Winslow woodland saved

Published 12:00 pm Saturday, April 2, 2005

Cohousing joins the Land Trust to protect an Ericksen parcel.

As homes and offices sprout up on Ericksen Avenue, at least one acre will remain a green refuge for towering cedars and the delicate trillium.

“I’m glad this one piece of land in Winslow will stay wooded,” said Winslow Cohousing resident Therese Kunzi-Clark. “We here all love the woods and we wanted to take care of it.”

Residents of the cooperative housing group partnered with the Bainbridge Island Land Trust to put the forested parcel, on the west side of Ericksen just south of Wallace Way, under a conservation easement.

The papers were signed this week, preserving the parcel from all future development.

The Winslow Cohousing easement is the 40th property BILT has help to preserve under such an easement. BILT now protects 700 acres under conservation easements islandwide.

BILT members say the land is valuable habitat for native plants and birds.

Oregon grape, salal, alders, firs and even the rare trillium flower thrive on the property.

One acre of forest means one less acre of concrete downtown, BILT board member Julie Matthews said, contributing to better water quality and efficient aquifer recharges.

A makeshift timber arch functions as an entrance to the woods from Ericksen Avenue, and a string of trails criss-cross the sloped parcel.

There are plans to construct a small picnic area, but larger structures are barred under the easement agreement.

“We’ll continue to watch over the easement and help when needed,” BILT Executive Director Karen Molinari said. “That’s our job, to monitor this place forever.”

Molinari commended cohousing residents, who gave up a prime piece of real estate for nature’s benefit.

“The Winslow Cohousing residents were a wonderful group to work with,” she said. “We had the same vision to have a refuge from concrete and buildings in Winslow.”

Residents of the housing development, which was founded in 1992 and sits immediately west of the woods, began discussing the easement with BILT several years ago.

But plans quickly faded after residents failed to find a consensus on what to do with the land.

“There were some people who initially did not want to give up the land as a developable asset,” said founding resident Tim Goss. “Since we operate on a community consensus basis, the project fizzled.”

But growth spurred residents into action again last year.

“We were watching Winslow become increasingly developed,” Goss said. “Pockets of trees kept disappearing. We wanted to save our forest.”