In June, Elwha Legacy Forests coalition and Center for Responsible Forestry co-sponsored a forest field survey training class with Joshua Wright of member organization Legacy Forest Defense Coalition.

Day 1 was a Zoom session to go over the strategy behind surveying forests to determine if they meet our criteria as legacy forests, and how to determine if they contain any rare or endangered animals, plants or plant communities.

After the World Water Day community hike to the Doc Holliday Unit 1 in the Sadie Creek Recreation area, there were requests to venture into the wild Unit 5. Twelve of us went on a no-trail, rainy, bushwhacking adventure through an amazing legacy forest that’s at imminent risk of logging, led by Peter and Jeff. It features huge silver spruce trees, large cedar, douglas fir, hemlock, and big-leaf maple trees, surrounded by lush wetlands filled with salmonberry bushes and devil’s club.

Walking through ‘Doc Holliday’ Unit 5 is like walking through Olympic National Park. It’s a complex, biodiverse and naturally regenerated legacy forest, containing large diameter trees, standing snags and large dead wood on the forest floor. It’s a critical resource for our climate crisis and loss of biodiversity. Unit 5 was previously classified by DNR as “Higher Quality” murrelet habitat and the SEPA checklist acknowledged that Unit 2 has the endangered marbled murrelets on or near the site!

From March 20-22 2025, for the Spring Equinox, International Day of Forests and World Water Day, the Elwha Legacy Forests coalition helped organize and host a series of events to celebrate and connect the dots between the health of our forests, the health of our waters and the health of our ecosystem. We hosted two Indigenous Cinema Climate Showcase film events, a Water Blessing Ceremony, and two community hikes in existing or former WA DNR timber sales.

We were joined and supported by the First Nations Club at Peninsula College, Earth Law Center, S’Klallam and Lummi Tribal Citizens, the Orcas and Tree from Toki TV and many others.

Events Overview:

• Thursday, March 20, 2025 5-7 PM – Indigenous Cinema Climate Showcase – Peninsula College Theater – Little Theater (PUB) – 1502 East Lauridsen Boulevard, Port Angeles WA
• Friday, March 21, 2025 7-9 PM – Indigenous Cinema Climate Showcase – Field Arts & Events Hall • 201 W Front St., Port Angeles WA
• Saturday, March 22, 2025 11 AM-1 PM Water Blessing Ceremony with S’Klallam and Lummi tribal citizens – Hollywood Beach, Port Angeles WA
• Saturday, March 22, 2025 2 PM – Protect the Elwha Legacy Forests Hike, Port Angeles WA

On Friday, November 29th, 2024, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal Elder Yayacen (Linda Weichman) and Lummi Elder Sul ka dub (Freddie Lane) joined the Elwha Legacy Forests coalition at the planned clear-cut site of the ‘Doc Holliday‘ forest, located near Sadie Creek, and around the Sadie Creek Campground and multi-use trails. See the forest page linked above for a map of the timber sale locations.

Yayacen shared her deep knowledge of plant medicine and food that can be foraged in these older, legacy forests. The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe has treaty rights to forage in these diverse forests, rights which are violated when they are clear-cut and converted to monocrop tree farms in order to profit the timber industry.

The ‘Doc Holliday’ forest was auctioned off to a timber company in August 2024 and, unless the sale is cancelled, will result in the clear-cut logging of 74.5 acres of mature legacy forest, turning it into a plantation tree farm. It will also create 5,005 feet of new forest roads, which will be a permanent loss of carbon sequestration potential.

Walking through ‘Doc Holliday’ Unit 5 is like walking through Olympic National Park. It’s a complex, biodiverse and naturally regenerated legacy forest, containing large diameter trees, standing snags and large dead wood on the forest floor. It’s a critical resource for our climate crisis and loss of biodiversity!

Photos by John Gussman with Doubleclick Productions:

On Saturday, 11/16/2024, approximately 40 of us gathered together and held a Native & Medicinal Plant Walk & Ceremony at the “Tree Well” Timber Sale with Tashena Francis and other Lower Elwha Klallam tribal members, Lummi Elder Freddie Lane, and Lenni-Lenape & Anishinaabe tribal member Waabishiki Binesi (White Eagle), Charles W. Creed. 

We started with an introduction/welcome to all who gathered at the Little River Trail parking lot. Then Freddie and Tashena led a beautiful traditional water ceremony at the Little River. Finally, we traveled the short distance to one of the “Tree Well” timber sale units and observed the intact, naturally regrown forest that is planned for clear-cut logging, on the hillside above Little River.

Unless stopped, the “Tree Well” timber sale would log approx. 200 acres of older forest, 50 of those next to Little River and in the Elwha River watershed. The Little River is a major tributary of the Elwha River, which we’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars rehabilitating after tearing down 2 dams. The Elwha is the only water source for the city of Port Angeles and a major source of salmon for the Southern Resident Orcas. Logging “Tree Well” will affect the water flow during peak rain and also during the dry season. The “Tree Well” forest is naturally regrown (not a monocrop tree plantation), which if left alone will be our future old growth. We should not be clear-cutting these forests with the climate and biodiversity crisis!

Tell the DNR to stop logging mature forests in the Elwha River Watershed!

A group of 14 curious local residents joined us for a short community hike into Unit 3 of the Doc Holliday timber sale, led by Jim with the Center for Responsible Forestry. We met up at the Sadie Creek campground off Highway 112 and then carpooled down a DNR forest road to Unit 3.

While walking through Unit 3 of the timber sale, we observed rich fungi, evidence of wildlife and stumps from old growth trees logged a hundred years ago. The group asked lots of good questions about how to get involved and what we can do to protect these forests, which are critical in our fight against the climate and biodiversity crisis.

Doc Holliday has the most amazing mature and giant sitka spruce trees, with a complex and lush ecosystem. It’s a diverse forest, with spruce, cedar, alder, douglas fir, and big leaf maple trees. It has a rich understory, breaks in the canopy and large snags. All characteristics of a mature second growth forest, ready to become old growth, if we just leave it alone!

The Doc Holliday timber sale consists of 74.5 acres of mature legacy forest and was approved for sale by the WA Board of Natural Resources (BNR). It is planned to go to auction on August 28th. They will sell this beautiful forest to the highest bidder, who will then be contractually obligated to clear-cut it, so that it can be turned into a tree farm.

On a crisp, sunny morning, ten of us crossed Highway 101 and scrambled up the steep hillside to explore Unit 4 of the “Alley Cat” timber sale. There were some familiar faces and also new ones. Led by Nina, we pushed through branches, waist-high salal, crossed over running streams and climbed over/under downed trees, exploring the rich variety of habitats in this beautiful, legacy forest.

“Alley Cat” is in the Elwha River watershed and is part of the proposed Trust Land Transfer project by the City of Port Angeles. Some of the units are on the east side of Highway 101, along the Elwha River itself, and others are along the Little River, which is a major tributary of the Elwha and has already seen major logging from the “Aldwell” timber sale. We need to protect the mature forests in the Elwha River watershed, in order to protect the recovering salmon and  the water supply for the City of Port Angeles. Our mature and diverse forests also do more to mitigate climate change than almost any other forests in the world. They are worth more standing.

We observed the timber sale boundaries, the leave tree areas marked with blue paint, the tiny riparian buffers and the orange markings, where they plan to blast a road through the dense forest. Before turning around to head back out, we gathered around a giant cedar tree, large enough to fit a person inside, and took some group photos.