Whidbey Island was one of the first European-American settlements in Washington State containing open prairie for farming and good harbors. The Greenbank area was slower to develop and centered on the large loganberry farm, which is now a county park. The natural basin, now called Lake Mastie was pioneered by a cranberry farmer for whom it is named. Mr. Mastie raised cranberries in areas of shallow water up until the great Depression made his operation unprofitable. Cranberry plants can still be found in some areas around the lake.
It was also in the 1920s that a road was being pushed up from Greenbank to North Bluff. This allowed Georgia Pacific to purchase and this land and cut the old growth timber. The enormous decayed stumps of Douglas Fir and Cedar , often fifty feet apart are testament to the lowland conifer forests that once covered the Puget Sound basin. Georgia Pacific held the land for the next seventy years, anticipating a second timber harvest. During that time, development spread from the south up North Bluff road and from the north down Houston Road. These were eventually joined and much of the waterfront developed.
By the 1990s large scale timber harvesting was becoming rare and controversial on Whidbey Island. New regulations protecting wetlands and a known bald eagle's nest made the big timber corporation wary of potential negative publicity. Georgia Pacific sold to a smaller firm which initiated a "high grade" harvest, primarily for export of raw logs to Japan and China. Some areas were protected from clear cutting and buffer strips were left surrounding wetlands. It was, however, a scene of great ugliness that follows industrial logging which greeted me when I saw this land in 1994.
Over my wife's well founded objections, we purchased the 190 acres of torn up mud, stumps and slash piles which inflicted scratches and danger as soon as you left the narrow rock timber hauling road. Over the following years , more than twenty thousand new conifer seedlings went into the ground. Stump piles were burned and replanted, roads were opened to access areas overgrown with invasive weeds, which were cleared and replanted. As the alder and conifer trees shot up in a dense and crowded carpet, the thinning process began. Active forestry has continued now for fifteen years.
The management of forest land is known as Silva culture, and in recent years, new and innovative ideas about healthy forests have grown up. This new body of research and practice is often called New Forestry (as opposed to industrial forestry) and combines many insights from ecology. This has guided our work on BirdWood, protecting topsoil, fostering a diverse mix of trees and native undergrowth and promoting wildlife from insects to birds and large mammals, which all have roles to play in a healthy forest. A system of permanent grass covered roads give access to the forest to practice good forestry and to harvest the wind fallen trees that sometimes go down in our big winter storms. The protected wetlands replenish the gravelly aquafirs that have been tapped with wells to provide potable water. The best testament to the health of this third generation forest is to see forty and fifty foot trees of many species, only fifteen years old. Whidbey Island is one of the best climates in the world for conifers. Many timber companies operate seed farms on the Island.
The forest can supply food, fuel, timber and recreation perpetually if managed well. A ten acre tree farm is the minimum size recognized by the State of Washington and given low property tax rates for keeping the land forested. This same designation is allowed for small scale agriculture, a portion of your ten acres can be designated agriculture for orchard, field or livestock. I like to think of BirdWood as a grand scale garden where the good soils and mild climate do most of the work for you. Come have a look.
Michael DeBell