Land Swap Deal Pleases Everyone - Almost Residents Of Greenwater Fight To Save Virgin Forest

The land swap deal was hailed as a landmark - an agreement that pleased environmentalists, Weyerhaeuser Co. and the federal government. Everyone but the 400 residents of Greenwater.

People in this Cascade mountain community on the northeast rim of Pierce County are fighting to save the last virgin forest on Huckleberry Mountain, which rises high above the town.

The heavily logged mountain is partly owned by Weyerhaeuser, partly by the U.S. Forest Service. If the huge land swap between the timber company and the government agency goes through later this year, the mountain will end up entirely in Weyerhaeuser’s hands.

Supporters of the swap, including the Sierra Club, say it will help end a longstanding problem in the Cascades: the checkerboard pattern of government and private land ownership. Weyerhaeuser and the Forest Service would trade about 40,000 acres, consolidating fragmented holdings.

But Greenwater residents say they feel forgotten in the trade, and have begun a petition drive to keep Huckleberry Mountain’s last 1,200 acres of public forest in federal hands.

Craig Knoll, a lumber company owner with a cabin at Greenwater, has hiked Huckleberry Mountain for 40 years.

“This is exciting in here,” he says. “There are some beautiful trees. Some nice snags. I’d hate to lose it.”

It took 12 years to reach the agreement on the land swap, in which Weyerhaeuser will trade 33,000 acres of cutover land for 7,200 acres of public forests.

Originally, it was opposed by many environmentalists: In 1994, the Sierra Club’s Charlie Raines issued a report titled, “Weyerhaeuser Gets Trees, Forest Service Gets Stumps.”

Then the two sides started negotiating. At a news conference last month, they announced a compromise: The Sierra Club and four other environmental groups would support the exchange. In return, Weyerhaeuser would donate 1,900 acre of prime forest land to the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

The swap would consolidate Weyerhaeuser’s holdings near Greenwater, the eastern boundary of the company’s 130,000-acre White River tree farm.