Animals big and small and enjoying Whidbey Island’s new nature preserve—and that includes Bruiser, the island’s sole elk.
Excerpt: Donald Borgman, third-generation owner of a 127-acre farm near Strawberry Point on North Whidbey, recently donated 88 acres to the Whidbey Camano Land Trust for a wildlife preserve. He also donated an agricultural conservation easement on the remaining 39 acres, so the main farmstead continues to support agriculture.
The generosity of Borgman permanently protects a peaceful property that appears frozen in time from the days when Oak Harbor was largely a farming community. Aside from the beautiful pastoral and mountain views, the preserve also features a mosaic of wildlife habitats, including freshwater wetlands, coniferous and deciduous forest, and open fields.
It was a wonderful opportunity for the Land Trust to protect a large, contiguous area for habitat conservation that has far-reaching benefits. The habitat certainly has Bruiser’s stamp of approval. The majestic bull elk has lived in the rural Strawberry Point area since the fall of 2012 after swimming across Skagit Bay.
Read more in the South Whidbey Record.