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Birch Bay, Washington

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1907 and the latest in 1975. It stands in the Blaine census division. It lies in ZIP code area 98230. The Survey maps it on the Blaine quadrangle. 10,115 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 10 feet above sea level.

Birch Bay within Whatcom County

Population over time

3 figures

Birch Bay grew from 4,961 to 10,115 between 2000 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
20004,961
20108,413+3,452 (+70%)
202010,115+1,702 (+20%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 13 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

Fires near this place

12 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Birch Bay between 1996 and 2019, burning about 18 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Recreation and ceremony4
Missing data/not specified/undetermined3
Fireworks2
Debris and open burning1
Smoking1
Other causes1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
21 September 2009Fireworksunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources HeadquartersKOEHN RD
12 September 2016Smoking1.5 acresWashington State Department of Natural Resources HeadquartersBLAINE 20
25 August 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources HeadquartersKLUKEN
16 August 2011Other causesunder an acreWashington State Fire Marshal's OfficeBIRCH POINT ROAD
14 August 1996Debris and open burningunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named
8 July 2007Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources HeadquartersPOINT WHITE HORN
6 July 1996Fireworksunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named
4 July 2002Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Whatcom County

Mines and quarries near this place

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Birch Bay: 4 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Diatomite. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Blain PitDiatomitePast Producer
Bordstrom PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Loop PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Unnamed PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Whatcom County

Storms near this place

1 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Birch Bay in 1 storm report in 2001: 1 storm surge/tide. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
December 2001Storm Surge/TideBirch Bay$250,000no account filed

Every storm recorded in Whatcom County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Birch Bay Circle Grange1.1 miles13
Cottonwood Beach1.7 miles10
Pleasant Valley2.3 miles13
Hillsdale3.0 miles13
Kickerville3.1 miles13
Semiahmoo5.1 miles10
Blaine5.2 miles13
Custer5.7 miles13

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Birch BayAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1508497The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1512009. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.