Protecting the Trillium Community ForestIn 2010, during the height of the recession, the Whidbey Camano Land Trust raised an incredible $4 million from more than 1,500 donors to protect the largest contiguous forest in private ownership on Whidbey Island. This effort, accomplished in just six months, protected the original 654 acres of the Trillium Community Forest.

Now protected, the Trillium Community Forest serves as a wildlife habitat preserve and is open to the public for non-motorized activities such as hiking, biking, and horseback riding. Community volunteers work with Land Trust staff members to care for the forest.

To provide additional public access and expand the area protected by the preserve, the Land Trust partnered with Island County in 2012 to apply for grants to acquire additional land. After several years of hard work, an additional 48 acres of forest was protected that include the two new parking areas opening in 2017. Special thanks to our partner, Island County, and the granting agency, the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office.

The Land Trust acquired 19 additional acres in 2016 to secure an important section of the trail system, expanding Trillium Community forest to the current 721 acres. Protection of more lands is anticipated in the coming years.

Restoring the Trillium Community ForestHaving been logged multiple times over the last century, including a 450 acre clear-cut in the late 1980s, followed by overplanting and general poor land management, the forest was far from pristine when it was acquired by the Land Trust. Choked and dark with little remaining understory or groundcover vegetation, the forest was badly in need of restoration. (For perspective, a healthy old growth forest has approximately 25 trees per acre and the Trillium Community Forest had 600 trees per acre). An active forest management plan was developed with the goal of returning the forest to health and enhancing the habitat for wildlife.

Over the past six years, five blocks of the forest were thinned to reduce the forest to approximately 220 trees per acre. The forest’s vegetation has responded extremely well to the first phase of thinning. You can see this by taking the self-guided tour outlined on the back page. The previously densely-packed trees are growing rapidly with the increased light, nutrients, and water. The understory plants, growing beneath the main canopy of the forest, are greening up and filling in, thereby improving wildlife habitat and food availability.

A second round of thinning — to get to 125 trees per acre — is planned over the next five to six years. This “double-entry” staggered thinning is being done for two reasons: to allow the

Bird enthusiasts enjoy an Audubon tour in the Trillium Community Forest.

Trillium Community Forest www.wclt.org | 360.222.3310

Protection, Restoration, and Self-Guided Tour

remaining forest to adapt and prevent weather damage to the surviving trees.

For the thinning, the Land Trust partnered with a local logging company that uses state-of-the-art equipment with low soil impact and high harvest efficiency. Because of this, rather than costing us money, the thinning actually paid for itself and generated a small profit. The small diameter wood (because of the denseness of the trees) was sold as pulp and firewood.

Due to the forest response to the first thinning, the second round, due to begin in 2018, will produce dimensional timber with a greater market value, potentially providing income from the harvest that the Land Trust can use for management of the forest. Following the two rounds of restoration thinning, the Land Trust has no plans to harvest or sell any additional forest products. The goal instead is to let the forest progress naturally to old growth conditions.

Help us care for the Trillium Community ForestVolunteers are an invaluable aspect of our land stewardship program. They assist us with trail monitoring and maintenance, controlling invasive species, and forest restoration and management.

If you’re interested in volunteering, please contact Kyle Ostermick-Durkee our stewardship assistant at kyle@wclt.org or 360.222.3310.

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17-0

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