Land Exchange Gnarled in Controversy

Staff Reporter
09/29/2009

A big controversy is brewing in the eastern woods of the Olympic Peninsula. A timber company wants to take possession of thickly forested state lands around Port Ludlow. In return, the company has offered some of its own timberlands in the Olympic foothills. The state and the company both say the exchange allows them to consolidate their land for better management, but local officials and environmentalists are concerned that this will lead to the development of the pristine forest.

On a recent sunny afternoon near Port Ludlow, sport fisherman James Karr tromped down a dirt and gravel slope to the shores of Teal Lake.

Karr: "There are no pristine watersheds left. But there are relatively few lakes that have little development around them. And this is one of those lakes. This lake is very heavily used by sport fishers, day after day after day, most of the year."

Karr is Professor Emeritus of Fisheries and Biology at the University of Washington. He drives 45 minutes from Sequim to catch and release trout from Teal Lake. Karr said the lake and the forests around it are crucial to the ecosystem that connects the Olympic Mountains to the Puget Sound.

Karr: "It has a substantial number of mammals associated with the lake in what appear to be very healthy populations. Beavers, otters — eagles feed here constantly — ospreys, a number of the small perching birds."

This tranquil scene is at the heart of a contentious land exchange under consideration by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, or the DNR. Teal Lake and the forest immediately around it belong to Pope Resources, a company spun off from Northwest timber giant Pope and Talbot. Like a lot of timber companies, Pope is also in real estate — planning and building entire communities on lands that used to grow trees. It owns about 3,000 acres of developed land, including the whole town of Port Gamble.

Pope CEO Dave Nunes says he takes pride in being a long–term manager of more than 100,000 acres of forestlands. Up until now, Pope's most ambitious real estate project was Port Ludlow in the 1960s.

Nunes: "It was quite a remote place back then. We were the developer of the entire resort, we were in the home building business. We built the inn, and the golf course, and the marina: the whole community."

Port Ludlow didn't become the profitable, vacation–home Mecca its creator wanted. So in 2001, Pope sold it to a California real estate company. But it still owns this Teal Lake property wedged between DNR forestlands. And so Pope proposed a trade to the state. Pope wants 3,000 acres of densely wooded DNR land clustered around Port Ludlow and along Highway 104. In exchange, Pope offered 4,400 acres of its own, more recently harvested land, which adjoins state and federal forests west of Highway 101.

The proposed exchange has upset people, from environmentalists to residents to local officials. Jefferson County Commissioner John Austin represents Port Ludlow. He visited Teal Lake recently to explain his hopes for its future.

Austin: "A glance at the map will show that if we maintain this land here as DNR property, it means that we'll have some open spaces, have osprey like you just saw flying overhead. My concern is as population continues to grow here, particularly as people continue to move from the Seattle area, that there will be tremendous pressure to convert this area to housing."

Local officials said they would support the exchange if Pope keeps the land in commercial forestry for 50 years. The county commissioners also asked Pope to leave more trees in fields and around streams to protect birds and fish. Pope's CEO Nunes offered to delay developing some land until 2025, but he's not making any promises beyond then. He says the county commissioners can always turn down Pope's rezone application. And Nunes said Pope's duty to its shareholders trumps voluntary habitat preservation.

Peter Goldmark was elected to be Commissioner of Public Lands in November. Goldmark said he doesn't want to see public lands end up paved over by the private sector. But he supports the exchange begun by his predecessor, which would see the state retreat from Port Ludlow land likely to be redeveloped.

Goldmark: "Scattered parcels are very difficult to manage, and it is only for those reasons that we consider trading for parcels that are more in a block. The issues about what happens to the parcels we trade out of is an important aspect. That's what sets my administration apart from previous administrations. I am working in a very proactive manner with local jurisdictions, counties and land trusts to make sure that their voices are heard in advance of any trades."

Goldmark has held up the exchange until common ground can be found. He's offered the commissioners two years to find a way to preserve the forests. But Goldmark defends the basic premise behind the exchange, which he says helps the state build bigger blocks of timberlands to preserve working forests and fund schools.

I'm Kristen Young for KUOW News.

Kristen Young is a reporter for InvestigateWest, a nonprofit investigative journalism studio.