Montesano's city council has approved spending $275,000 to buy a 46-acre parcel known as Nevills Hill. The purchase pushes the Montesano City Forest to roughly 5,400 acres of municipal timberland and trails.
The council approved the Nevills Hill purchase, as The Daily World reported. A Washington Recreation and Conservation Office grant will cover $191,250 of the $275,000 cost, with the Montesano city budget picking up the remaining $83,750.
A Forest Built to Pay Its Own Way
The Montesano City Forest isn't just a recreation amenity — it's a budget line. The forest generates an average of roughly $1 million in annual timber harvest revenue from cutting 2.5 million to 3 million board feet a year, money that directly supports local public works and infrastructure, according to the City of Montesano. That working-forest model traces back nearly a century: the forest's core was established in 1931, when the city bought 5,493 acres of logged-over watershed land for $12,000 from Neil Cooney specifically to protect its drinking water supply and create a lasting municipal income stream.
The forest is managed for a mix of revenue, recreation, and resource protection, per the city's own framing of its mission. More than 4,000 acres are maintained as working forestland. Douglas fir makes up roughly 75% of the forest's timber volume, with Western hemlock accounting for about 20%, and the forest is managed on a target 55-year rotation cycle.
Regulations Squeeze the Harvest
That revenue stream faces new pressure from state environmental rules. During a 2026 forest tour, City Forester John Bull noted that updated Washington riparian buffer requirements for non-fish-bearing streams would restrict harvesting on about 12 acres of a planned 60-acre timber cut, cutting expected city revenue by roughly $90,000, as reported by the Chinook Observer. Bull has also discussed management of municipal forestlands in Hoquiam and Aberdeen.
Trails Tied to a State Park Next Door
Lake Sylvia State Park, which sits adjacent to city forest land, was created in 1936. Today the 172-acre park serves as the primary trailhead and access point for the city forest's network of more than 15 miles of interconnected hiking and mountain biking trails.
Montesano is known as the Home of the Tree Farm, and its forest has been called America's First Tree Farm. The Nevills Hill purchase adds one more piece to a forest that has spent nearly a century trying to make working land and public land the same thing.
