2022 Kitsap Forest Community Campaign

UPDATE: It's time to celebrate - we've officially reached our goal of $500,000! The community really came together to protect additional trees in the Port Gamble Forest. Thank you to all the donors - there were nearly 500! Because of this amazing response, we've notified Rayonier that Forterra and Kitsap County are set to move forward with both Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the timber right acquisition. This means all 756 acres of trees will be protected.

If you donated, shared the campaign with your friends and family or volunteered to spread the word – THANK YOU. From the start, this has been a community campaign and we couldn't have done it without you. We want to give a special thank you to Our Forest Fund for leading the way in the fundraising effort.

We'll be sharing updates on the upcoming closings and thanking all of our donors. Watch this space for more to come!

 

In the past, we’ve come together as a community to protect the Kitsap Forest and Bay – and now we need to do it again! After a decade-long campaign that conserved over 3,500 acres for recreation, restoration, cultural heritage and habitat, we have an opportunity to enhance the beloved Port Gamble Forest Heritage Park with the conservation of additional trees through the purchase of timber rights.

We are excited to announce that Forterra, Kitsap County and Rayonier have entered into a purchase and sale agreement to acquire up to 756 acres of timber rights, featuring important cultural, ecological and recreational values. Transferring these trees to Kitsap County will enable the County to manage the land and transform these stands into healthy forests for climate, community and conservation.

To protect these forest stands, we need to raise $500,000. This will be matched 8X by a generous anonymous donor and Kitsap County. The deadline to raise these funds is October 31, 2022 – we only have a couple of months to make this happen!

Why we need to act today:

Learn more about this project by clicking on 'FAQ' and 'Map' below!

FAQ

Map

This community campaign is supported by the original Kitsap Forest and Bay Coalition as well as additional partners that share this greater vision. Partners include:

- Great Peninsula Conservancy

- Kitsap Audubon Society

- Kitsap County

- North Kitsap Trails Association

- Our Forest Fund

- Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe

- Rayonier

- Suquamish Tribe

- And More!

Please consider donating and sharing our fundraiser far and wide. Share this with your friends, family and anyone who may want to contribute to our cause. Together, we can protect this unique natural place that adds so much to our community!

You can also make larger direct donations by mailing a check to Forterra, P.O. Box 4189, Seattle, WA 98194 and noting "Port Gamble."

This project has been developed in close partnership with the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe and Suquamish Tribe, both of which view Port Gamble Forest as critical ancestral land and important ecological forest and wetland habitat. The forests targeted for purchase and conservation include cedar stands of important cultural significance to the Port Gamble S’Klallam and Suquamish Tribes.

For over 1,400 years, the lands and waters of Port Gamble Bay have provided essential cultural, spiritual and subsistence resources to the Port Gamble S’Klallam and Suquamish Tribes. In 1855, a U.S. treaty transferred land in and around Port Gamble Bay away from tribal control and into the hands of private timber companies. Although the forest has served as timberland, the bay’s plentiful marine resources and protected waters have remained an important food source for native residents. One hundred fifty years later, the Kitsap Forest and Bay Community Campaign honors the history and resilience of the tribes by continuing to return and restore the land as a protected forest.

We live in one of the country's fastest-growing regions – conserving our forests is essential to protecting our high quality of life for those who live here now and those who will continue to come. As our community grows and we see increasing impacts from the climate crisis, it is vital to conserve as much of our lands and forests as possible. The Port Gamble Forest’s central location makes it a destination and a connector between Western Washington and the Olympic Peninsula. This accessibility brings cultural diversity, outdoor recreation and environmental stewardship, creating a solid foundation for our community to thrive. Serving as a community resource and a special area of peaceful forest in the heart of a rapidly growing urban landscape, protecting these additional acres will ensure the forest stays this way.

When Kitsap County acquired the Port Gamble Forest, we as a community raised the necessary funds to purchase the land. However, this did not cover the cost of the timber rights on approximately 2,690 acres known as the “Forest Block”. Rayonier (formerly Pope Resources) retained the timber rights through 2042, and a collaborative agreement was reached to allow for recreation, public benefits and ongoing timber harvests. Trailhead signs remind visitors that this public land is a working forest managed cooperatively by the County and Rayonier. To date, Rayonier has harvested 650 acres.

Placing these timber rights under permanent protection will protect the vegetative diversity of second-growth forest stands that support a diverse community of animals, high productivity for plants, and replenishes the water cycle. Additionally, permanent protection will lay the foundation for the restoration and stewardship necessary to manage fire and disease risk, develop an understory, and bring more diversity to the parts of the forest characterized by the kind of monoculture typical in commercialized forest stands. Permanent protection benefits other overlapping social values – these forests are meaningful ancestral land for the local Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe and the Suquamish Tribe, as well as a much beloved recreational space for hikers, joggers, birders, mountain bikers, and other outdoor enthusiasts. The Port Gamble Heritage Forest Park represents the multi-faceted cultural history of the region, galvanizes the identity and sense of place of diverse community members, and attracts tourist and recreation revenue to the area.

With support from an anonymous donor, Forterra, Kitsap County and Rayonier started working together in 2021 to plan out another phase focused on the priority trees in the Forest Block. This agreement to aquire the 756 acres will protect the most critical forest areas and provide health benefits even as Rayonier maintains the right to harvest other trees in the forest.

Community support can help us expand the permanently protected forest. Only through community leadership will the many benefits of these additional acres of forestland be preserved for future generations. The campaign's success to preserve Port Gamble Forest shows communities' power when they come together. We need that energy to conserve additional critical acres and stands of trees to enhance the benefits of Port Gamble Forest.