Whatcom County task force reviews 372-response survey: residents prioritize ecosystem services, cite land conversion as top threat

Melanie (Consultant, Triangle) told the Whatcom County Forest Resilience Task Force on April 14, 2025, that the team received 372 responses to a public survey open for 32 days and will incorporate the results into the county’s Forest Resilience Plan. “We ended up with 372 responses. And like I noted, it was open for about a month, 32 days,” Melanie said.

The survey, conducted using a snowball sampling approach, skewed older and white: the presentation noted a majority of respondents were over age 55 and 78% identified as white. Respondents reported recreation as their most common way of engaging with local forests; when asked to rank values, respondents most frequently put ecosystem services — for example clean water, carbon storage and soil health — at the top and placed lumber production most often at the bottom. The task force packet says nearly half of respondents identified restoring healthy ecosystems for fish and…