The farmland preservation category provides funding to preserve working forests to ensure they remain available for timber production in the future. These grants help improve opportunities for forest management activity and improve the long-term growth and harvest of timber. They also help protect many different kinds of forests, including, but not limited to, large-scale industrial forests, small private landowner forests, community forests, and tribally – or publicly-owned and managed forests. Working forests provide habitat for wildlife, environmental benefits, and public access.
This month’s featured project is Camp Sealth Conservation Easement, Vashon Island, located on the ancestral land of The Coast Salish and The Puyallup. The primary benefit of this project is the conservation of 280 acres of forestland at Camp Sealth. The agreement would prevent future residential development permanently. The 381-acre Camp Sealth contains mature second-growth forest and is operated as a youth summer camp for 500 annual campers. All Camp Sealth parcels contain upland forests of mixed conifers and hardwoods that support a variety of birds, mammals and amphibians, including Pacific chorus tree frogs, eagles, ospreys, ravens, song birds, raptors, Douglas squirrels and black tailed deer.