End of the year for local charities

Here’s a great charity to donate to, one that will always give back in great ways…

-Editor

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By the best estimates, Nisqually steelhead are just 400 fish from extinction. A run of wild salmon that only forty years ago numbered up to 10,000 fish annually is on the verge of “blinking out” – of disappearing forever – within a few short years.

And so it is with great urgency but also great hope that we announce today the purchase of the Anderson Property in Eatonville and the completion of our Mashel River Shoreline Protection Initiative.

Over the past six years the Initiative has permanently protected some three miles of the Mashel, the largest tributary to the Nisqually River and once one of the richest steelhead rivers in the Pacific Northwest. Steelhead travel farther upstream than any other salmon species and require the most extensive freshwater habitat.

Though small – just under five acres – the Anderson property is the final, connecting piece in a complex habitat mosaic that includes 27 different properties. The purchase was funded by a generous donation from the landowner, David Anderson, grants from Pierce County Conservation Futures and the Washington Salmon Recovery Funding Board, and contributions from our supporters.

“I’m very grateful that this land is being preserved for wild salmon,” said David Anderson, whose family has lived along the Mashel for generations. “This is good work by good people, and I and my family are proud to be a part of it.”

The Mashel Initiative is located in the river’s Lower Reach, the seven miles from Eatonville to the Nisqually confluence. Some 90 percent of the Lower Reach is now permanently protected.

But our work is not finished. The Land Trust is now working in the Middle and Upper Mashel reaches, which are also critical for steelhead recovery. The fight to save Nisqually steelhead has reached the point where, almost literally, every foot of river counts.

To help prevent the disappearance of an entire species is a tremendous challenge, but also a tremendous opportunity. Please consider making a year-end gift by December 31st! Donations of $500 and above will be matched dollar for dollar by generous supporters. We have already raised $33,640, leaving us just $6,360 short of our year-end goal.

Thank you!