A stretch of forested ridgeline that has loomed over Cle Elum, Roslyn and Ronald for generations now has permanent protection. The Nature Conservancy has established the Cle Elum Ridge Community Forest, roughly 2,600 acres of Kittitas County woodland that will stay open to hikers, mountain bikers, horseback riders and hunters rather than face development.
According to The Nature Conservancy, the organization acquired approximately 2,600 acres along Cle Elum Ridge in Kittitas County and is calling it the state's newest community forest. The announcement frames the project as supporting a working forest and connected landscape that balances recreation, wildlife movement, watershed function, and resilience to wildfire and climate change. The nonprofit's separate project page for the site, found at nature.org, describes the land as sitting above the towns of Cle Elum, Roslyn and Ronald, with a 3,700-foot ridgeline that serves as the towns' scenic backdrop.
Darcy Batura, quoted in the Nature Conservancy's announcement, said the community forest fulfills a deeply held community vision and followed nearly four decades of grassroots advocacy, planning and collaboration. That advocacy traces back to the 1980s, long before the current deal came together.
A Checkerboard of Land Deals Decades in the Making
The roots of this protection effort run through a 2014 transaction in which Central Cascades Forest LLC bought nearly 50,000 acres from Plum Creek Timber Company, land stretching between Snoqualmie Pass and Ellensburg. The Nature Conservancy partnered with Central Cascades Forest LLC on that acquisition and later assumed land-management responsibilities for the property. Cle Elum Ridge sits within that larger landscape, and portions of the original purchase still await permanent protection.
Out of that effort, the Nature Conservancy helped form the Checkerboard Partnership, a local association working to find protection pathways for thousands of acres of fragmented timberland. The partnership advanced residents' shared vision for community forest ownership specifically at Cle Elum Ridge. Batura said the ridge has become what she described as a living laboratory for forest stewardship, restoring forest health, reducing wildfire risk and improving habitat, per the same Nature Conservancy announcement.
Funding, Partners and a Stewardship Fund
The acquisition and establishment of the community forest drew support from a grant through the Washington Recreation and Conservation Office's Community Forests Program, along with donations from private foundations and individuals. The Kittitas Conservation Trust provided in-kind fundraising support, and the Nature Conservancy itself contributed technical and real-estate transaction assistance. The organization also put $4.1 million into a private stewardship fund intended to generate ongoing money for annual maintenance and upkeep costs.
A 2024 report from The Seattle Times described a related but larger effort: Washington's Department of Natural Resources was expected to acquire a 9,700-acre forest near Cle Elum using $15.3 million in federal Inflation Reduction Act funding paired with $5.7 million in state matching dollars. That report said the Nature Conservancy and DNR had jointly submitted the grant proposal, backed by letters of support from 25 partners, including the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. The dossier does not clarify how that 9,700-acre figure relates to the newly announced 2,600-acre community forest, and this article does not attempt to reconcile the two.
That grant was part of a broader federal push: the Times reported the Forest Service announced $154 million total in grant funding for 26 forest-conservation projects spread across 17 states.
Tribal Ties and Long-Term Ownership Goals
The Nature Conservancy's announcement states that the Cle Elum Ridge Community Forest lies within the homelands and treaty territory of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, whose people have stewarded these lands since time immemorial. The organization says it shares a long-term vision with the Yakama Nation to eventually transfer forest ownership to the tribe while maintaining conservation, recreation and community benefits on the land.
The Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, which has worked for 35 years to restore and reconnect access to public lands across its national heritage area, has been part of the Cle Elum Ridge story for over a decade. The trust helped establish the Coal Mines Trail in 1995 and designed and built the Teanaway connector trail known as Towns to Teanaway in 2018. It advanced community forest management discussions with the Checkerboard Partnership in 2020 and says it has supported efforts to permanently protect Cle Elum Ridge for ten years. Going forward, the trust says it will keep working with the Nature Conservancy and local partners on recreation management and public-participation models for the site.
Rules of the Land and a Public Forum
Under the management guidelines posted on the Nature Conservancy's project page, wheeled motorized use, including e-bikes, is prohibited across the property except on Forest Service Roads 4305 and 4305-118 and on Forest Service Trail #1340, also known as the Sasse Mountain Trail. Collecting firewood or non-timber forest products, holding special events, and any commercial activity on the land all require a permit. The property is managed under a Forest Stewardship Council certificate for sustainable forest practices and sits adjacent to DNR's Teanaway Community Forest and the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, where the Nature Conservancy says restoration, ecological fire work and applied science are underway across 10,000 acres.
Community members are invited to a public forum at the UKC Senior Center, 719 E Third Street in Cle Elum, on November 17 from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Attendees can learn more about the forest, review the draft community forest management plan, and share feedback before it is finalized.
A Model Playing Out Across Washington
Cle Elum Ridge is not the only place in the state experimenting with nonprofit-run community forestland. Mt. Adams Resource Stewards operates what it calls Washington's first nonprofit-owned, working community forest, balancing timber production with wildlife habitat, public recreation and traditional uses, according to Mt. Adams Resource Stewards. That organization built its holdings piece by piece, purchasing the 288-acre Mill Pond-Outlet Creek tract in two rounds in 2011 and 2019, adding the 424-acre Klickitat Rim Tract in 2019, and completing its largest purchase yet, the 800-acre South Conboy Tract, in September 2023. Its Mill Pond-Outlet Creek land stays open for hiking, hunting, camping and non-motorized boating, while its Pine Flats tract near Glenwood has been managed with commercial thinning and prescribed burning to reduce wildfire risk in that fire-adapted landscape.
