The state Department of Natural Resources, or DNR, is finalizing a land exchange with a Port Angeles-based timber company that will bring roughly 9,000 acres of land in Clallam County under state ownership.
One of the largest swaths of timber land included in the deal lies just north of Lake Crescent and has a few miles of the Olympic Discovery Trail running across it, DNR spokesman Bob Redling said.
The Olympic Discovery Trail is a multi-agency project that eventually will span 130 miles across the North Olympic Peninsula and already has a number of completed stretches in Clallam and Jefferson counties.
The state Board of Natural Resources approved the land exchange with Green Crow Inc. this summer, Redling said, and the two parties are in the process of finalizing the deal.
DNR will get about 9,000 acres of timber land Green Crow had managed in Clallam, Jefferson and Mason counties in exchange for about 5,000 acres of equally valued DNR-owned land in Clallam and Grays Harbor counties.
The land Green Crow will gain is mostly on the west end of the two counties, Redling said.
He said DNR plans to manage the land it’s gaining as a working forest while sustaining the properties for forest biodiversity, habitat protection and public access.
Most of the 9,000 acres DNR is gaining will be placed in the state Common Schools Trust, Redling explained, with timber revenues generated from the land steered toward construction of public school buildings across the state.
The 9,000 acres are adjacent to existing DNR trust lands and will allow DNR to manage the properties as unified forest blocks, Redling said.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
