PORT LUDLOW — Pope Resources executives are banking on completing a land exchange with the state Department of Natural Resources this year, said executives with subsidiaries Olympic Resource Management and Olympic Property Group.
“If something is going to happen on this exchange, we believe it’s going to happen this year,” said John Shea, Olympic Resource Management business development director during a media tour Tuesday of Pope properties around Port Ludlow.
“We’re not going to let it string out.”
Pope is offering a trade of 4,420 acres to DNR for 2,970 acres of state land, a proposal that state Public Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark has delayed after the three Jefferson County commissioners expressed concerns.
Goldmark said he wants more public outreach.
The proposed land exchange would consolidate DNR land near the Olympic National Forest with Pope Resources land near Dabob Bay and Port Ludlow.
The exchange was proposed to allow more efficient timber management on one piece of land, instead of managing the patchwork of intermingled Pope and DNR lands that exists in the area today, Pope Resources said.
“This is one that we’re pausing at the current time,” Goldmark said Tuesday from his Olympia office. “We’re not going to move forward with it.
Three state trusts
The exchange involves three state trusts: Common School, for building public schools statewide; University Original, benefiting University of Washington; and State Forest Transfer lands, revenues of which support county services such as fire districts.
The county commissioners — John Austin of Port Ludlow, Phil Johnson of Port Townsend and David Sullivan of Port Townsend — have said they won’t support the proposal without certain guarantees.
The Olympic Forest Coalition opposes the swap, while the Port Ludlow Village Council favors it.
Goldmark, a Democrat who unseated a Republican public lands commissioner in the November election, said during his campaign that he wanted to ensure that communities were as informed and supportive of such proposals as possible.
Pope proposes not to convert the land until 2025, a primary concern for the county commissioners.
Shea said the county commissioners have invited him and Rose to discuss the issues and they will consider it.
Guarantees requested
The commissioners, in a March letter to the company, asked for a legally binding document from Pope that would guarantee no land conversion to residential or mining uses for 50 years.
They also asked that Pope guarantee it will engage in the same forest practices followed by DNR, allow public access and hunting equal to DNR forest lands and guarantee well-water protection and adequate land for an on-site septic system for Paradise Bay.
Rose said acreage Pope stands to gain would not make a difference when it comes to land the company holds for possible future development.
Pope has 43,000 acres of timberlands in Jefferson County.
“We have enough land here to develop, so 2,000 acres of land is not going to create a development opportunity for us,” Rose said, adding that was the major public concern he has heard.
Pope Resources recently offered to sweeten the deal in exchange for Jefferson County’s support.
The timber company offered to add Parcel No. 8, which is 80 acres east of Port Ludlow at Tala Point, to the exchange if the commissioners dropped their opposition.
That never happened.
Commissioner Austin, who has discussed the proposal with Goldmark at length, said two years to effect the land exchange was not enough time. He wants the public more involved in the asset management plan between Pope and DNR.
Rose and Shea looked over Parcel No. 6, 630 acres south of Port Ludlow Golf Course, the only part of the proposed exchange that touches Port Lud
