Rhododendron Campground will stay closed until an ecologist can walk the property and assess the state of the area around a proposed tree thinning project.

The Board of Island County Commissioners took their own field trip at the campground a few weeks ago with interim Parks Superintendent Lee McFarland. The campsite area has remained closed because of hazardous conditions created by the severe windstorms.

“I felt a lot better after I went through,” said Commissioner John Dean at last Wednesday’s staff session.

The project was originally proposed by Terri Arnold, former parks superintendent, during an April staff session. In addition to the campground, thinning was recommended around the perimeter of the ball fields at the county park south of Coupeville. The campground is the current focus.

Foresters from the Department of Natural Resources met on site in March and determined that thinning would be the most effective approach on the seven-acre parcel of campground, as well as at the ballfield area, to achieve better forest health and provide increased safety.

Ron Godwin, owner of Washington Timberland Management, the company that has marked the trees selected for removal and would carry out the project, estimated in April that a maximum of one out of every three trees would be removed from the campground area. McFarland was not in agreement at the time.

Dean, admittedly not an arbor specialist, said Wednesday he was unable to distinguish between healthy and diseased trees and unfit to judge the condition of the trees marked for removal.

“Healthy and diseased look the same to me,” he said.

The commissioners initially wanted an ecologist to do a walkthrough, but plans did not work out. Dean said he has made a commitment to people to meet with an ecologist.

“That’s just an extra step we can take,” he said.

Ken Erstad, a retired Department of Natural Resources forester, said the safety thinning project will improve the campground immensely.

“There’s extremely very little coming out,” he said, adding that, although the park is closed half of the year, people continue to walk on the trails. “Our winds are getting a little more each year. You don’t want to have a tragedy.”

Steve Erickson of Whidbey Environmental Action Network said his impression was that the number of trees hazardous to campsites are far fewer than the ones marked for removal.

“I saw large, healthy trees marked for cutting,” he said.

Erickson underscored the inexplicability of the small trees marked. He said one of the functions of the trees is that they clump together and preclude people from creating new trails.

Marianne Edain of WEAN said she had spoken with Chris Chappell of the DNR and he assured her there are genuine old growth trees in the campground. She said Chappell did the original characterization at the park. She added that a forester should not be responsible for marking the trees.

Commissioner Mike Shelton expressed his willingness to have an ecologist do a walkthrough. He also emphasized that the proposed project is not a revenue generator and, in fact, the county would likely have to fork out some of its own dough to make the area safe for campers.

“We need to do what we need to do post haste so we can get the park open,” Shelton said.

Commissioner Mac McDowell was not opposed to an ecologist assessing the forest, but he wanted to ensure that the person is someone who possesses experience with parks.

“That’s what I’m concerned about,” he said.

Dean volunteered to walk the property again with the specialist and report back to the board. Shelton again maintained that camper safety is the top priority, but the forest’s health is also a concern.

“We’re looking at the health of the forest as well as the health of the campers,” he said.