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Stewardship Matters: Parker Ranch, Kittitas County
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| Photo: Northwest Natural Resource Group |
In May 2009, ponderosa pine forest on the Parker Ranch in Kittitas County was conserved through transfer of development rights, the first ever use of this conservation tool in Kittitas County, Washington.
The ranch includes shrub-steppe, wheat fields, Douglas-fir trees, and ponderosa pine. Designated an Important Bird Area by the Audubon Society, the ranch supports a wealth of birdlife as well a migration route for elk. Natural springs and a branch of Umptanum Creek provide wetland habitats.
The Parker sisters, who own the ranch, worked with the county and the Cascade Land Conservancy, with money provided by the 2007 Washington State Legislature. The Parkers can now manage the timber on the ranch—a long-time family goal.
They’ve joined the Washington Farm Forestry Association (WFFA), an organization whose members own family forests. WFFA member families help “provide communities throughout Washington with clean water, air, wildlife, and timber,” according to WFFA Executive Director Rick Dunning.
About 480 acres of the 1,460-acre ranch were conserved through the transfer of development rights agreement. In a transfer of development rights transaction, the landowners are paid for the development potential of their lands.
A conservation easement on the ranch ensures that it will remain working land. The development credits thus created can be sold to builders or developers in other parts of the county. These credits allow a development project to be larger than might otherwise be permitted.
Thus increased density in one part of the county allows working forest or farmland, open space, and wildlife habitat to remain in another part of the county—in this case, in the Manastash Hills, along Umptanum Creek west of Ellensburg.
Franki Storli, one of the Parker sisters, speaks of the stewardship ethic that inspires her family: “My sisters and I feel very honored to have Parker Ranch and to be able to do our part to assist with the conservation of the Earth’s natural environment.”
Read more about the Parker Ranch.
Read more about transfer of development rights in Kittitas County.