Huxley College of Environmental Studies

The Nesset Farm Environmental Stewardship Project was conducted by students at Western Washington University's Huxley College between February and March, 1999.

Led by Professors Wendy Walker and John McLaughlin, the project aimed to document the history of the Nesset Farm and adjacent Overby / Goodyear-Nelson properties, located along the South Fork of the Nooksack River in Whatcom County. Nesset Farm was first homesteaded by the Sinnes family in 1885, and then occupied by Lars and Anna Nesset and their children Tom, Ingeborg and George Nesset, who remained their entire lives on the property. In 1989, Tom and Ingeborg Nesset signed a conservation easement willing the property to the Whatcom Land Trust upon their death. At the time of the environmental stewardship project, the property was destined for inclusion in the Whatcom County Parks system. Huxley students sought to gather environmental and historical information for inclusion in a preliminary site plan for the proposed park.

The Nesset Farm Environmental Stewardship Project was compiled by Western Washington University Huxley College students in February-March 1999 for the "planning, documentation, education and interpretation" of the Nesset Farm and adjacent Overby/Goodyear-Nelson properties located in Whatcom County, Washington.

The Nesset family were the Norwegian relatives of the Sinnes family, who homesteaded the property in 1885. The Nessets arrived in the South Fork valley in 1902 and moved onto the property in 1905. The family included Lars and Anna Nesset and their son, Tom. Ingeborg and George Nesset were later born on the farm and all three children lived their entire lives on the property.

The Nesset farm site presently comprises 106 acres and the Overby/Goodyear Nelson portion is approximately 200 acres (a total of 306 acres of land along the South Fork of the Nooksack River) In an easement signed in 1989, Tom and Ingeborg Nesset willed that the property be transferred to the Whatcom Land Trust upon their death. The easement specifies that timber on the land be conserved in perpetuity. The conservation easement also protects the land from development, restricts deforestation, and permits the farm to be used as a public park so long as site buildings are restored and the site is used for educational and historical interpretation purposes. At the time the environmental stewardship project began, the property had recently been added to the Whatcom County Parks system and was destined to become a county park. The collection documents the environmental history as well as the ownership of the site.