PACIFIC COUNTY — One of Washington state’s largest timberland transactions of the year was finalized Aug. 6 when Rayonier Forest Resources swapped 56 square miles of timberland in Pacific County and Southwest Washington to Evergreen Timber, an investment affiliate managed by Alabama-based Resource Management Service (RMS).
The deal includes a significant portion of the Grays River Basin and is creating uncertainty about what this will mean for hunters and recreational users in the Willapa Hills.
$145 million deal
According to deed documents acquired through the Pacific County Auditor’s Office, the Pacific County portion of the conveyance was valued at $138.79 million and generated $2.12 million in Washington state real estate excise taxes. Pacific County received about $300,000 in excise tax funds via the deal.
The local portion of the transaction is a part of an overall $145 million “strategic asset swap” between Rayonier and RMS. Under the terms of the like-kind exchange, Rayonier surrendered around 36,000 acres in Southwest Washington — mainly the Grays River Basin in eastern Pacific County — in exchange for roughly 57,000 acres of southern pine timberland in Alabama and Texas.
“These transactions reflect our continued focus on portfolio optimization, as we look to concentrate our capital markets with strong cash flow attributes and favorable long-term growth prospects,” Rayonier CEO Mark McHugh said. “We were pleased to collaborate with RMS on this negotiated, off-market deal that aligned with the strategic priorities of each organization.”
For Birmingham, Alabama-based RMS, the acquisition marks the first Pacific Northwest venture for its flagship Evergreen U.S. Forestland Fund. The swap provides RMS’s fund with immediate exposure to prime coastal Douglas-fir and western hemlock timber, along with export connections in the lower Columbia River Valley and the Port of Longview.
Hunting impacts?
The transfer spans broad stretches of near-coast timberland, heavily concentrated in the Grays River Basin and surrounding drainages across Pacific County. Rayonier’s holdings have long served as popular hunting grounds, and the deal does account for recreational access.
According to the recorded deed, more than 170 individual Fossil Creek premium permits will be honored through their stated expiration date of Dec. 31 this year.
Along with honoring the current permits, the conveyance remains bound to regional conservation plans, including the federal Marbled Murrelet Safe Harbor Agreement through 2056 and the Washington Fisher Candidate Conservation agreement with assurances through 2036.
Although 2026 recreational access is stable, management of the hunting and leasing program will transition directly to RMS for the 2027 seasons. The company operates an active recreational hunt-licensing portal and historically prioritizes renewals for existing permit holders who demonstrate good land stewardship.
The kicker is that while RMS does promote hunting access, they do not offer individual recreational access permits that hunters in Washington state are accustomed to being available through Rayonier or Weyerhaeuser. RMS historically operates lands on an exclusive “Hunt Club” licensing model, in which access is only leased out to private, organized hunting clubs, and these are required to carry liability insurance.
This land trade means that sportsmen will face uncertainty over whether RMS will adapt to Washington’s individual recreation permit traditions or transition the prime hunting lands of the Grays River Basin to private club leases next year.
