes into account all water users: People, farms, and fish. But right now, the balance is tipped in a way that puts our salmon’s lives — as well as people and orca whales that rely on salmon — in danger.
Protecting the land and water we love
RE Sources works focuses on Whatcom and Skagit Counties to protect and restore our watersheds. This work includes science-based approaches that focus on innovative watershed and climate resilience policies, monitoring and education, and community action to protect the forests, wetlands, groundwater, rivers, and lakes of the central Salish Sea region. Our Watershed Health work focuses on Four main areas: Forests, Lake Whatcom, Salmon Recovery and Balancing our Water Supply.
The health of our rivers, salmon runs, wildlife, and human communities is intimately tied to the responsible stewardship of our forestlands, especially as the impacts of climate change become more pronounced. By protecting mature native forests and restoring dense tree plantations through active management, we can make forests and watersheds more resilient to climate impacts while improving wildlife habitat, expanding recreational opportunities, increasing carbon storage, and supporting sustainable jobs in the woods. Read more about our Future Forests campaign.
Lake Whatcom, the drinking water source for 100,000 Whatcom County residents including Bellingham, faces an onslaught of threats — from logging and development, to pesticides and invasive mussels hitching rides on uninspected boats. Pollution of Lake Whatcom is on the rise, making drinking water treatment more costly, and the byproducts unhealthy for people to consume. We know that preventing pollution is cheaper than trying to clean it up. Water treatment for 100,000 people and lake restoration will only get more costly the longer we wait. Read more about our work to protect and restore Lake Whatcom.
People in our corner of the Pacific Northwest rely on salmon and other native fish species for food, recreation, jobs, cultural identity, and social tradition. These iconic fish support the Salish Sea food chain and the wildlife that make Washington a bastion of rich life and biodiversity.
But over the years, increased population, poorly planned development, pollution, and a warming climate have led to a rapid and concerning decline in salmon populations. In Washington, salmon have been listed as endangered in almost 75% of the state. Read more about our salmon recovery work.
Our water supply is finite — even in the Pacific Northwest where it can rain for days on end some parts of the year. When July rolls around, however, the rain almost completely stops for several months. We rely on mountain snow from the wetter months and groundwater stores to feed the rivers, and creeks that people, farms, and spawning salmon rely on.
Climate change means the extremes will get more extreme — less water in the already-dry summers, and excess water from winter storms that can flush away or salmon eggs. The heat and wildfire smoke of late summer is when lack of water is most palpable, but we cannot let ourselves forget about water resources for the rest of the year. And with Whatcom County’s population anticipated to grow by 75,000 in the next 20 years, we need to take a hard look at how, where, and when Whatcom County is using water. Status quo is no longer an option.
RE Sources advocates for thoughtfully and collaboratively managing our water resources as laid out in the Whatcom County’s 2016 Comprehensive Plan update. This includes quantifying water usage throughout the county to promote water conservation, connecting land use and development decisions with water availability, working with the shellfish and farming sectors to protect water quality, and more. Read more about our freshwater restoration work in Whatcom County.
