A land transaction approved June 7 by the Board of Natural Resources will protect a 35-acre parcel of forestland in King County from development and put more than $500,000 toward public school projects. The board authorized the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to transfer the parcel of state-owned forest, held in the Common School Trust, to King County to manage as a park or open space.

The property, located north of Interstate-90 near Preston Ridge Park, had steep terrain and the DNR did not have legal access to it. Timber on most Common School Trust lands is harvested and sold to benefit schools. The timber on this property was valued at $566,000 and the land itself was valued at $260,000.

Washington’s Trust Land Transfer program funded the transaction, essentially paying the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction $566,000 for the value of the timber and paying the DNR $260,000 for the land value. King County received the land at no cost, and so can’t harvest any timber from it, but must instead maintain the property as it is.

“It’s a good day for Washington school children who need more classroom space and it’s a great day for those of us committed to preserving green, open spaces along the busy I-90 corridor in King County,” said Peter Goldmark, Commissioner of Public Lands, who chairs the board.

Annual timber sales

The board also learned at its June meeting that completed sales of timber from state trust lands will reach 575 million board feet in fiscal year 2016, which ends June 30. Funds generated by auctioning the rights to conduct DNR-designed timber harvests in state forests helps support public schools, universities, and prisons as well as public services in several counties.

DNR manages nearly 2 million acres of state forestland in addition to 1 million acres of agricultural and grazing lands and 2.6 million acres of state aquatic lands, including the bedlands under Puget Sound and the coast, many of Washington’s beaches, and natural lakes and navigable rivers.