Washington: Friends of Rocky Prairie work to protect it’s forests

Friends of Rocky Prairie scored a victory against a large opponent
this year when it helped prevent the development of a major cargo
center proposed by the Port of Tacoma. Now, the citizens’ group faces
an even larger task as it looks to acquire and preserve the site —
hundreds of acres of native prairie and oak woodland near Maytown that
has rare habitat and could be home to threatened and endangered
wildlife.

The group is working on several fronts. “It certainly is a
challenge in these times — these hard economic times,” said Sharron
Coontz, the group’s spokeswoman. “We have an awful lot of support for
it. We’ll just have to see if the Port of Tacoma will cooperate.” The
Port of Tacoma intends to sell the property “as soon as possible,”
according to a spokeswoman, but the weakened economy means it won’t
divest of the land this year. The group is urging the port to hold off
on a sale. Citifor, a China-based timber-export company, sold the
property to the Port of Tacoma for $22 million on July 26, 2006. Seven
months earlier, Thurston County approved a special-use permit to
authorize the company to mine 284 acres of the property for a total of
20.6 million cubic yards of gravel over 20 years. The company needed
to satisfy numerous conditions before it could mine the property.
After the sale, the ports of Olympia and Tacoma proposed construction
of the South Sound Logistics Center to stage and sort container
freight before it’s shipped on railcars and trucks. The ports entered
into an agreement to determine whether to pursue development of the
logistics center. The agreement also was required because the Port of
Tacoma purchased property in a neighboring port jurisdiction. The
project died when the Port of Tacoma decided not to extend the
agreement past the expiration date of June 30. The port said the
project was no longer viable because of the reduction in the number of
container imports and the opposition of nearby residents. Many of
these residents united to form Friends of Rocky Prairie in February
2007. That fall, they requested the county rezone the entire property
to allow one home every 20 acres. The group’s petition contained 1,834
signatures. http://www.theolympian.com/southsound/story/705422.html

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