|
Mission Statement and Purpose of the Black Mountain
Forestry Center: To promote awareness and provide education for
the general public about our forests, their history, ecology, and
value as a renewable resource. Black Mountain Forestry Center (BMFC)
strives to improve peoplešs relationship with the "World of
Wood". It balances public interests with the enhancement and
management of natural resources through a unique combination of
education, conservation, recreation, and support for local wood-related
cottage industries. BMFC promotes modern forest practices, public
relations, tourism, and local economic growth in a formerly timber
based community. It establishes and supports environmentally sensitive
forestry education in the local school systems, and serves as a
resource base of forestry information for the general public.
For Wayne Beech, it was an eighteen-day motor
coach trip several years back in the fall touring the New England
countryside with his wife, Danna, that was the inspiration behind
the Black Mountain Forestry Center. Wayne felt that if all the activities
and sites of this New England tour could captivate him for several
hours a day, there certainly was more than enough to see and do
in his own area of Washington state, near Maple Falls. He especially
wanted to showcase our statešs most important industry from both
an historical and economic perspective: the timber industry. He
also wanted to create wood- related jobs for displaced timber workers.
Wayne had spent 35 years working as a forester
in the forest service near his home on the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie
National Forest managing the timber resource. He knew first hand
of the sustainability of the resource, if it was properly managed.
He was eager to turn around the misconception that all timber harvesting
was bad and to educate young and old alike that there are benefits
to a well-managed forest.
He envisioned an educational center designed
to illustrate how the dual goals of timber harvesting and the preservation
of forests could be achieved through careful management. His dream
was to develop full day tours and half-day tours that would take
tourists through the local Mt. Baker foothills area, showing all
phases of logging and reforestation. The tours would show old growth
and different stages of developed forests and would be designed
to educate visitors as to why it is necessary for ecosystems, including
wildlife, to have all stages of forest growth.
With persistence and after two years of extensive
investigation into the feasibility of the project, a board was established
with the help of Whatcom County Parks, Crown Pacific, the Mt. Baker
School District and other community leaders. An Executive Director,
Anthony Raab, was chosen to continue helping Wayne with facilitating
the vision. Wayne's dream was about to become a reality.
A location across from Silver Lake Park, near
Maple Falls in Whatcom County, was selected; the site of the Gerdrum
Homestead. The house itself was constructed in 1892 out of a single
Western Red Cedar tree. It was also close to Crown Pacific's 25,000-acre
tree farm on which forest tours could be conducted and the Beech's
own 35-acre property, which someday would be incorporated into the
center proper.
The location was perfect. The Gerdrum Homestead
would become the center's museum, and would showcase items such
as historical photographs and artifacts from the local Mt. Baker
Foothills community. The site included a large field suitable for
use as a demonstration site for logging and saw milling equipment
and displays of logging technologies from the past and present.
The site was also large enough to accommodate woodcrafters who could
sell their wood products and demonstrate how they make the items
we all enjoy everyday.
The opening of the Black Mountain Forestry Center
appeared to be on track; it was all coming together very smoothly.
Then, suddenly, in October of 1999, Wayne passed away. Without the
guidance and stamina that Wayne exhibited, the center's future appeared
to be in doubt when the finish line looked so close.
Knowing that Wayne wanted to have the center
open, Danna literally called a town meeting in Maple Falls and told
the community that a decision to either go forward with the project
or to drop it had to be made. The local community (quite a few of
whom are WCLA members) unanimously decided to go ahead and complete
the project. They responded with monetary and volunteer support.
Because of their efforts, Phase One of the Black Mountain Forestry
Center is about to open over Memorial Day weekend 2000 with the
World of Wood Festival.
Phase One of the Black Mountain Forestry Center
is actually the first of three planned phases. It includes a 'walk-through
tour' of logging, beginning with the logging equipment that was
initially used to log the surrounding hillsides after the turn of
the century. There will be tool and rigging displays and even an
operating sawmill. The centerpiece is a fully rigged, Skagit yarder
with a 110' tube and a hydraulic loader donated by Elk Ridge Logging
and Zee Brothers respectively.
The yarder will be operational, for special
demonstrations, yarding logs for the shovel to load onto a waiting
log truck, which will dump the logs next to the sawmill. The sawmill
will then process the logs into lumber, which is to be either donated
or used on site by craftsmen. Tourists will be able to see the entire
logging-sawmilling process up close and personal!
The Second Phase of the Center will be public
forest education tours of the nearby Crown Pacific tree farm on
Black Mountain and is slated to begin operation on Memorial Day
at the World of Wood Festival. Two vans are scheduled to run out
of the center on forest tours at least once a day, where the public
can view the different activities undertaken on a working tree farm.
The tree farm will feature different stages of tree farm management,
from fresh harvest units to planted units to final harvest operations.
Phase Three of the center will incorporate the Beech's own 35 acre
demonstration forest and will probably take several years to complete.
The center wants to build cabins and other educational facilities
in order to allow the public to stay on the property for educational
purposes and to study natural resource issues for extended periods
of time. Local schools, universities, international institutions
like the University of British Columbia, and even the Department
of Natural Resources have shown interest in using this facility.
Wayne Beech's dream of having the most comprehensive,
living logging and forestry exhibit in the Northwest is fast becoming
a reality, thanks to the community and volunteers in the Maple Falls
area. In fact, one of the local contractors from the Maple Falls
area just recently purchased the extensive collection of logging
artifacts and equipment collected by Grays Harbor legend, John McMeeken.
Much of this collection will be displayed at the Black Mountain
Forestry Center.
If you are interested in learning more about
the Black Mountain Forestry Center, contact Anthony Raab at (360)
733-2654 or (360) 599-2623. The address is P.O.Box 730, Maple Falls
WA 98266 and the web site is www.blackmountainforestry.com.
They could sure use any help you could offer
and are especially interested in older tools and equipment. The
center is scheduled to be open from May through October, so stop
by if you are in the area. The center received their nonprofit status
in March, which should help in fund raising.
The Black Mountain Forestry Center is nothing
short of a labor of love and a true testament to what a small community
can do when they all pull together for a common goal. With all the
committed individuals behind this project, it will surely turn out
to be a success and something the entire state of Washington and
our timber industry can be proud of.
Current Black Mountain Forestry Center Board
of Directors
Russ Paul - Crown Pacific
Roger DeSpain - Whatcom County Parks Jerry Hunter - Superintendent
of Mt. Baker School District
Danna Beech
Anthony Raab -
Jean Gorton - WSU Extension
Mike Impero - Impero Construction
Marlene Dawson - Whatcom County Council
Back to Press/Articles
|
