Nisqually Land Trust scores another win

• Published March 16, 2008

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The Nisqually Land Trust has locked up a historic, 142-acre estate teeming with mature trees and wildlife habitat near the Paradise entrance to Mount Rainier National Park.

What an incredible gift to future generations.

Judy Scavone of Ashford said it best: "The Ashford community is deeply indebted to the Nisqually Land Trust and Joe Kane, executive director, for successfully protecting the Allen estate. This beautiful forest is a key parcel in maintaining the character and environmental integrity of our mountain community, and benefits the local economy as well as future generations."

The Land Trust purchased the property for $780,000 with a federal land-acquisition grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with the money passing through the state Department of Natural Resources.

The Nisqually Land Trust, a nonprofit corporation founded in 1989, is the lead nongovernmental conservation organization in the Nisqually River watershed. Its mission is to conserve natural areas and wildlife habitat throughout the watershed and to protect those lands in perpetuity. It purchases title, easements and other property rights from willing sellers and then manages its lands to maximize their conservation values.

Additional land set aside

Doug Sutherland, public lands commissioner, said Natural Resources will place an additional 230 acres of Tahoma State Forest near the national park into permanent conservation status.

Together, the two actions protect hundreds of acres of pristine forest land from developers' bulldozers. It's part of a long-range plan called the Mount Rainier Gateway Initiative to ward off logging and development on 4,500 acres around the park.

Kane said the trust is close to completing the purchase of two smaller parcels near the Allen estate totalling 40 acres. And trust officials are in negotiations with owners of another 900 acres.

The Allen estate's towering old-growth Douglas fir trees line one-half mile of highway just outside the national park, providing a majestic gateway that is considered vital to the local tourism economy. "This is a keystone property for the Mount Rainier Gateway," Kane said. "It has a rare combination of ecological, cultural, and economic values, and it can anchor a landscape-scale conservation effort. The key was being able to pay the owners full value for their property while also committing to preserve those values. We and our partners were in the unique and fortunate position to do both."

Far reaching

Sutherland saluted the purchase and the partnership. "The significance of this project is far reaching for all the partners involved," he said. "The Department of Natural Resources seeks opportunities to support and expand efforts that lead to protection of our native habitats and watersheds, and conservation of our unique landscapes for future generations. This acquisition also complements owl conservation and protection of other species under the department's Habitat Conservation Plan, which is a long-term management plan to conserve currently threatened and endangered species and help to avoid the future listing of additional species."

The Allen estate was homesteaded in the 1890s by Yale University botany professor Oscar Allen. The estate also was the home of Grenville Allen, Mount Rainier National Park's first superintendent, and his brother, Edward, the first forest ranger in the Northwest.

The land trust stepped in to protect the land when the estate's California owners announced plans to log it in 2005.

And now the estate's 142 acres are forever protected. What a magnificent gift to this and future generations.