Pay Attention to the Birch Bay Tourism Study

Everyone concerned with the future of Birch Bay should read and consider the ideas put forth by the consultants who are paid $25,000 by the Port of Bellingham. There is a version at www.birchbaychamber.com (click on "survey").

Dodd Snodgrass, the Port's project manager who oversaw the work (dodds@portofbellingham.com), e-mailed us a copy of the latest version last week. It is 95 pages with nice pictures – that's a lot of paper and ink.

Some people are not favorably impressed. At the February meeting of the Birch Bay Chamber, John Gargett, the president, said he didn't know people have trouble finding Birch Bay. At an information-sharing meeting last Tuesday, Charlie Shelton, the Port director, and Michael McAuly, the newest Port commissioner got an earful from a man who rents cottages who said that he “resents outsiders who tell him his business.”

Kathy Berg, chair of the Birch Bay Steering committee, in written comments to those who guided the consultants, noted that, “Unfortunately, the sometimes inaccurate information is a distraction and counter productive.” She added that, “weaknesses” listed in the consultant's report have been addressed and or been improved over the past 10 years by the Steering Committee.

My view, from the meetings I attended, is that the consultants seemed more interested in expressing their own ideas than in seeking out all the key people in the community and listening to their ideas.

Among the 13 people they did interview are few of the have-done/can-do people who have built the community. In a section on what is likely to happen to the tourism market in Birch Bay if nothing is done, the consultants include: “Continue as a sleepy backwater.” 

Birch Bay is generally recognized for the best warm-water beach north of California. The State fish and game commission ranks Birch Bay as the best clamming beach north of Seattle. Seventy thousand people camped at the state park last year. There were 500,000 total visitors, according to Ted Morris, who manages the park.

Last week the Herald reported census numbers for Whatcom County communities. In the past decade, Birch Bay had the greatest percentage growth (69.6%) of any community in the county and, with the exception of Bellingham, the most gain in people (3,453); greater than Blaine (914) Ferndale (2,657) and Lynden (2,913).

Do these number define a “backwater?”

While the consultants fill their study with bright ideas about how to attract more people to Birch Bay, I think the priority should be on how to create more activities and amenities for people who come so they will stay longer and spend more money. That's going to take entrepreneurial enterprise.

Nonetheless, those who study the recommendations will find some good ideas that prompt thinking.

In my youth I made a modest living taking California investment analysts to New York to meet reporters and broadcasters. Most of the discussions were about hot new companies and their business plans. Some of the best business plans were described as originating on one side of a folded napkin – a paper napkin.

So, if you've read this far I suggest that, as you study the consultants' recommendations, you take a piece paper – re-use paper folded the long way – and write down five things you would like to see happen, aside from Kathy's berm and Ted's boat launch.

Five things that are do-able in the next three years. 


Send them to us as a comment for posting.

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