Approximately 24 acres of forestland off Wanamaker Road have been clear cut to remove diseased trees and about 10,000 new ones planted in their place.

“What they are doing is clearing out the bad stuff and putting good trees back in,” Island County Assessor Mary Engle said.

The property, owned by the Eggerman family, is designated as forest land, which provides a tax break but also carries a responsibility to maintain healthy trees.

The owners must also commercially harvest periodically as trees reach maturity.

“It’s about giving back to the community by harvesting the trees and replenishing them,” Engle said.

Steve Eggerman said that he “grew up looking at that forest” and that chopping it down isn’t always easy. But, he said, in 5-10 years it will begin to look like it always had.

The ability to raise and sell a timber crop has been a boon for the Eggerman family that has struggled in recent years to rent acreage to farmers.

The forest land provides a useful “crop” for landowners, pay for expenses, earns some income and keeps the area green, Eggerman said.

“In 30-40 years we can do it again,” Eggerman said. “It’s a good program. Trees are a valuable crop.”

As of Monday, clear cutting was completed, any usable fir sold to local mills and the remaining trees were being hauled away for use as firewood, according to Mike Janicki, of Sedro Woolley-based Janicki Logging and Construction.

The firs and alder wood in that area were largely diseased with laminated root rot, a fungus and needed to be removed to protect the remaining forest, Janicki said.

Janicki said he would normally “thin” a forested area instead of clear cutting, but in this case there was “so much disease.”

“Sometimes you just need to start over,” he said.

To do the work, the Eggermans acquired the necessary forest practice permit from the state Department of Natural Resources, according to Island County Planning Director David Wechner. And because the property lies in Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve they must also consult with reserve staff.

The 10,000 new trees are expected to arrive in three weeks, Janicki said. The trees will include firs, cedars and alders — all native to Whidbey Island.

Three trees will be planted for every one tree that was cut down, Janicki said.

Alders live to 35-40 years, and the alders in the diseased area were “over ripe” and due for replacement, Janicki said.

Firs, however, live for about 60 years, but, Janicki said, only about 10 percent were still healthy. The rest had a fungus.

Janicki said he assists approximately a dozen Whidbey Island land owners with management of their forest lands, but normally the jobs are smaller, between five to 10 acres.

The 24-acre clearcut is just a portion of the Eggerman family’s 80 acres, of which most is farmland, Janicki said.