Rich Appel believes we should love our neighbors as ourselves. He also believes it is our time; our time to steward this river and this land together.

Rich Appel is a second-generation Christian dairy farmer and president of Whatcom Family Farmers whose Dutch immigrant family has stewarded land along the Nooksack River for over 55 years. His father Jack came from the Netherlands with dreams of farming and cheese-making—skills he learned while working on a farm in France as a teenager—and eventually established what became Appel Farms in Ferndale in 1967.

Growing up on the river shaped Rich's understanding that stewardship is both a daily responsibility and a sacred calling. His Christian faith informs his belief that "we're just here for a short time" while the land and river "are going to be here long after we're all gone"—making this generation's care of these resources a profound responsibility to future generations.

As a leader in collaborative environmental projects, Rich has championed fish-friendly infrastructure improvements including innovative floodgate systems that balance agricultural needs with salmon habitat restoration. His commitment to building bridges across traditional divides reflects his conviction that loving your neighbor means caring about their welfare and working together for mutual flourishing.

Through Whatcom Family Farmers and various conservation partnerships, Rich advocates for collaborative solutions that honor both agricultural heritage and treaty rights, believing that patient cultivation of relationships—like farming itself—requires hard work, time, and faith that "the harvest will come" when communities choose cooperation over conflict.