From the city

Brett Bures is now the planner responsible for the Wells West Townhomes project. He passed along an email from Todd Stamm, who is a senior planner for the city. Todd wrote:

"In general the Wells West townhouse site is adjacent to the heron rookery. Because great blue herons are not an endangered, threatened or sensitive species, they are not directly protected by our critical areas ordinance. However, other state and federal rules prohibit harm to active nesting sites. Land use approval was granted and as interim forester Friddle worked with F&W staff to identify a seasonal window when trees on Wells’ site could be removed. We authorized tree removal/clearing of this site during that ‘window’ when the heron nests were not occupied – and I think it has been completed. (This required an exception to normal ‘no clearing and grading’ during winter.) I do not recall if the land use decision imposes additional conditions during construction to mitigate impacts to the nests on the adjacent property.

Also, note that this breeding area is a designated “priority area” by F&W and if development of the parcel including the rookery is proposed we may exercise SEPA authority to avoid or mitigate impacts."

According to the information on this site, breeding commences 2/15, so if anyone sees any breeding behavior, please post it as a comment.