It will be a real shame if the Vashon Forest Stewards’ mill cannot find a new home here on Vashon. We want to build a 21st century economy on our island, and a key to that is appropriate use of forest products, which we have in abundance here. Vashon Forest Stewards are the first Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified operation in the entire county, leading our way toward sustainable and ecologically balanced management of land resources. If we lose their ability to mill sustainably harvested timber here, we will be shipping logging trucks off the island to the profit of some big milling company and undermining our own local economy.

With all the land that is available here – county land, DNR land, Land Trust land and private land, it is hard to believe that we cannot find somewhere to relocate the Vashon Forest Stewards. At the very least, King County, which cut the rug out from under the Forest Stewards with the Zellerhoff deal, should step up and help to find a workable alternative to the yard that the organization occupies now.

— Steve Graham