Yup, you heard it, I’m apologizing. Why, you ask. Because if you have gone through the same things that we have with some of these departments, my heart goes out to you.
We were instructed to hire a professional to create a mitigation plan for our property, which we did, and went above and beyond the call of the plan to bring back the natural habitat and function of the property. Now, we are being bullied by the same people that approved the plan and they want us to do more or change things that they feel are incorrect. Get this, when showed how we are correct and within the code they provide, they change it and try to find something else to force us to make things right.
And if anyone is asking…. Wood mulch is not native to Sandy Point Shores. Maybe to the heights, where a forest is located, but not to land that is man made and all rock.
Have you been pushed around… have any questions. Please let me know, as it is time to get real loud to the right people about the harassment that is going on and maybe help each other out to build and live on the properties we worked hard to build and live upon.
Sandy Point, WA 
Last time I looked ferns were not all that natural to the beach either. But I guess if you put them in wood bark it makes it ok, smile,
That is a beautiful point, and actually incredibly helpful!
I won’t claim to be an expert on plants of the area and can appreciate the mitigation idea to some degree. I have visited the area a number of times and used to live on the other side of the Bay. On a recent trip to the area I was looking at some of the new houses and noticed that all had the bark, fern, etc, treatment, Lets just say it seemed a bit odd and out of place kind of a jumble of various plants etc from the State I suppose. It did not match any of the local Sandy habitat nor any that I have seen on the other side of Lummi Bay either. Some of that habitat like off Succia in the undeveloped part has been there for decades more or less untouched and I assume that would represent “Natural” for the area. Once again a just a potential future owners view. Good luck.