Part 1
Forest Lands
The ready supply of timber was a major reason for European settlement of the Puyallup Watershed. Tacoma, for instance, the largest city in the watershed and the third-largest city in Washington State, was founded as a timber town in 1869 when investors from San Francisco built the Hanson & Ackerman Mill (CityData.com, 2010). The vast majority of forestland today is located in the Upper Puyallup sub-watershed, where about half is in private ownership and much of the remaining half is owned and managed by the federal government (Upper Puyallup Watershed Committee, 2002). Of the public forestland, about 130,000 acres is located within Mount Rainier National Park and 95,000 acres within the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest District (Upper Puyallup Watershed Committee, 2002). Forestlands in the lower portions of the Puyallup Watershed are less often managed for timber, but are nonetheless essential for many of the natural services they provide. Urban forests are often valued more highly than remote forests because they directly benefit more populous urban areas. Urban forests often experience greater development pressure as well. Agricultural Lands/Floodplains
Agricultural lands in Puyallup Watershed make up nearly 30% of Pierce County’s total agricultural lands. The Puyallup Valley (an area within the Puyallup Watershed) and the Bonney Lake-Buckley Plateau are two of the most concentrated areas of agricultural activity in the watershed. The Puyallup Valley includes the floodplain extending several miles on either side of the Puyallup River from near the City of Orting to Commencement Bay. Today the valley supports about 4,900 acres of productive farmland. The Bonney Lake-Buckley Plateau agricultural area lies roughly between Buckley, Bonney Lake, Carbonado and the Muckleshoot Reservation. About 3,700 acres of this area is used for agriculture, including cropland and pasture (Barney & Worth and Globalwise, 2006).
10
The Puyallup River Watershed: An Ecological Economic Characterization