Alders on newly protected Gateway parcel.
The scenic and wooded corridor on Highway 20 as you approach Port Townsend is one step closer to permanent preservation thanks to a generous contribution to Jefferson Land Trust.
In 2008 a community member made a generous donation specifically to preserve a green corridor along the highway entering Port Townsend. The Land Trust pursued a few possibilities before finally using the donation to acquire a 1.8-acre strip from the Discovery Timber Company on the east side of the highway. This land is next to the Larry Scott Trail and across Highway 20 from the rental shop and other businesses.
This project, which is in honor of the late Judge William E. Howard, complements the property on the east side of the highway between Jacob Miller Road and the frame store that was acquired for permanent protection by Jefferson County with Jefferson Land Trust’s help in 2004. Building on that earlier effort, this new acquisition helps ensure that for generations to come there will a wooded green buffer as one enters Port Townsend on the main highway or on the trail.
This new Gateway transaction was completed in October 2011. Jefferson Land Trust plans to engage community members to maintain a native forest and plant community and to plant conifer seedlings that will become established to replace the aging alder trees when they reach the natural end of their lives.
