Every December, the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust completes multiple conservation purchases, and this month is no exception as the organization bought three new properties that have been turned over to King County for stewardship.

The properties include new parcels bordering existing conservation areas, as well as parcels that will become new protected areas. They are a 60-acre parcel dubbed Frog Holler Forest that lies between Vashon Highway and Wax Orchard Road, south of Shawnee Road; a 20-acre parcel adjacent to Dockton Park that will be added to the surrounding Dockton Forest and 24 acres of Spring Beach shoreline and forest on the southwestern coast of Vashon near Camp Sealth.

The largest of the purchases — 60-acre Frog Holler Forest — was finalized last Thursday. The land is the anchor for what Land Trust Executive Director Tom Dean hopes will become the island’s third community forest, joining Island Center and Dockton forests. Dean said the land already contains a long-standing network of trails that used to be part of a social trail from Paradise Ridge to Lost Lake. Those trails are open to the public for non-motorized use.

“It’s plug and play,” Dean said of the fact that the property already has known trails that residents in the area have been using for years. “The Frog Holler name was adopted from a well-known sign on Wax Orchard Road near the forest. The peeps of tree frogs, often called chorus frogs, can be heard throughout this forest in the spring.”

The land was purchased from the Richard and Sheila Doane family who allowed public access to the trails on their property to continue. Marie Bradley, an island equestrian who has been recreating on the land for decades and has become an informal caretaker of the trails, said that the Doane’s “enjoyed the fact that all the neighbors used it.” She said she is ecstatic that the forest is being preserved.

“I would go out after storms with my chainsaw and cut any trees that had fallen and were blocking the trails. I’d also take my weed eater and keep the trails from getting overgrown,” she said. “It’s going to be really nice to have the county take over. It’s just a fabulous piece of property, and I was concerned we would lose it to development at some point. I couldn’t be happier.”

On Friday, Bradley and her friend Carla Pryne took a walk through the property’s woods with two of Bradley’s horses. With garden shears in her hand, the outing was just another opportunity to keep the area maintained for others.

“She’s amazing, she’s loved this land,” Pryne said of Bradley.

At King County, park planner David Kimmett said in a statement that he’s “looking forward to continuing to work with islanders on this new property.”

The $1.1 million sale is the last purchase to use funding from a $6 million grant from the Washington State Department of Ecology the Land Trust received four years ago.

Meanwhile, down at the shoreline, 24 acres of Spring Beach is under the watch of the county, ending what Dean called a “complex deal” that was completed under a tight deadline. King County bought 20 acres — two parcels — in February. In late May, the Land Trust purchased a third, 4-acre parcel at the northern end of Spring Beach — the last of the three that Dean had been approached about buying by Ed Swaya, the former owner. The $250,000 purchase for the last 4 acres was funded by an anonymous donor who loaned the funds so the Land Trust could own the property until the county received funding to buy it. That sale occurred on Dec. 9, and King County is now the permanent steward of the bluffs, forests, wetlands and natural springs that occupy the 24 acres.

“This is an especially gratifying project,” Dean said. “Not only because it’s a gorgeous piece of land, but because it’s been identified in Land Trust planning documents going back 20 years.”

Greg Rabourn, King County’s Vashon basin steward, finds the preservation of the property crucial for restoring the health of Puget Sound and the salmon that inhabit its waters. The Spring Beach acquisition includes 677 feet on the beach along Colvos Passage.

“Preserving the … Spring Beach Natural Area is an important incremental step toward saving Puget Sound,” he said. “The sand and gravel from the eroding bluffs will have a positive impact for beaches beyond the site itself.”

Forage fish rely on healthy shorelines to eat bugs that fall into the water, and forage fish are eaten by salmon who then spawn in Vashon’s streams.

As it stands currently, Spring Beach cannot be accessed by the public from land. The beach is only publicly accessible from the water as the only road in the area is a private road that leads to a small community of about a dozen homes.

“We can’t offer public access (from the land) unless we buy additional properties, which we want to do,” Dean said. “It just takes a whole lot of time.”

Rounding out the trifecta of year-end purchases, Dockton Forest has expanded 20 acres. Dean said that on Dec. 13, the $400,000 sale from Gar LaSalle to the Land Trust closed. The parcel, wedged between Dockton Forest on three sides, is just south of Dockton Road.

“We call it ‘filling in the teeth,’” Dean said pointing to a map that shows the formerly missing 20 acres.

All of the purchases were possible this month due to the county’s budget cycle, Dean said. King County passes its budget in November and, with it, comes a new round of funding from a county-wide, voter-approved park levy and King County’s Conservation Futures Fund, which is a property tax that collects 4 cents per $1,000 of assessed home value. Funds are used exclusively to protect land from development.

Dean said the three purchases round out an “unusually active year for the Land Trust, that also saw properties conserved at Point Heyer, Lost Lake, Judd Creek and Matsuda Farm.” The three new properties also bring the organization’s total conserved acres to more than 2,000 in its 26 years of existence.

“It has been an exciting year for the Land Trust,” Land Trust Board Chair Mary Frances Lyons said. “With all of the people moving to this region, it’s more important than ever to secure these critical habitats.”