About Hooven Forest
Hooven Forest is 183+ acres of second-growth legacy forest forest and wetlands located between Hooven Bog and Crystal Lake, in south Snohomish County, north of Woodinville, and south of Maltby, WA. Within the forest are 100 year old Douglas firs, Western red cedars, big leaf maples and other native vegetation, as well as large wetland areas, seasonal creeks, and a variety of wildlife habitats. The forest is currently used for passive recreation and has a community developed trail system. It is home to native wildlife such as coyote, deer, mountain beaver, pileated woodpeckers, and other native bird species, mammals and reptiles.
The wetlands in the middle band of the parcel receive water from Hooven Bog to the west, and from the entire forest north and south thru seasonal surface creeks and seepage of water underground. The wetland releases water seasonally into Crystal Lake. Hooven Bog Conservation Area and the Crystal Lake system bog are two of a small number of preserved, near pristine peat bogs remaining in Snohomish County. The Crystal Lake drainage system, including the Hooven Forest, is part of the Cottage Lake Creek Basin in the Upper Bear Creek watershed. The Bear Creek watershed still supports salmon.
Just beyond Crystal Lake to the east lies the Paradise Valley Conservation Area, a 793-acre Snohomish County Park with a 13-mile natural surface trail system. Viewed together, Hooven Bog, the Crystal Lake system, Hooven Forest, and Paradise Valley Conservation area comprise a contiguous corridor of habitat and watershed of approximately 1,500 acres in the midst of a rapidly developing suburban area. Click here for more history of the Hooven Forest DNR parcel from the beginning of human habitation through settlement by Europeans, logging, and up to the present.
About Friends of Hooven Forest
The Friends of Hooven Forest are committed to preserving Hooven Forest as a whole, integrated ecosystem that serves as an environmental, recreational, and social resource for the benefit of the people, animals, plants and ecosystems of the surrounding community, the county of Snohomish, and the State of Washington.
To that end, the Friends of Hooven Forest Steering Committee is organizing the Hooven Forest community, raising funds, building relationships with other nonprofits and conservancy groups, building relationships with local tribes, reaching out to our state and local elected officials, developing contacts with local educators, and working to better understand the legal issues relevant to preservation of this land.
One of our first efforts toward preserving Hooven Forest is to work with the WA State Department of Natural Resources to create awareness of the value of Hooven Forest beyond its timber and real estate. We believe the best way to do this is to work collaboratively with DNR and others to generate a value basis that includes factors such as:
Watershed services
Plants (including aquatic plants and mycelium)
Wildlife
Carbon sequestration
Tribal and other cultural and spiritual practices
Recreation
Education
We would like to create a biological inventory, survey the community for use cases of the Forest, and work with professionals to produce a valuation of the intact forest. Our goal is to explore the value of Hooven Forest as a whole, integrated ecosystem in a way that captures its value beyond the conventional "highest and best use" calculations focused on timber and/or as land to be developed. We recognize that this may be a process new to both the DNR and our community. We are, however, excited to do the work to help blaze a path for the DNR, other organizations and other communities to recognize the true value of legacy forests.
Steering Committee
Randy Whalen is a neighbor in this area for 25 years and leads Bear Creek Headwaters, which had a successful campaign to preserve Hooven Bog. Randy is a proponent for active advocacy for these headwater regions where water is collected and sets the tenor for water quality all the way to Puget Sound. His day job has been as a mechanical engineer in high tech hardware prototype and development for the aerospace, medical, electronics, and optics industries.
Solveig Whittle has lived near Hooven Forest for over 30 years in the Crystal Lake, Inc. community. Solveig is also a Crystal Lake participant in the Snohomish County Volunteer Lake Monitor program, well as a volunteer at the Feral Care Cat Sanctuary. Solveig spent her early career in the telecommunications and tech industries, has studied and taught social media, indie music marketing, and also has an elementary school teaching certificate. She enjoys walking several times a week among the tall cedars in the Hooven Forest with her dogs and best friends.
Rosa Wu is a recent member of the community. She and her husband Jeff fell in love with the forest when they moved and are motivated to continue to make it an area for kids to explore, dig, and learn. She is a Product Management Director for Google Maps, working on making driving and navigation safer, less stressful, and more sustainable.
If you would like to join us, fill out this form.
