The Renewable Forest Story
The Sylvia Creek Forestry Trailhead is located past the south end of
the parking lot in Lake Sylvia State Park, Montesano, Washington.
The two-mile interpretive trail is a cooperative project of the City of
Montesano, Grays Harbor County, WSU Extension, Weyerhaeuser, Department
of Natural Resources (DNR), Washington State Parks, Washington
Department of Fisheries, Stouffer Lumber, Bonnell Logging, and the Army
Reserve. It was built in 1991 by the DNR Cedar Creek trail crew and is
maintained by the City of Montesano forestry and public works
departments and volunteers.
The trail committee poses
at the completed trailhead in 1991: L-R: Don Hansen, State Parks,
 Ron
Schillinger, at-the-time city forester, Julie Truax, forester, Larry
Smith, Grays Harbor County, and Dick Stone (not pictured), Fish and
Wildlife and at-the-time city council member.
At the trailhead, you may pick up a brochure trail guide, or print
this page. Station numbers described here correspond
to numbered posts along the trail.
1. Lake Sylvia History
In 1868, Michael F. Luark dammed Sylvia Creek and built a sawmill
operated by water power. A larger dam was built in the 1920's to
generate power for Montesano. In 1936, this area was transferred from
the City Forest to become Lake Sylvia State Park.
2. Sylvia Creek
Water in the forest is like the blood that flows through our bodies.
It gives life to plants, animals, birds, and fish.
3. Wetland Protection - RMZ
Trees and brush along the creek provide food, shade, cover, roosts,
nest sites, soil nutrients, and bank stability. An area 75 feet wide on
each side of the creek bank is maintained as a riparian management zone.
4. Birds in the Forest
The RMZ area is reserved for birds and wildlife in our managed
forest. Stop and listen. You often hear birds at this stop because of
the variety of food and over. Sylvia Creek on the left...a wide marshy
area on the right...large dead snags for feeding, nesting, and
perching...tall green trees of many species.
5. Clearcut
This open area is a clearcut. Trees were cut in 1988 and replanted
in 1989 to provide jobs, lumber, and revenue. They were cut, yarded to
the road at the top of the hill, and hauled to local mills.
6. Reforestation
This area was clearcut in 1923. A second forest was harvested in
1988. A third crop of trees planted in 1989 is scheduled for harvest in
2039. The City of Montesano uses this area to grow trees for revenue,
jobs, and forest products on a sustained basis.
7. Wildlife
Wildlife in the area adapts to changes people have made in the
forest, just as they would to natural changes. Deer, bear, elk, small
animals and birds love the sweet grasses, berries, new trees and bushes
that flourish in the bright, warm, open replanted areas.
8. Beaver Dam
Beavers are common along Sylvia Creek. Their activity creates swamp
and pond areas. This habitat diversity helps fish, birds, and animals.
Over time floods wash out the dams or beaver move on.
9. Timber Types/Tree Species
A forest has different trees that adapt to certain areas. Western
hemlock grows fast in shady, cool areas.
10. Fish
Many type of fish live in streams in the forest. They are important
food for birds, animals, and people. Coho salmon and trout live in
Sylvia Creek. Our forest management plans include fish protection.
11. Old Mill Site
Even works of people fall to the passing of time. In the late 1800's
this was the site of a working sawmill. Look for a saw blade stuck in an
alder tree, bricks from the furnace, and old trestles in the mill pond.
Close your eyes. Can you imagine the noise and activity of earlier days?
12. Second Growth Forests
As you continue along the south side of Sylvia Creek, you are in a
second growth forest.
13. Miscellaneous Forest Products
Many plants here are food for birds and animals. Cascara bark, blue
and red huckleberries, mushrooms, salal, and ferns are useful as a
source of income. As tall trees change and grow, short shrubs and brush
also change; species die out and others move in.
DO NOT EAT plants or berries unless you
know what they are...some are poisonous!
14. Douglas Fir
Ninety years ago this area was clearcut. Today it is an area of
large second growth trees that started out as small tree seedlings like
you saw in the clearcut at Stop #5. Douglas fir is one of the biggest,
tallest, and fastest-growing of trees. It produces high quality lumber.
Rich, deep soils and moist climate in Grays Harbor County combine to
make some of the world's best tree growing conditions. As you travel
along roads and highways you will see many trees of different ages.
15. Coho Salmon
Adult coho salmon swim upstream to the pool below the rock wall each
year from the ocean, via the Chehalis River. They arrive in winter and
can often be seen jumping at the rocks. Once hatched, small coho
fingerlings stay a year in Sylvia Creek before swimming out to the
ocean. They return when they are three years old to lay their eggs and
die. Just like the forests, the fish and wildlife have their life
cycles, too. Whether by nature's processes or by human presence...life
in the working forest is always changing.
This page last updated on
03/30/2008
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