Go ahead and add Bellingham to another national list of “best” places. This time, though, it’s not for being the best paddling town or adventure town, it’s for being a place no one has heard of.

National magazine Mother Earth News has named Bellingham among the “Eight Great Places You’ve Never Heard Of.” The story is due out July 24 in the magazine’s August/September issue.

Bellingham has, ironically, been included on numerous national lists prior to this one: Outside magazine ranked it as the best paddling town in August 2006, and CNN and Money magazine rated it one of the best places to retire in August 2003, to name a few of the accolades.

The assistant editor of Mother Earth News, Alison Rogers, said she was not aware Bellingham was included on previous lists.

“It’s a great place,” Rogers said. “So it gets to be in a ‘great place’ article.”

The list focuses on cities’ dedication to renewable energy, local farmers and other “green” efforts, Rogers said. There was no ranking to the list.

“The whole ‘you’ve never heard of’ part is kind of difficult,” Rogers said. “We didn’t want to choose Seattle since everyone’s heard of it. We wanted to delve into smaller communities and find a way to include everywhere.”

The Topeka, Kan.,-based magazine has a national circulation of about 350,000 and Washington state circulation of 9,500. It picked a range of cities for its list, including the 70,000- population college town of Bloomington, Ind., and Dixon, N.M., a town with a mere 1,500 residents.

Dave Wann, an author and filmmaker who wrote the article, said that although he has never been to Bellingham, he has heard great things about its citizen involvement, nonprofit organizations and popularity of hybrid vehicles.

“Depending on who the reader is, most people have heard of the larger metropolitan areas,” Wann said. “That’s not meant to be a slight on Bellingham. Probably most people have heard of it.”

Wann said he originally named the article “The Eight Great Places You May Have Never Heard Of,” but the editors at Mother Earth News chose to stick with the “never heard of” concept.