INDEX — A popular hiking trail that has been the focus of a preservation campaign was set to reopen Labor Day weekend after a year-long closure.
The Seattle-based land conservancy Forterra raised money to protect part of the Lake Serene Trail that passes through private land. Most of the trail runs through the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.
Federal foresters closed the trail last year as a safety precaution during a timber harvest on the private parcel.
“Closing the trailhead also lessened the amount of time required for workers to complete the harvest,” Andy Bryden from the Skykomish Ranger Station said in a prepared statement.
Volunteers and Forest Service staff used the closure to enlarge the parking lot and improve the trailhead restroom.
The trail, which also provides access to Bridal Veil Falls, is visited by an estimated 45,000 hikers every year.
Forterra hopes to take ownership of the private land from Weyerhaueser by the end of September, said Charlie Raines, the group’s director of forest conservation. The deal includes a quarter-mile stretch of trail and nearly 200 acres around it. To lower the purchase price, Weyerhaueser logged about 57 acres before the sale.
There are plans to replant the logged area next spring.
“Within a year or two that will green up and most people going up the trail will not know what has happened,” Raines said.
The bulk of the funding for the land purchase came from Snohomish County’s Conservation Futures program, which contributed about $400,000. Forterra raised another $275,000 in donations.
After Lake Serene, the nonprofit hopes to buy two other parcels from Weyerhaeuser for conservation projects: Maloney Creek, near the town of Skykomish, and Windy Ridge, near Stevens Pass.
The acquisitions are part of Forterra’s wider campaign called the Great Northern Corridor between the upper Skykomish Valley and Puget Sound.
With the Lake Serene Trail opening, foresters expect the improved parking to fill up this weekend.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@herald net.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.
More info
Go to www.fs.usda.gov/mbs or call the Skykomish Ranger District at 360-677-2414.
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