Community Forest Manager Ryen Helzer doing trailwork on Chimacum Ridge. Photo by Tegra Stone Nuess.
Volunteers Jane Guiltinan (a Jefferson Land Trust Board member) and Cindy Breed working on a trail during a Chimacum Ridge Community Forest work party in August 2024.
Jefferson Land Trust kicked off 2024 with the biggest acquisition in our 35-year history: 853-acre Chimacum Ridge. Once it’s combined with adjacent Valley View Forest, Chimacum Ridge Community Forest will total 918 acres of working forest, wetlands, and wildlife habitat.
The community forest will be a shared living resource that models a regenerative relationship with the land, bringing economic, ecological, and social benefits to our community — forever.
Over the last year, Land Trust staff members have been working with a multitude of volunteers and contract crews to get the forest ready to open to the public next year. We’re excited to tell you more about what we’ve accomplished together so far — and what we’re looking forward to in 2025!
One of our current focuses is building visitor infrastructure on the Ridge so that, when it opens in 2025, everyone can discover its beauty and begin to imagine the possibilities it holds for the future of Jefferson County. This includes designing and building trails, developing signage and parking plans, as well as creating and finalizing policies to guide future use of the forest.
A few new trails connecting to existing ones are now beginning to define the recreational use of the forest. After contracting with a fantastic Washington Conservation Corps crew to cut out most of the initial trail routes on the Ridge, Land Trust staff members and volunteers have been working hard to complete them.
Education volunteer Herb Tracy with Chimacum students at the community pavilion during a field trip to Valley View Forest on Chimacum Ridge in fall 2023.
A multi-use access trail we’re working on now will lead from the Valley View Forest Preserve parking lot up to another trail near the top of the Ridge. Wide (six feet across), graveled, and with a gently sloped incline, this multi-use trail will accommodate bicycles and horses in addition to those on foot.
Volunteers have helped us make a lot of progress on the multi-use trail at monthly weekend trail-building work parties throughout the summer and fall. (We’ve paused these work parties now that we’re in the wet season, but look forward to resuming them next spring.) By the time the forest opens sometime in 2025, we plan to have more than five miles of multi-use trail ready for public use.
All this trail construction continues to be guided by important input and support from the community, including volunteers serving on the community forest’s Social, Ecological, and Economic advisory groups (read on for more information) plus local backcountry horse-riding groups, cyclists, disability advocates, and others.
This 525-foot wheelchair-accessible trail leads from the Valley View parking lot to the community pavilion.
As we continue to construct walking and hiking trails on the north end of the Ridge, we’ll convert them to wheelchair-accessible trails as we secure funding. (In 2023, we constructed a 525-foot accessible trail from the Valley View Forest parking lot to the community pavilion with help from local disability advocacy group DASH.)
More preparation before the forest can open includes designing and installing signage for visitors, creating a wildfire management plan for the Ridge, and designing an expanded parking lot to accommodate school buses, horse trailers, and accessible parking in order to help our whole community access the forest. (We hope to begin construction on the expanded parking lot in 2026.)
Preparations to ready the forest for the public are being funded by the Look to the Land capital campaign. If you’d like to support this work, please make your gift here.
Throughout the summer and fall, we’ve enjoyed welcoming community members on public tours of Chimacum Ridge! Tours are still being offered: click here to learn more, see available dates, and reserve your spot today!
L to R: Owen Fairbank, David Gilluly, Mike Gould, Kris Lenke, Devon Buckham, Tim Lawson, and Dan Hysko — the Chimacum Ridge Community Forest’s volunteer Board of Managers. Photo by Tim Lawson.
Meanwhile, we’ve put into practice the governance model approved by Jefferson Land Trust’s Board of Directors in 2023, with local volunteers serving on the Chimacum Ridge Community Forest Board of Managers and on three advisory groups formed in 2024.
(Are you interested in being a volunteer on one of the advisory groups? We’re accepting new members! Read more about the three advisory groups here and then apply by submitting a letter of interest to: info[at]saveland.org with the subject line: Community Forest Advisory Group.)
With feedback from the advisory groups, the Board of Managers is now designing and finalizing policies for the community forest that will determine site-specific access, define sensitive and critical habitat areas, and more. They’re also exploring the possibilities of specific permitted uses (like firewood gathering and foraging).
Land Trust staff members Blaise Sullivan and Carrie Clendaniel with an expert tree feller during the pilot selective harvest at Valley View Forest on Chimacum Ridge in 2021.
Chimacum Ridge Community Forest will drive a local wood economy, providing timber and other non-timber resources right here in Jefferson County — all while preserving critical wildlife habitat and sequestering carbon. We’ve included local woodworkers, foresters, and other stakeholders in the local wood economy in the design of the forest for many years. We’re now working on completing the ecological studies, permitting, and other important preparation necessary for sustainable, selective timber harvesting on the Ridge, incorporating the important knowledge we gained during our pilot selective harvest in 2021.
A wheelchair-accessible trail leads to the community pavilion at Valley View Forest. The pavilion is made from wood harvested from Valley View Forest Preserve during the selective harvest in 2021. Photo by Tim Lawson.
The Land Trust hired Community Forest Manager Ryen Helzer in late 2023. Over the past year, Ryen has been working closely with Land Trust staff; volunteers, including the Community Forest Board of Managers and advisory groups; Tribal partners; neighbors; and other community stakeholders to oversee the development and management of the community forest.
Ryen is eager to build upon the resilience of these forest systems and ensure the potential economic, ecological, and social benefits, including a robust youth and adult education program can be realized on Chimacum Ridge forever. (Read more about the Land Trust’s education programs here.)
Stay tuned for more exciting updates in 2025!
The Land Trust’s Ryen Helzer and Erik Kingfisher were recently interviewed by Daniel O’Neil for “Forests for Good,” his article about Washington’s community forests in 1889 Washington’s Magazine.
