The recently protected forest property.
Jefferson Land Trust is celebrating the permanent protection of a 96.87-acre forested property near Tarboo Bay, adjacent to the Dabob Bay Natural Area in Quilcene! The property owners, Neal and Ann Koblitz, worked with the Land Trust and with the Seattle-based nonprofit Northwest Natural Resource Group (NNRG) to place a comprehensive conservation easement on this beautiful piece of forestland. NNRG currently manages the property using ecological forestry practices and also uses the property as a research and public education site.
A peekaboo view of Dabob Bay seen from the property.
“The fact that the property is connected to the Dabob Bay Natural Area is significant,” explains Sarah Spaeth, the Land Trust’s Director of Conservation and Strategic Partnerships. “It’s building on thousands of acres of protected land around Dabob-Tarboo bay, which is one of the most intact functioning estuaries in Hood Canal.”
The recently secured conservation easement is the second easement on the property, which Ann and Neal purchased in 2011 with the intention of maintaining as working forestland. In order to prevent any future conversion of the land to non-forest uses, they approached the Land Trust to facilitate a U.S. Navy REPI (Readiness and Environmental Protection Initiative) restrictive easement on the property. The REPI easement, obtained in 2022, permanently protects the land from subdivision and development.
However, with only the restrictive easement, the land was still vulnerable to clear-cutting and other forest management practices that would threaten the forest’s health, wildlife habitat, and resilience to climate change. Ann and Neal wanted to secure a conservation easement that prescribes allowable land management practices that support their values of forest health and sustainability, while still allowing the land to produce revenue through ecologically-oriented timber harvesting.
“We didn’t want the forest to be clear cut — we didn’t want intensive logging methods,” says Ann Koblitz. “From the beginning, we were sensitive to the issues of climate change, and what could happen to forests — and to people — if forests weren’t preserved.”
Sword ferns on a snowy morning in the recently protected forested property.
Sarah says, “It’s inspiring to work with a couple who are so committed to this concept of protection of working forestland with its continuing economic return, while demonstrating a different way of doing forestry that has multiple benefits. Their commitment, not only through this project but others they have undertaken in the state, is really inspiring. It took many years and patience on their part to fulfill their vision for this place — a lot of patience and a lot of generosity.”
Neal Koblitz explains, “There are a lot of very sensible, environmentally oriented motives for allowing a certain amount of revenue-producing activity in the forest. It’s possible to follow environmental practices and still generate a modest revenue from commercial thinning. Commercial thinning improves the health of the forest and the trees that remain, whereas clear-cutting is not sustainable in the long run and has all sorts of negative effects.”
To secure this secondary conservation easement, Ann and Neal again turned to Jefferson Land Trust. Over the last couple of years, the Koblitzes and the Land Trust, along with NNRG, worked together on the conservation easement. Ann and Neal generously donated the easement, which was finalized in June 2025, and are making an additional donation to the stewardship fund to ensure that the Land Trust has the resources it needs to monitor, protect, and defend the land in perpetuity.
“This easement defines the type of forest management activities that can take place on the land — like which areas can be harvested — and describes the desired future condition of the forest, one that includes older trees and mixed species diversity,” Sarah explains. “The Koblitzes and NNRG both played an active role in designing the terms of the easement. We all wanted to make sure the easement provisions aligned with current forest management protocols.”
A habitat pile created on the property provides shelter and foraging for birds and other local wildlife.
NNRG is a Pacific Northwest organization that works with nonindustrial forest owners of all sizes — from land trusts, municipalities, Indigenous tribes and youth camps to small family-owned forests — to support ecological forestry. On the Koblitzes’ Quilcene property, they’re using and experimenting with optimal tactics for preserving the land and its conservation values with the changing climate in mind.
“NNRG has been experimenting with different stand densities, different tree species, and different densities of wildlife piles on the property,” Ann says. “So the property is being used for various research projects.”
“An important component of environmentalist philosophy is that it’s based in science,” Neal says. “We like the idea of using the property for doing research — learning from the land how best to preserve the property, and similar properties. Similarly, public education is another crucial ingredient in environmental preservation. NNRG and the Land Trust are both doing a lot in that area.”
Public education is of particular importance to Ann and Neal, who’ve both had long careers as professors (Ann is now retired). They’re pleased that NNRG is using the property not only as a research site, but also as a site for forestry workshops — like the commercial thinning workshop they ran for about 30 small forest landowners in July 2022, immediately following a major commercial thinning of 34 acres of the Quilcene property.
Downed logs in the forest on a snowy morning.
“We appreciate NNRG’s approach of working with small landowners to show that you can generate some profit from your forest while at the same time maintaining ecological values,” says Ann. “Our own goal is revenue neutrality, so any revenue we might generate from thinning will be put back into managing forests.”
Through commercial thinning, they selectively harvest trees to promote the forest’s health, while generating revenue from the timber. Forest thinning has many ecological benefits. For example, removing some densely growing trees gives the remaining trees more resources — like water and sunlight — allowing them to grow bigger and stronger. Thinning can remove unhealthy trees that can spread disease. It can also reduce an excess of monocultural trees, making room for a greater variety of native tree and plant species. A thinned, biodiverse forest can be more resistant to threats like disease, windstorms, erosion, and wildfires.
In addition to public education, the causes that Ann and Neal feel most strongly about supporting are women’s reproductive rights and ecological forestry. They own two other forested properties in Whatcom County, totaling about 300 acres. They’ve worked with Whatcom Land Trust to protect those properties, and with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to manage them. They previously owned another Whatcom County forested property which they donated to the City of Bellingham in 2021.
“In all these cases, we fell in love with the beauty of the properties — they’re all very biodiverse, and had a lot of potential for hiking and other recreation,” Neal says. “We thought these forestlands were a good investment: not in the sense of logging, but in the sense of importance for society.”
Members of the Land Trust’s Conservation Projects Committee (CPC) visiting the property during the initial phases of protection.
He continues, “We’ve worked with various environmentally oriented organizations, nonprofits, and government agencies — and land trusts are one of the essential components in that network of people who are dedicated to environmental preservation.
“It’s easy to get pessimistic about what’s happening to the environment with climate change. But using scientific methods, a lot of very difficult problems and uphill battles can be won. It’s not hopeless if you have people who are committed to these causes and who use science to solve problems.”
Jefferson Land Trust has been working with the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the U.S. Navy, the Northwest Watershed Institute, Jefferson County, other partner organizations, agencies, and private landowners to protect and restore important salmon habitat and working forestland in the Dabob Bay watershed area since 2002. The Koblitz property project fits well with this larger conservation effort, building on preserves in the vicinity of Dabob Bay that are adjacent to lands owned by DNR and the designated DNR Natural Area.
We’re very grateful to Ann and Neal for their vision and generosity in working with the Land Trust and NNRG to protect their forest forever, and in educating and inspiring other small forest owners to adopt ecological forestry practices for the good of our community and the planet.
If you’d like to learn more about partnering with the Land Trust as a conservation buyer, please email us at info[at]saveland.org.
