Olympic National Forest – In what may be a first-of-its-kind deal, environmental activists managed to raise the $32,000 needed to spare two acres of trees surrounding a campground on the northern end of the Olympic Peninsula from logging.
Using a GoFundMe campaign, the Elwha Legacy Forests Coalition paid Bruce Webster, owner of Webster Logging, to halt the cutting of a two-acre state-managed parcel around the Sadie Creek campground near Joyce. Webster paid the Department of Natural Resources half of those funds, which will be divided between the agency and Clallam County beneficiaries.
Because the agreement took place without approval from the Department of Natural Resources, the land, one of six units of the soon-to-be-logged Doc Holliday sale, could be put up for sale again for logging in two years if a long-term agreement isn’t reached.
Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove has said he supports the idea of conservation leases, but told the organization months ago that it was too early to take action at the Sadie Creek Campground.
Upthegrove said his agency is working to establish a new legal process for this kind of agreement.