Mashel River Purchase will protect Steelhead Trout Habitat

The Land Trust has purchased a 240-acre Mashel River property--our first acquisition in the Middle Reach of the Mashel River, which the Nisqually Salmon Recovery Plan ranks as the most important reach in the entire watershed for restoration of threatened steelhead trout habitat.  As well, the property contains both banks of one and one-third miles of the Mashel River, or more than two-and-a-half miles of salmon-producing shoreline – the most such shoreline we’ve ever picked up in a single acquisition.

For 2011, this brings our total land acquisitions to 347 acres.  It’s the fourth year in a row that we have increased our holdings by at least 10 percent, and the fifth out of the last six.  Over that span we have more than quadrupled our portfolio of protected lands, from 863 acres to 3,807.