WEST TIGER MOUNTAIN — High above it all, these big trees and icy cold creek are a palace being prepared for the reigning state fish: steelhead.
As one of his first official acts as commissioner of public lands, Dave Upthegrove on Feb. 4 led the state Board of Natural Resources in unanimous approval of the expansion of a beloved state conservation reserve in King County. Nearly 100 acres of big trees on slopes too steep to cut for timber, lording over a steelhead creek, now are permanently protected as part of the DNR’s West Tiger Mountain Natural Resources Conservation Area.
First established in 1989, the West Tiger conservation area now will include, with the expansion, more than 4,000 acres, with steep mountainsides, summit rock outcrops, meadows, cliffs and hiking trails.
With marginal timber value — and other benefits and values for recreation and habitat quite spectacular — the land was a perfect candidate for the state’s Trust Land Transfer program, Upthegrove said.
Department of Natural Resources
The West Tiger Mountain Natural Resources Conservation Area has been expanded by nearly 100 acres in a swap with King County that will benefit steelhead and preserve a treasured local forest.
Under it, the Department of Natural Resources is allowed to transfer lands with high conservation value, but low economic potential, to other public agencies, such as parks departments, while acquiring replacement lands with better revenue-generating capacity. “Everybody wins,” said Upthegrove, on a walk through the snowy slopes of the forest Thursday.
The program is funded by the state Legislature, and this transfer cost more than $1.3 million, reflecting proximity of the land to the Interstate 90 corridor just outside Preston.
With its hemlocks, cedars with their sweeping boughs, and towering Douglas fir just coming into their old-growth potential, the forest is a gift to the future. “You walk into a forest like this, you feel different,” Upthegrove said, tipping his head back to look up to the canopy. “You feel yourself change. Something leaves your body, the stress, the anxiety.”
Located about 35 miles east of Seattle, the area is part of a chain of Cascade Mountain foothills locally known as the Issaquah Alps, including Tiger, Squak and Cougar mountains. Wildlife thrive here, including blacktail deer, cougars, bobcats, black bears, coyotes, elk, red-tailed hawks, osprey, barred owls, pygmy owls and pileated woodpeckers. A fleet of waterfowl cruises the reserve’s lakes.
“Places like this are close to urban centers but they provide respite, a getaway from the hubbub of the world,” Upthegrove said. “They provide habitat, and they prevent flooding, and landslides. They help keep the whole ecosystem intact. They are the connection between the uplands, and the stream.”
These big, old trees are valuable for climate stability too, he noted. “Older trees store a lot of carbon, the soils when they are left undisturbed store a lot of carbon too. Having these large older trees provides a heat refuge too, though I am not thinking of that today,” he said, shushing through the snow. Ice glazed the rocks in Soderman Creek, and icicles fanged its banks.
This refuge for nature has been years in the making.
Roads in the forest have been decommissioned, and culverts repaired by DNR on the property to improve fish habitat. The Washington State Department of Transportation this year also has scheduled three culvert replacements in the watershed to benefit coho, resident trout, sea-run cutthroat trout and steelhead.
With only about 20% of the parcel suited for timber harvest because of its erodible, steep slopes, this forest has now found a better, more appropriate use: as one more jewel in the state’s more than 127,000 acres conserved in DNR’s Natural Resource Conservation Areas.
