Sugarloaf Mountain Forest
Sugarloaf Mountain Forest is a 285-acre forest off of the SE Kent-Kangley Road between 320th Avenue SE and 337th Avenue SE in the Ravensdale/Kangley Area. The forest was acquired through the King County Transfer of Development Rights Program in 2001 and is categorized as a working resource land in the King County land portfolio.
Working resource lands play an important role in sustaining agriculture and forestry activities by creating contiguous tracts of working forest and agriculture lands, educating the public about working landscapes, and providing limited passive use recreation opportunities.
Sugarloaf Mountain Forest was most recently harvested in 1993-1994 by the previous owner. The forest currently consists of four stands differentiated by age, species, stocking, size, topographic features, and access considerations. Young red alder and bigleaf maple stands predominate with small patches of 45 year old western hemlock and associated red alder scattered across the property.
The soils have been affected by past land use; the growth of alder is being encouraged to slowly improve the soils naturally. In the short term, with the exception of a pre commercial alder thinning, resource management activities will be passive in nature due to the lack of revenue generating possibilities. The only significant aquatic resources on the property are seven intermittent streams and seeps which drain the southeast and southern slopes of the property. These headwater streams and seeps are critical to the functioning of a large wetland complex south and east of the property. One intermittent stream flows northeasterly into the Cedar River Basin. There are no significant wetlands on the property. Wildlife, especially deer and elk, are abundant on southern exposures.
There is no legal public access to Sugarloaf Mountain Forest.
The Sugarloaf Mountain Forest Stewardship Plan is available in Adobe Acrobat format. For help using Acrobat files, please visit our Acrobat help page.