CHIMACUM — Jefferson Land Trust, which completed the purchase of an 853-acre property in December 2023, plans to open Chimacum Ridge Community Forest to the public sometime next year.
“It’s created this huge momentum,” said Sarah Spaeth, the land trust’s director of conservation. “We built up staff capacity. Our board had to be ready for this.”
After 13 years of partnerships and public and private fundraising, the organization has gained full ownership of the property.
Now it’s entering the public phase of its capital fundraising campaign, which has been underway since 2022. It aims to raise $8.25 million by the end of the year, with $6.36 million raised so far — 77 percent of its goal.
“This is the biggest fundraising effort we’ve ever done as an organization,” Spaeth said. “It has caused us to stretch and expand and grow in ways that have never happened since the beginning of the organization, and I’ve had the good fortune of being with the organization for 28 years.”
The property is owned by Chimacum Ridge Community Forest LLC, a subsidiary of the land trust. The subsidiary has established a board as well as three volunteer boards, formed to steer the direction of the property moving forward: an economic board, an environmental board and a social board.
The trust sees a necessity for the forest to be financially self-sustaining in the long-term. It plans to achieve that by conducting sustainable harvests every five to 10 years and by maintaining income from a cell tower located on the ridge.
Spaeth said the organization is built on four pillars: habitat, agriculture, forestland and community. This forestland currently provides habitat for elk, bears, deer and other wildlife.
Spaeth said she tracked a cougar named Ruckus on the property with the Olympic Cougar Project.
Over time, Spaeth said, the trust has engaged more heavily with the community pillar. This forest has provided an opportunity to extend access for education and recreation.
The property will be freely accessible to the public. The organization also plans to host educational programming for local schools.
The plan
The property will be accessible from another land trust holding, Valley View Forest, a 65-acre parcel of forest at 1717 Center Road. The two properties are contiguous, combining for a total of 918 acres.
The state Department of Natural Resources holds a 325-acre parcel of school trust land on the southeast side of the ridge, Spaeth said.
DNR officials have offered access to the ridge for the public using a trail from this land, Spaeth said.
The trust is currently awaiting review on a cultural assessment that will allow it to build a trail from Valley View Forest up to the ridge. Once on the ridge, a forest road loop will serve as the main visitor trail.
The organization is exploring ways to provide special access to the road for disabled visitors.
The property also includes a cranberry bog. The trust is providing access for traditional use by the Jamestown and Port Gamble bands of the S’Klallam tribe. The trust is in conversations with local tribes about providing access for traditional bow hunting too, Spaeth said.
History
Jefferson Land Trust first approached Rayonier Inc. — former owners of the ridge — in 2010, expressing interest in the land. At the time, Rayonier was divesting from the area and planning to clear-cut parts of the ridge before subdividing and selling the land, Spaeth said.
The trust requested that Rayonier hold off on harvesting timber while it put together a plan to purchase the land.
In 2015, Trust for Public Land purchased the property from Rayonier. EFM, a private asset investment company focused on forestry, was standing ready to purchase the land from TPL. EFM made an agreement with Jefferson Land Trust to sell the land over the next eight years.
In 2016, the U.S. Navy secured a $1.2 million restrictive development easement through its Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) program. The easement ensures the land is protected from development forever, without granting any rights to the military for use of the property.
In 2019, the land trust secured a $3.4 million allocation from the state Legislature and purchased a conservation easement on the land, specifying sustainable forest practices. Those practices were established by Pacific Forest Management of Forks, which continues to advise on the property.
In 2021, the land trust secured a grant from the National Park Service, providing funding for planners to come to the area to conduct community research on desired recreational uses for the property.
The following year, the trust secured a $3 million grant from state’s Community Forest Grant to put toward its purchase.
Raising funds
The campaign will divide funds into three major categories.
First, it needed to raise the remaining $3 million for the Chimacum Ridge purchase, with $1 million of that going toward preparing the land for public access. It successfully raised that portion to pay the remaining $2 million balance in late 2023.
Next, it is establishing a flexible spending fund of $1.5 million, which will allow the organization to move more quickly on land acquisition opportunities.
“The flexible opportunity fund is designed to provide a ready pool of capital so that Sarah and her team can move fast,” said Kate Godman, director of philanthropy. “That has, over a number of years, been identified as such an important tool, because most often Sarah’s using public agency grants, which can take two or three years to secure.
“When you have an opportunity come up where a land owner wants to move in, say, six months to a year, if you don’t have that ready capital, that opportunity goes.”
The trust also is setting up a $3 million “forever fund” operating endowment, which it hopes will grow to provide for the annual operational costs across all its properties.
Finally, about 9 percent — roughly $750,000 — will go toward covering the administrative costs of the campaign.
The land trust is offering free two-hour property tours. Information can be found at saveland.org/ridgetour.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
