An exciting new program funded by the Washington State Legislature will support six community forest projects around the state. The Capital Budget includes $16.3 million for this new Community Forest Program administered by the Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO). The six projects have been driven by local communities in Chelan, Jefferson, Pierce, Klickitat, Kittitas, and Kitsap Counties.
Ensuring local access and conservation values are important for community forests. Photo © Caleb and Ariana Babcock.
The projects are:
Nason Ridge Community Forest, the top ranked project, will enable Chelan County to acquire over 3,700 acres that overlooks Lake Wenatchee. Nason Ridge and the adjacent Lake Wenatchee State Park host more than 400,000 visitors annually.
The North Kitsap Divide Community Forest is the largest remaining block of at-risk timberland in north Kitsap County, and a key missing link in the planned route of the Sound to Olympics trail. Once opened, the trail will create near continuous foot and bike access from the Mountains to Sounds Greenway to the Olympic Discovery Trail.
Cle Elum Ridge Community Forest, sponsored by the Checkerboard Partnership, will protect 1,250 acres on Cle Elum ridge above the towns of Roslyn, Ronald and Cle Elum to ensure that these forests are managed sustainably to reflect the community vision and values.
Chimacum Ridge Community Forest on the Olympic Peninsula will transform over 853 acres into an active resource for the community, and open up 10 miles of new trails to drive local tourism, support direct access to forest products for local businesses, provide a safe haven for diverse cultural activities, and serve as an educational hub to develop the next generation of natural resource professionals.
A 1,280-acre addition to the Nisqually Community Forest will secure about 3 miles of Busy Wild Creek, crucial for chinook and steelhead recovery plans. This project will be added to a robust forest management plan that already generates steady annual production of commercial timber, while securing a key section of the most popular route in the Mount Tahoma Trails Association’s hut-to-hut ski trail.
Mt. Adams Community Forest will add the Conboy Lake South Tract, an important 389-acre addition to the oldest nonprofit-led community forest in the state. This key forest land prevents the loss of at-risk resource lands that add to the ecological diversity and economic opportunities of the Mt. Adams region, allowing for innovative management to address the growing threat of wildfires to the local forest and an adjacent national wildlife refuge that is home to Washington’s only nesting population of Sandhill Cranes.
Public tour at Chimacum Ridge that will ultimately become part of the Community Forest. Photo Courtesy of Jefferson Land Trust.
What is a Community Forest?
Community forests are working forests owned and managed by municipalities, government agencies, Tribes and non-profit organizations for the benefit of local communities. Community Forests enable people living in rural areas to participate as stakeholders in forest management decisions and to organize economic development efforts in a way that balances multiple values maximize local public benefits.
These projects have the potential to produce real benefits for communities by strengthening local economies, protecting drinking water, reducing wildfire risk, mitigating climate change, providing habitat and keeping forestland open for public use and education.
Community Forest Principles:
Community forests are as diverse as the lands they occupy and the communities they represent but they all share a commitment to four common principles:
Community has secured access and rights to the forest resource at the community-level
Community participates in management decisions
Community receives value and benefit from the land that reinforce local community and economic development goals
The conservation values of the property are permanently protected
Banner photo © Tomas Corsini, volunteer photographer
