A Day in the Montesano City Forest
In October 2025, John Bull and the City of Montesano led members of the Northwest Community Forest Coalition on a tour of the City’s 5,700-acre Forest. The City works to balance annual timber harvests with community access and recreation, ecological priorities, innovative forestry techniques, and local educational partnerships. This tour highlighted each of these priorities.
Photo: Montesano City Forest - 2025 Harvest Stand
Credit: Sustainable Northwest
During the first stop of this tour, the group visited the 2025 harvest stand, which comprised 70 acres on the southeastern edge of the City Forest. This harvest was put out to bid in March of 2025, and an area timber company, Merril and Ring purchased the sale for $700,000. Following the harvest, The City is working with the University of Washington and Oregon State University to pilot a partial replant of Red Alder and Douglas Fir. By replanting with increasing amounts of Red Alder, the City is experimenting with a species that is less water-intensive and faster growing.
Photo: Espresso Trail, Montesano City Forest
Credit: Sustainable Northwest
During the second stop of the Tour, John brought the group to a commercially thinned timber stand. This stand was a great example of the impacts of thinning have on forest health, and showed an example of one of the multi-use trails that exists on the property (Picture above). The trails in the City forest are maintained by volunteer community groups, and the City hosts an annual 50k event called “Run Forest Run” using a mix of trails and forest roads, beginning and ending at the neighboring Lake Sylvia State Park.
During this portion of the Tour, John highlighted the City’s partnership with Grays Harbor College. Through this partnership, Montesano hosts two seasonal interns to learn about forestry, forest management, harvest planning, mapping, and more. This internship takes place over two summers, allowing the students to refine their skills and fully develop as foresters prior to their graduation.
The final stop of the tour took the group to the high point of the City Forest, approximately 700 feet above sea level and 550 feet above the City itself. This vista, shown below, offered a view of the City’s ownership and gave attendees a view of Washington’s distant volcanoes, Rainier, Adams, and St. Helens. This lookout was also located above one of the steepest slopes the City manages, and provided a panoramic view of the varying age of the forest stands within the City Forest, with some stands approaching 80 years old.
Photo: Montesano City Forest Overlook
Credit: Sustainable Northwest
As an actively managed forest, the Montesano City Forest is a great example to show other community forest managers that balancing ecological goals, public use and recreation, and revenue generation through harvests remain possible in a well-managed community forest.