Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Birch Bay, WA

Birch Bay is an unincorporated census-designated place in Whatcom County, Washington, wrapped around the shore of the bay of the same name on the Salish Sea, about six miles south of the Canada-United States border.

Local Indigenous communities knew the place as Say-wak, meaning "people saved from a flood by building a raft," and Spanish captain José María Narváez named it Puerto del Garzón in 1791.

The bay received its current name in 1792 from Archibald Menzies of the Vancouver Expedition, who noted the many birch trees while the expedition's ships anchored there for several days.

Birch Bay's first post office opened in 1881, and the community long served as a quiet beach resort before condominium and vacation-home development accelerated in the 2000s.

The 2020 census counted 10,115 residents in the Birch Bay CDP, up sharply from 8,413 in 2010 and 4,961 in 2000, making it Whatcom County's largest census-designated place and bigger than all but three of the county's cities.

Birch Bay State Park, established along the bay's shoreline, draws campers and beachcombers, and the Birch Bay Waterslides are a longtime summer attraction.

The community is reached by State Route 548, which links two Interstate 5 interchanges near Ferndale and Blaine, and its curving beachfront drive is lined with resorts, cottages, and beachside shops.

Because so many of its roughly 10,000 residents live in an unincorporated urban growth area, a proposal to incorporate Birch Bay as a city was announced in 2023 after earlier attempts and discussion.

Birch Bay sits on the Pacific Flyway, and its restored shoreline and nearby Point Whitehorn Marine Reserve make it a destination for birdwatching and tide-pooling.