PORT TOWNSEND — About 107 acres of land in Jefferson County will be placed into conservation status following the purchase of two parcels from the state Department of Natural Resources.
The Board of Jefferson County Commissioners voted Monday to purchase the two parcels — known as Quimper West and Quimper East — from DNR and put them under the stewardship of the Jefferson County Land Trust.
The two parcels, located on the northwestern end of the Quimper Peninsula west of Port Townsend, are currently being leased to the county through a state program that also allows counties to purchase the lands.
The county will pay DNR a total of $382,800 for the two parcels — $367,000 for Quimper West and $15,800 for Quimper East — half of which will be paid for by the Jefferson Land Trust.
The parcels have been under lease since 2009, which is also when the county applied to have the lands transferred to it.
“It’s been a huge effort,” said District 2 Commissioner Heidi Eisenhour, who’s been working with the state on land transfers.
Going forward, the parcels will be added to the Land Trust’s Quimper Wildlife Corridor project, an area of green space that runs through Port Townsend.
The Jefferson Land Trust has been working on the wildlife corridor since 1996, said Sarah Spaeth, the trust’s director of conservation and strategic partnerships.
“These parcels are really key,” Spaeth said in an interview. “They’re some of the larger pieces within the whole corridor.”
Jefferson Land Trust also has been working with private landowners to acquire additional land along the corridor.
The county purchased the lands using money from the Conservation Futures Program, a tax designed to support open spaces and requires that lands are permanently protected, Spaeth said. The state does retain mineral rights on the land, but Spaeth said the mineral wealth on the parcels was low and it was unlikely DNR would ever exercise that right.
The terms of the purchase do allow for the county to harvest timber on the parcels to support forest health, but revenue generation cannot be the primary purpose, Spaeth said.
On Monday, commissioners agreed to sign purchase and sale agreements with DNR and said additional deed restrictions ensuring permanent conservation would be added at a later date.
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Reporter Peter Segall can be reached at peter.segall@peninsuladailynews.com.
