Proposed North Fork Green River Trust Land Exchange
This proposal calls for exchanging approximately 7,700 acres of state trust land— mostly in isolated parcels in west and southwest Washington—for approximately 19,000 acres of forestland owned by Plum Creek Timber Company. The Plum Creek acreage is within the City of Tacoma’s Green River watershed, located in eastern King County.
The exchange would allow DNR to acquire more working forests adjacent to or near other lands it already manages in eastern King County for long-term habitat protection and revenue to the trusts that support public school construction statewide.
Objective
Consolidating trust land holdings will provide better assurance of long-term trust revenue. In addition to increasing management efficiency, having larger and more contiguous areas under public ownership would improve wildlife habitat and forestland health. DNR would be able to trade out of several scattered parcels that do not fit the agency’s objective to manage revenue-producing land holdings for state trust beneficiaries, such as schools and county services.
Details
This would be an exchange of lands of equal value. Values will be based on independent appraisals of fair market value.
Maps
Plum Creek to DNR Parcel List
DNR to Plum Creek Timber Parcel List
Plum Creek to State Trusts Managed by DNR
The trusts that help fund school construction would gain forestland adjacent to or near a major block of DNR-managed land in eastern King County. This area is within the City of Tacoma’s Green River watershed and would remain closed to public access. The exchange would increase by up to one-third the size of one of the larger forest blocks that DNR manages for the trust beneficiaries.
DNR-Managed State Trust Land to Plum Creek
Parcels that DNR would exchange to Plum Creek Timber are generally small acreages that are isolated from other trust land blocks and may have other uses than natural resource revenue production. These parcels are located in Clark, Cowlitz, King, Kitsap, Klickitat, Lewis, Mason, Pierce, Spokane, and Thurston counties.
The state trusts involved in this exchange are the:
• Common School (revenue for public school construction statewide)
• State Forest Transfer (revenue for county services)
• Indemnity and Escheat (revenue for public school construction statewide)
This exchange may also be accompanied by selected ‘inter-grant’ exchanges of State Forest Transfer lands within Lewis and Klickitat counties. These inter-grant exchanges would reposition State Forest holdings in those counties to properties of equal value and similar revenue potential (based on tree-stand age and quality). This repositioning allows DNR to exchange a package of properties of interest to Plum Creek Timber.
Opportunities for Public Input
Opportunities for public input about this proposed exchange include testimony at the public hearings, written comments sent to DNR, and comments to the Board of Natural Resources at one of its monthly meetings. The deadline to submit written comments about this exchange was the end of business on December 29, 2008.
Send comments by e-mail to: exchanges@dnr.wa.gov
Or by mail to:
Department of Natural Resources
Asset Management & Protection Division
Attn: North Fork Green Trust Land Exchange
P.O. Box 47014
Olympia, WA 98504-7014
Informational meetings about this exchange were held in White Salmon (November 17, 2008), Chehalis (November 18, 2008), Battle Ground (November 19, 2008), and Enumclaw (November 20, 2008).
Public hearings—a formal process to accept public testimony about the proposed exchange—were held in Chehalis (December 9, 2008) and in White Salmon (December 11, 2008).
Public hearings to receive public comments for the record were held:
• December 11, 2008–Columbia High School Library, White Salmon
What’s Next
• Input from the public, including comments made at the hearing and submitted in writing, will be reviewed.
• Parcels proposed for exchange will be appraised.
• An exchange agreement between DNR and Plum Creek Timber if the two parties agree on the lands to be exchanged.
• A final agreement and a summary of public comments received would be presented to the Board of Natural Resources, which represents trust beneficiaries, for decision at one of its monthly meetings.