Island Center Forest

Island Center Forest consists of three parts:
The largest is the 200 acre "State Lands" that were managed by the State of Washington Dept of Natural Resources for the past century as part of the school trust lands. However, in the 2002 legislative session, the state legislature appropriated funds for a "trust lands transfer". This allowed for the transfer of the 200 acre parcel on Vashon (and a 60 acre parcel on Maury) to King County and gave DNR the funds to purchase more productive forest lands elsewhere to maintain the school trust lands fund. Also in 2002, King County created a new category of land ownership that allows the King County DNR to own and manage lands as Working Resource Lands. The 200 acre parcel falls under this classification. Long term management and stewardship will be a joint effort of KC DNR and a partnership of island stakeholders such as the Land Trust, the Forest Stewards, the Equestrians, Audubon, etc.

The second major component is the 60 acres belonging to KC Solid Waste that adjoins the dump. With the transformation of the dump into a transfer station, these 60 acres have become surplus land. We have requested that these lands be transferred to KC DNR to be permanently protected and managed under the same management plan as the adjacent 200 acres.

The third component is two large parcels of privately held land adjoining the "state lands" that the Land Trust is working to acquire. These two parcels are the 30 acre Island Center Marsh property and the 53 acre Meadowlake property. Each of these parcels has a large pond / wetland that offers many ecological values to the island. They have great biological diversity with over 80 bird species having been identified on the sites (see attached list). They are a major recharge area for Vashon's sole source aquifer, and they form the headwaters of Judd Creek. And they are an important link in the network of trails that islanders have enjoyed for many years.