Donate to the Friends of Grays Harbor Legal fund to help protect a beloved public park from private development!

Westport Light State Park is one of Washington's premier coastal recreation areas, attracting surfers, beachgoers, anglers, kiteboarders, clam diggers, birdwatchers, and families. At its heart is a rare and irreplaceable interdunal wetland system—the second-largest expanse of interdunal wetlands in Washington—with wetlands and buffers covering a substantial portion of the park.

But all of this could be at risk if developers are allowed to build a sprawling 560+ acre private golf course within our beloved state park. If allowed, the golf course would fundamentally change the character of the park and permanently alter land in irrevocable ways.

The project also risks changing the experience and character of the Westport surf break, one of the region’s most important and accessible surfing destinations.

The environmental costs go far beyond clearing land for fairways. Maintaining a golf course requires substantial irrigation as well as fertilizers and other turf-management chemicals in a landscape with a very high water table and hydrologic connections to the ocean and Grays Harbor. Project documents estimated irrigation needs at roughly 250,000 gallons a day during dry months, while environmental concerns have focused on the potential movement of nutrients and chemicals through groundwater and wetlands.

This is why the legal work being undertaken by Friends of Grays Harbor (FOGH) matters: this is not simply a disagreement over a golf course. It is a fight to protect public parkland, rare coastal wetlands, water resources, public access, and the wild coastal character that makes Westport special in the first place.

FOGH is asking for support to continue that legal challenge and give these public resources a meaningful chance to be protected. To learn more about the legal work being done, visit the FOGH website. (fogh.org)