In fast-growing King County, it’s hard to imagine a more striking piece of property than the wilds surrounding Camp Sealth on Colvos Passage. 

A forest of madrone, firs and moss-covered maples climbs from a valley floor thick with yellow skunk cabbage and salmonberry. The expansive landscape includes a dramatic, tree-studded bluff, where down below a cobbled shoreline meanders like a thin, gray ribbon. On a recent evening, the woods were silent, save for the wind and the occasional cacophony of birds.

Now, thanks to an innovative deal between Camp Sealth and King County, this large swath of forest and a mile of natural shoreline will never be developed.

The county purchased the development rights on 101 acres at Camp Sealth last week, using public funds from a combination of sources to buy the rights from Camp Fire USA for $930,000. The result is that the land is now protected by a county-owned conservation easement, which bans construction, logging, road-building, shoreline-hardening or any other use besides that of passive recreation.

“The property’s incredible,” said Darren Greve, who manages King County’s Transfer of Development Rights program.

For some time, officials have been working to find “the last best places of shoreline in King County,” Greve said. When Camp Sealth approached the county two years, ago, he added, “It was an a-ha moment. Not only is the property amazing ecologically, but it’s also an environmental camp for kids.”

The deal is also important for the 90-year-old Camp Sealth, which, like many large summer camps, has felt the pinch of the recession and the pressure to maintain its aging facilities. The camp’s 63 buildings have a median age of 55 years, said Rick Taylor, the camp director. Many of the cabins are built on posts and piers.

“This is an opportunity for us to reinforce the camp’s foundations, both figuratively and literally,” said Bridgett Chandler, chief executive officer for Camp Fire USA Central Puget Sound Council. 

The camp, she said, “is such a treasure, and now it’s preserved. … Economic cycles come and go. Leaders come and go. But a conservation easement like this is forever.”

The county used its transfer of development rights (TDR) program to make the deal. Under the program, the county bought 10 development rights from Camp Sealth, using money from the county’s Conservation Futures Fund, its park expansion levy, an Environmental Protection Agency grant and its TDR bank. Those rights are then “banked” and will eventually be sold to a developer who wants to build more densely in an urban area where the county wants to encourage such density. 

This is only the sixth time the county has used the TDR program since it was started 10 years ago.

“It takes time,” Greve said. “It’s got to be the right property to fit the bank’s criteria. Funding is scarce.”

The 10 development rights come from the 101 acres it protected with a conservation easement, Greve said. Under current zoning, the property could have been subdivided into 10 10-acre plots. And as the population pressures increase over the years, who knows what future administrations may decree for a place like Vashon, he added.

“This protection trumps any of that in perpetuity,” he said.

The park levy funds require public access, Greve said. Because Camp Sealth is open to children on a regular basis and provides scholarships for those who can’t afford it and because it has two days a year when anyone from the public can visit, King County officials decided it met that mandate. 

“While it’s not unfettered public access, it is a camp for the public,” Greve said. 

Taylor and Chandler, walking the shoreline on Saturday during one of Camp Sealth’s biannual open houses, said they’re thrilled that the deal came to fruition. Taylor came up with the idea after the organization’s board made a decision that it didn’t want economic pressures to force the agency to sell its properties. The Central Puget Sound Council owns one other camp — Camp Niwana— another aging but beautiful facility nestled on the shores of Lake Helena on the outskirts of Port Orchard.

While neither Taylor nor Chandler said selling off parts of its property was imminent, they also said it’s a possibility an agency like Camp Fire has to take seriously. Nationwide, Taylor estimates, 30 to 40 percent of the nonprofit nature camps have been sold, either partially or entirely, over the last 25 years.

At 360 acres, Camp Sealth is Camp Fire USA’s largest camp. It’s also a busy place: Every year, some 7,000 children and adults visit the camp, either during the summer, when Camp Sealth hosts a bevy of traditional summertime programs, or during the school year, when Camp Fire runs environmental programs for regional schools or rents out the camp to independent groups.

Taylor and Chandler said they’re pleased that the deal puts the land into a protected status for perpetuity. The shoreline on either side of the cluster of buildings that make up the camp is virtually pristine, they said. Bluffs above the shore erode naturally, replenishing the beaches along Vashon’s western edge.

“Our motivation was to be able to make a powerful statement about Camp Fire’s values, the natural assets that we have and our deep commitment to environmental stewardship,” Chandler said. 

Meanwhile, she added, the council has some immediate needs at both Camp Sealth and Camp Niwana that it will use the money to address. “We need to do some very practical things,” Chandler said. “It’s a camp that’s been well-loved.”