Property Rights and Ecological Stewardship Clash Up Wenatchee's Number 1 Canyon
Rolling boulders, erosion, potential flooding, and loss of wildlife habitat concerning neighbors
Tyler Chambers owns about 66 acres up Number 1 Canyon Road in Wenatchee, and for months neighbors have been concerned with his activities.
Because of the earth moving to flatten the canyon side, boulders were rolling down the hill into the creek bed where neighborhood children play – or used to play.
According to the couple who provided the photo below, the roadway was damaged by heavy equipment coming and going from Chambers’ property.
Chambers also trespassed on an adjacent lot owned by the Chelan Douglas Land Trust and removed habitat and vegetation, according to Curt Soper, executive director of the CDLT.
Soper provided more details about the incident to a concerned property owner in the neighborhood and Chelan County Sheriff Brian Burnett in an email.
“We have attempted to negotiate a boundary line adjustment with Mr. Chambers to resolve this, but have not been successful. More recently, Mr. Chambers’ continued excavation has interfered with the legal access to our property which is located on his property, and he has done so without the Land Trust’s permission. This is now no longer a practical access point for us and severely devalues our property. We realize that these violations are not necessarily the responsibility of the County to address but I did want to share this information with you. The Land Trust is pursuing our legal rights associated with our private property,” Soper wrote.
On May 3, Chelan County issued a stop work order, which according to neighbors, went ignored. So on May 18, the county sued, according to The Wenatchee World.
That seemed to have done the trick, and since May 18, the earth moving and other work has ceased, according to neighbors. The order is in effect until further notice and a motion for injunctive relief is set for June 10.
But neighbors say they don’t understand why it had to get to this point. One woman, who we’ll call “Matilda” due to fear of reprisal for speaking out, said that many neighbors tried politely approaching Chambers when he started work and boulders started rolling down the hill.
“We have all approached Mr. Chambers personally. We’ve tried to make friends with him, shake his hand – he won’t shake hands,” she said.”We’ve all tried to be good neighbors and do this through the front door. And when that wasn’t happening we thought, ‘Oh well, I guess the next step is to send in some code violations.’ Six months of that turning over nothing – except a few patronizing smacks.”
Matilda said they reached out to the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office, the agency in charge of land-use code enforcement, and were upset by their response.
She said that while she understands that they’re understaffed and it’s a new responsibility for the sheriff’s office, she’s still frustrated with the lack of attention to what is a time-sensitive issue.
“This is really unfortunate that a critical area, and protected, is being decimated because nobody – because there’s no communication between the departments – and there might even be a little bit of good-ole-boy stuff happening,” she said. “As the mountain goes down by 10-feet a day and we see the deer habitat wiped out and the eagle forage being taken away we’re just like ‘Wow, you know maybe they’ll get their act together in a year but I mean this is irreparable.’”
But it’s one interaction Chambers and his lawyer Arron Harris had with an elderly neighbor who is now in memory care that speaks volumes.
According to Amanda Boers, granddaughter of Arthur Watson, a retired pastor and property owner up Number 1 Canyon, Chambers and Harris came onto Watson’s property last year and got him to sign an easement agreement. The agreement was so that Chambers could run power and water from the creek up to the work site.
For that access, Chambers paid Watson $5,000.
Boers said her grandfather did not consult legal counsel before making the decision. She said the men called and got a notary to come out to make the document official and then cut him a check.
She described Chambers and Harris’ actions as “pushy.”
“This was done in September of last year before my grandfather had an official diagnosis of dementia/Alzheimer's, but I do think he took advantage of him,” Boers said. “I do think he’s taking advantage of an old man who didn’t have a formal diagnosis at the time.”
She said she and her family knew of her grandfather’s cognitive decline long before the official diagnosis. Still, since Chambers and Harris got Watson to sign the paperwork before he was officially diagnosed with dementia/Alzheimer’s, she and her sister don’t think there’s much they can do legally.
Boers and her sister are in charge of Watson’s estate now that he’s mentally incapacitated, and they both live out of state. She said they are worried that the work already done will result in erosion when the inevitable floods come. Boers said they are concerned flood waters will begin to wash away the retaining wall Watson built to protect the foundation of his home.
She said with no one there; they have no way of knowing if boulders are rolling down onto his lot and damaging her grandfather’s property.
As I gathered information about this story, I went up Number 1 Canyon and walked the road with a neighbor. I reached out to the Land Trust, the county, spoke with Sheriff Brian Burnett via email, and tried reaching out to Chambers.
He didn’t get back to me, but his lawyer did. Here is that exchange.
“Hello, Mr. Harris,
I'm an independent journalist working on an article about Tyler Chambers and what's going on up Number One Canyon in Wenatchee. I spoke with Arthur Watson's granddaughter, and she said you and Mr. Chambers visited Mr. Watson last year and got him to sign an easement agreement in exchange for $5,000.
She says he was in cognitive decline at that time and is now in memory care and that she feels her grandfather was taken advantage of. She and some of the neighbors have also expressed concern that Mr. Chambers' activities on his property above Mr. Watson's will result in erosion due to flooding and loss of property value.
Can you comment on that easement agreement, what it entails, and what Mr. Chambers plans to build above Watson's lot? From what I understand, the Chelan Douglas Land Trust, which owns the lot above Chambers, has brought a suit against Tyler. Are you representing him in that case?
Thank you for your time,” I wrote.
Harris responded within a few hours.
“Mr. Bonny,
These allegations are disputed and are subject to pending litigation. There is no other comment.
Regards,” he wrote.
It does seem as if Chambers is concerned about the boulders because he has been hiring crews to remove and haul them away. However, this clearing work may be happening because the Washington State Department of Ecology ordered Chambers to clear the boulders from Watson’s land along the creek bed, according to one neighbor. That’s something I’ll be following up on.
Another neighbor provided this video clip of one crew clearing the boulders while also blocking the roadway.
If Chambers does respond to my requests for comment, I will update this piece.
For more coverage of this issue, check out Oscar Rodriguez’s reporting on this issue in The Wenatchee World:
Chelan County issues stop-work order on No.1 Canyon earth-moving, May 5, 2022
No. 1 Canyon earth-moving project comes to a halt following county lawsuit, May 31, 2022
Excellent work, Dom.
Thanks for the reporting that the "Daily Disappointment" (Wenatchee World) will only cover if it meets their view of newsworthy and political acceptability. Funny that I was just reading the Legal adds in the paper today, which has one from Chelan County calling for bids to construct yet more flood abatement retention ponds on Number One Canyon. Then this afternoon a large thundercloud looked to be dumping lots of water into that canyon. I may go take a look tomorrow. While No. 1 Canyon has natural flood risks, much of the downstream damage from floods over the past 25 years has been greatly exacerbated because Chelan County allowed developers and private property owners to install undersized culverts for driveways and access roads to housing developments which were plugged by debris during heavy rain events. These short-term "dams" then broke or were bypassed as the water carved a channel around them, releasing the backwatered pond all at once which multiplied the downstream effect and overwhelming otherwise adequate-sized culverts and bridges. It will be interesting to see if the County actually seeks reparations if this Chambers activity caused an issue today or in the future. Past transgressions usually have just been passed off onto the taxpayers through the property tax assessment of the Flood Control Zone District.