By Stephanie Campbell
In early August, Sustainable Northwest, in partnership with Jefferson Land Trust, hosted the 2017 Northwest Community Forest Coalition Field Tour in Chimacum, Washington. Located just south of Port Townsend on the state’s scenic Olympic Peninsula, the small, yet vibrant community of Chimacum provided an inspiring backdrop for a two-day gathering of land trust staff, community members, elected officials, forest land managers, and conservation leaders.
The field tour offered an occasion to get diverse, talented folks together to see first-hand the current breadth and depth of challenges and opportunities in Northwest community forests. The tour featured a wide variety of long-cultivated community partnerships and the lands and waters where those partners’ preservation and restoration efforts have been focused—from where Chimacum Creek meets the Puget Sound’s sandy shore to the creek’s headwaters in the forested Chimacum Ridge. Engaging guests spoke to their roles in the conservation narrative, including speakers from the North Olympic Salmon Coalition, Blue Zones, Finnriver Farm & Cidery, Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, and Jefferson County. Participants discussed the links between farms, fish, and forests in the area and how lessons learned in Chimacum could be best applied at the local community forest management level as well as at state and federal policy levels.
Chimacum Ridge, Washington
Jay McLaughlin, Executive Director of Mt. Adams Resource Stewards, welcomes tour participants.
Rebecca Benjamin, Executive Director of North Olympic Salmon Coalition, presents on her work with Chumsortium partners on preservation and restoration efforts in the Chimacum Creek Estuary.
Tour participants enjoy locally-sourced lunches at the mouth of Chimacum Creek.
Sarah Spaeth, Director of Conservation and Strategic Partnerships for Jefferson Land Trust, orients participants to the landscape in the centrally-located Chimacum Commons property.
Samantha Thomas, Built Environment Manager of Blue Zones, speaks to the importance of integrating built environments into the natural landscape.
Jeff McGinley, owner of Pacific Forest Management, explains the basics of selective timber harvest on Chimacum Ridge.
Jeff McGinley, owner of Pacific Forest Management, sets up a demonstration of selective harvest equipment on Chimacum Ridge.
Richard Corff, Washington State Project Manager for the Trust for Public Land, speaks to the intricacies of property acquisition on Chimacum Ridge.
Tour participants gather at Finnriver Farm & Cidery for a delicious meal and cold cider at the end of a hot, beautiful summer day in the field.
Tour participants discuss riparian buffer management at Finnriver Farm and Cidery.
Participants enjoy touring the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding to see the end products of well-managed forest lands.
Beautiful wooden boats abound on the Puget Sound at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding.
To read more about this event:
Jefferson Landtrust's event write up: A Growing Movement: Community Forests
Eugene Weekly write up: Slow Wood: Reimagining the value and values of timber
This event was brought to you by Jefferson Land Trust and Sustainable Northwest.
