Ebey's Landing Administrative History

Chapter Two:
DESCRIPTION OF THE RESOURCE

The following is a summary of the physical, economic and demographic characteristics of Central Whidbey Island, in which Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve is located.

Whidbey Island is in an area that once lay under 3,000 feet of ice. Thirteen thousand years ago, receding glaciers gouged out the waterways and shaped the features of Puget Sound. Glacial moraine formed Whidbey Island, and like most Puget Sound landforms, it ranges no higher than 500 feet in elevation. The island varies from one to ten miles in width and its length extends nearly 40 miles in a north-south direction. Whidbey is the largest island in the Sound; in fact, after New York's Long Island was officially declared a peninsula in 1985, Whidbey Island could claim to be the longest and largest island in the lower 48 states. [1]

Situated in the northern Puget Sound, 27 miles north of Seattle and 50 miles south of the Canadian border, Whidbey Island stretches from 48 degrees to 48 30' northern latitude. It has long summer days--sixteen hours of daylight at summer solstice--and long winter nights. As in the rest of the Puget Sound, the marine environment provides one of the most uniform temperatures in the country. Wet and dry seasons are moderate but distinct, with cool, dry summers, and foggy, damp winters.[2]

Two mountain ranges also moderate local conditions. To the east of the Sound, the Cascade Range deflects continental winds. Roughly one-hundred miles to the west is Washington's Pacific coast, where the continental United States receives its highest rainfall. Because the Olympic Mountains stand between the coast and Whidbey Island, they catch much of the rain that pounds the coast all winter. Whidbey Island still receives abundant, if gentler, winter precipitation, which occasionally turns to snow. The northern half of Whidbey Island is well situated in the Olympic rainshadow, and averages less than 20 inches annually, while the southern half of the island receives 30 inches. The only streams are in the south, and these are small and intermittent. Water is limited, particularly in the north.[3]

Prairie constitutes approximately five percent of Whidbey Island, and provides some of the richest farmland in the state. Once heavily forested with gigantic Douglas fir, western hemlock and red cedar, the island is still fifty-eight percent forest, although little or no old growth remains. The southern portion of Whidbey Island is hilly, and contains the highest plateaus on the island. The north is mostly prairie, coastal peat bog, and forested lowland; here lie agricultural areas that have sometimes set world records for wheat production. Garry oak grows near Oak Harbor, while red alder, maple, ash and willow grow in wet areas and at shoreline. Other common trees and shrubs on the island include rhododendron (confined largely to a small area east of Coupeville), salal, cascara, madrona, Oregon grape, blackberries, huckleberries, snowberries, brackenfern (in open areas) and swordfern (in shady places). Nettles grow on disturbed sites; sedges, cattails, skunk cabbage, sphagnum moss and other species are common in fresh water bogs.[4]

Wolves and bears once lived on the Whidbey Island. It is still home to at least 38 species of mammals, including weasels, red-tailed foxes, raccoons and black-tailed deer. Migrating waterfowl use the shoreline and wetlands for stopovers and for nesting and breeding.