CHIMACUM — Jefferson County may take over state land that would, in effect, join two popular county parks together.
County Commissioner John Austin, D-Port Ludlow, is working with state Department of Natural Resources representatives to come up with a proposal that would deed to the county about 60 acres of state land between Beausite Lake and Gibbs Lake county parks.
Austin said that the Natural Resources Board, which oversees DNR, may decide in early March if the deal will go through.
Transferring the land to the county would spare harvest of mature timber on the acreage, and avoid clear-cuts adjacent to popular county trails.
“Peter Goldmark [elected commissioner of public lands] and I got a bunch of complaints about timber sales of two units in the silent alder timber sale between Beausite and Gibbs,” Austin said.
That led to Goldmark and the Natural Resources Board agreeing to put off the state timber sale and harvest of the two parcels of 60 acres between the two parks.
Gibbs Lake Park is 240 acres with a popular fishing, boating and swimming lake. Its trails are used by hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians.
Beausite Lake Park is home to the Northwest Kiwanis Camp and a popular conference and reception facility.
The parks are less than a mile apart.
Austin said he has received a number of e-mail messages from park users asking that the trees be preserved.
“There are complex ways the county can take over this territory and be part of an expanded Gibbs Lake Park,” Austin said, but that remains to be worked out between the county and DNR.
DNR representatives are expected to go before the county commissioners Monday to discuss not only future timber sales but also the possibility of the county taking the state land between the two parks.
“With most DNR land, it does not make sense for the county take it over,” Austin said. “However, we already have a caretaker who lives on Gibbs Lake and we have a caretaker lives right on Beausite Lake so it would not cost any more county resources” to take the additional 60 acres.
The remainder of the DNR’s silent alder timber sale extends toward Coyle, Austin said, and does not affect the county parks.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsula dailynews.com.
