Anacortes Community Forest Lands (ACFL) consists of mostly forested lands surrounding and adjoining Little Cranberry, Heart, and Whistle Lakes on
Fidalgo Island
Fidalgo Island is an island in Skagit County, Washington, located about north of Seattle. To the east, it is separated from the mainland by the Swinomish Channel, and from Whidbey Island to the south by Deception Pass. The island is named af ...
, west and south of
Anacortes, Washington
Anacortes ( ) is a city in Skagit County, Washington, United States. The name "Anacortes" is an adaptation of the name of Anne Curtis Bowman, who was the wife of early Fidalgo Island settler Amos Bowman.Mount Erie, the highest point on the island at . Sugarloaf, 1,044 feet (318 m) and 0.6 miles (1.0 km) north of Mount Erie, is its second highest peak. As well as the aforementioned lakes, ACFL contains a number of smaller lakes, ponds and wetlands.
ACFL originated in the August 2, 1919, purchase by the city of Washington Power, Light and Water Company equipment and lands for $135,000.
Prior to 1989, the forest was logged for the revenue that it produced. In the late 1980s, the forest produced little or no net income and a community organization, Friends of the Forest, was formed to oppose logging. Subsequently, a survey by the Parks Department indicated that the community favored non-forestry uses of those lands, and a study showed that the forest trails were highly valued for recreational use. In 1990, the Forest Endowment Fund was started. On April 15, 1991, the City Council ended logging, except to remove downed or dangerous trees, from the permitted uses of the forest. In 1998, a Conservation Easement Program (CEP) was adopted by the city council as a means of funding ACFL and preserving the forest. Contributions to the CEP preserve the forest at a rate of $1000 per acre. The conservation easements are held and monitored by Skagit Land Trust. As of mid-2007, over $1.5 million had been contributed and was preserved.
The forest includes lakes, bogs and wetlands, low mountains and rocky cliffs. Most of the forest has been logged once or twice, but a notable grove of low-elevation old-growth forest remains. The upper story is dominated by
Pinaceae
The Pinaceae, or pine family, are conifer trees or shrubs, including many of the well-known conifers of commercial importance such as Cedrus, cedars, firs, Tsuga, hemlocks, larches, pines and spruces. The family is included in the order Pinales, ...
(Pine Family) including ''
Pseudotsuga menziesii
The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...
'' (Douglas-fir), ''
Tsuga heterophylla
''Tsuga heterophylla'', the western hemlock or western hemlock-spruce, is a species of hemlock native to the west coast of North America, with its northwestern limit on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, and its southeastern limit in northern Sonom ...
'' (Western Hemlock), ''
Pinus contorta
''Pinus contorta'', with the common names lodgepole pine and shore pine, and also known as twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near the ocean shore and in dry montane forests to the subalpine ...
'' (Shore Pine), and ''
Abies grandis
''Abies grandis'' (grand fir, giant fir, lowland white fir, great silver fir, western white fir, Vancouver fir, or Oregon fir) is a fir native to the Pacific Northwest and Northern California of North America, occurring at altitudes of sea leve ...
'' (Grand Fir), as well as ''
Acer macrophyllum
''Acer macrophyllum'', the bigleaf maple or Oregon maple, is a large deciduous tree in the genus '' Acer''.
It is native to western North America, mostly near the Pacific coast, from southernmost Alaska to southern California. Some stands are a ...
'' (Bigleaf Maple), '' Arbutus menziesii'' (Pacific Madrone), and ''
Alnus rubra
''Alnus rubra'', the red alder,
is a deciduous broadleaf tree native to western North America (Alaska, Yukon, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho and Montana).
Description
Red alder is the largest species of alder in North A ...
'' (Red Alder). Important understory species are ''
Gaultheria shallon
''Gaultheria shallon'' is an evergreen shrub in the heather family (biology), family (Ericaceae), native to western North America. In English, it is known as salal, shallon, or (mainly in Britain) gaultheria.
Description
''Gaultheria shallo ...
'' (Salal) and ''
Acer circinatum
''Acer circinatum'', the vine maple, is a species of maple native to western North America.
Description
It most commonly grows as a large shrub growing to around tall, but it will occasionally form a small to medium-sized tree, exceptionally ...