By JOHN O’BRIEN

For The Beachcomber

Years of planning and negotiation culminated last month with the start of logging operations in Island Center Forest, an effort to marry forest conservation and resource development in Vashon’s largest expanse of publicly owned land.

King County, which owns the 363-acre property, hired a logging firm to cut trees at two different sites in the much-loved forest — a 17-acre stand of Douglas fir and three acres of alder, both near the center of the property. The county expects to net $30,000 from the operation, proceeds that will go back into the forest, enabling the county and a consortium of Island groups to steward the property.

According to backers of the approach, the forestry operation will not only bring in revenue but also improve forest health in the densely planted woodland, where a naturally occurring root rot threatens some of the Douglas firs. They say the logging operation will enable managers to bring greater diversity to the forest, providing the kind of mosaic in both tree size and species that reflects a healthy ecosystem.

“If I wanted to purely restore this forest, thinning would still make sense,” says Derek Churchill, who specializes in sustainable forestry. Churchill wrote the Island Center forestry plan, which recommends thinning on 250-acres over the next 20 years.

“Leaving these stands alone is not the best thing ecologically,” he said.

In late October, trails were closed to allow the logging to begin. And while it’s called ecological forestry, the operation isn’t pretty. The woods already show the scars of a logging operation: wclearings and skid trails where none existed, slash piles, leftover stumps of highly valued trees.

But Churchill, a conservationist who cares passionately about forest health, noted that the impact is far lighter than a traditional harvest and is philosophical about the process. For him it is a question of values.

“Do you believe it’s possible for humans to extract resources from nature while maintaining ecological functions and wildlife habitat, or do you think humans just screw things up and we should stay out of the forest and let nature take care of itself?” he asks. “If you believe in the latter, then where do we get resources from? How is sustainability possible?”

Logging is not new to Island Center Forest, the majority of which has been clear-cut over the years. Until recently, much of the property was held in trust by the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which was required by law to harvest its timber and direct the profits towards public education.

That history began to change when the Friends of Island Center Forest — a consortium of local conservationists, hikers, cyclists, equestrians and hunters — started meeting in 2001 in an effort to find a way to acquire the property from the state. The groups hoped to create the largest contiguous, protected forest on Vashon.

Towards that end they worked with state officials and the Legislature to transfer the land out of DNR ownership, seeking funds by way of the Trust Land Transfer Program, which enables the state to relinquish one piece of property if the Legislature appropriates the money to replace it with another parcel elsewhere.

Not all of the Friends of Island Center Forest, however, shared a common vision, said Dave Warren, who directs the Vashon Forest Stewards, a non-profit group that supervises public and private timber harvests, operates a low-tech sawmill on the Island and does educational outreach. Warren recalled how some members imagined making the area a preserve, while his group promoted sustainable timber harvesting that would employ Islanders and help feed Vashon’s need for wood. Meanwhile, the request for a transfer spent three years wending its way through state legislative channels.

In 2004, to the surprise of some involved, the state approved the transfer, but a major hurdle remained. What local entity would take responsibility for the property? The Vashon Park District declined, so King County seemed like the logical alternative, but there was a catch, recalled Tom Dean, executive director of the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust. County officials said they couldn’t afford to pay for maintenance of the area as a preserve and that for a transfer to take place, two things would have to occur— the property would have to produce income and all the stakeholders would need to sign off on the plan.

This development brought the differing Friends of Island Center Forest together, and the various interested parties agreed to accept the county’s proposal.

“There have been some people that aren’t excited about this,” says Churchill, “but we haven’t had any real kind of opposition.”

Over the next three years, the county’s Department of Natural Resources and Parks acquired ownership of three parcels that make up the 363-acre property: The largest portion, 200 acres, was the former state DNR land; another 80-acre parcel was transferred out of the county’s Solid Waste Division; and the county purchased the final 83-acre parcel, which is protected as a forest preserve, from the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust.

County planners and foresters also worked with the Friends group to draft and recommend a management plan for the forest. Completed last year, the plan lays out three goals: to enhance its ecological health, maintain and enhance recreational opportunities and produce revenue from timber harvesting.

Throughout the process, the groups that make up the Friends of Island Center Forest — particularly the land trust and Vashon Forest Stewards — have played an active role in the forest’s management, developing trails laid out by the equestrians, creating a map for users and crafting the timber harvest plan.

Bill Loeber, a forester with the county’s Water and Land Resources Division, says the project is a model for public/private partnership.

“This has been very much community driven,” he said. “It has had its issues, but overall I think the concept has worked well, and I think it’s lessened the confrontation between public land ownership and the environmental community.”

But just how the timber harvest plan plays out and whether such projects can contribute much to the region’s wood market is still far from certain. Sustainable forestry today represents a tiny portion of the worldwide market for wood. And while some say the experiment underway at Island Center Forest will help determine if a sustainability movement can take root and grow, they also acknowledge hurdles remain.

“At this point it’s a niche market,” said Loeber, noting people are resistant to pay more for sustainably harvested forest products. “But I think as our energy situation gets worse, there’ll definitely be a bigger niche.”

Churchill, who has worked for The Nature Conservancy and other groups on the issue of sustainable forestry, said he believes it’s imperative that communities learn to blend their desire for recreational lands with their local needs for wood.

“If we manage our forests on Vashon as purely parks and do not harvest any wood, we are just exporting our consumption to somewhere else,” he said.

“We can all pat ourselves on the back for buying green products and living in the woods, but we are kidding ourselves to think we are living sustainably if we live in large wood houses and look the other way when we buy our wood from industrial tree farms.”

Of greater concern to Churchill is how development, not logging, will affect forested regions.

“Forestry at Island Center Forest is not harming the forest at all compared to development,” he said. “When people move here, build a large wood house in the forest and then say they don’t want to produce any wood from places like Island Center Forest to protect habitat, they are being hypocritical in my opinion.”

­— John O’Brien is a feelance writer on Vashon.