PORT ANGELES — EFM, a forest investment and management firm based in Portland, Ore., has purchased 68,000 acres on the North Olympic Peninsula with plans of managing the forests through climate-smart practices.
These coastal temperate rainforest acres were purchased for more than $200 million under the newly established entity Olympic Rainforest LLC, according to a press release.
About 37,000 of the acres are in Clallam County and 31,000 are in Jefferson County. They are adjacent to the Olympic National Park and will augment the other 25,000 acres EFM has acquired on the Peninsula during the past 20 years.
The land was purchased from Rayonier, Inc, a timberland real estate investment trust which had owned the land for more than 80 years and used it for timber production, according to EFM CEO Bettina von Hagen.
With its management strategy, EFM will prioritize sustainable forest management, landscape conservation, enhanced biodiversity, cultural significance and public recreation.
Its sustainable forest management practices utilize a number of practices, including longer rotations, thinning, variable retention harvest and more.
Longer rotations are “really looking at a robust timber industry for decades and decades to come, not only the volume of trees on the ground but also the quality of the trees,” von Hagen said.
Commercial thinning is a process where, around year 30 of the trees’ lives, 30 percent of the trees in a stand are removed — therefore concentrating the resources of the remaining trees.
“It’s a way of accelerating the growth of that stand and the health of that stand,” von Hagen said.
Variable retention harvest leaves about 10 percent to 30 percent of the trees in that stand safe from harvest. That helps with carbon sequestration, riparian area health, slope integrity and preservation of other areas with ecological significance.
“These are all strategies that we think improve forest health over the long term, and introduce some structural complexity,” von Hagen said.
The property is a crucial habitat between upland salmon spawning streams and the ocean, said Guido Rahr, Wild Salmon Center president and CEO. The Wild Salmon Center will work with EFM to build greater resilience for wild salmon and steelhead, a press release stated.
These lands also lie in the ancestral homelands of the Quileute and Hoh tribes, von Hagen said. Currently, EFM is in meetings with both the tribes discussing the objectives for the properties and how cultural use, such as plant harvesting, can be preserved.
The company has been working with the Quileute Tribe for a couple decades on their other properties.
“They’ve been amazing partners in terms of restoration,” von Hagen said.
Now, EFM is looking at other ways to collaborate with the tribes and ensure these lands can be of service to both tribal and non-tribal communities.
EFM also hopes to provide free public access to all its lands, although a few permits with Rayonier will limit access into the spring.
Von Hagen said people should reach out to Pacific Forest Management for specific questions about access.
A few major trail systems pass through the property. Portions of the Olympic Discovery Trail likely will be located on the land, and EFM is in conversations with counties and tribes to discuss specific placement.
The Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail, a sister trail to the Pacific Crest Trail, also traverses parts of the Jefferson County land. EFM has begun to work with the Pacific Northwest Trail Association and the Forest Service on trail location, von Hagen said.
In addition to the management techniques, part of the company’s FSC-certified approach includes using diverse revenue streams from forests such as carbon credits and conservation easements, as well as traditional forest products, according to a press release.
As part of this approach and to help support the forest purchase, EFM and the technology company Meta have finalized a long-term contract for the delivery of 676,000 nature-based carbon removal credits through 2035. This is just one step Meta is taking to achieve net zero emissions by 2030, according to a press release.
“It is one of the first known contracts of this type,” the press release stated, and is enabling climate-smart forest investment strategies to be commercially viable at scale.
The land purchase also was supported by third-party investors such as Climate Asset Management through the Natural Capital Fund.
Overall, the property is estimated to store more than 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, according to the press release. The transition from industrial timber management to climate informed practices is anticipated to deliver more than 1 million tonnes of additional removals over the next 10 years.
________
Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuldailynews.com.
