The county council approved a 50-year lease of the 400-acre DNR Lopez Hill Trust Lands. Culminating a two-year effort that started with the Friends of Lopez Hill seeking to keep Lopez Hill as a local county park, the council unanimously approved the resolution for the lease and forwarded it to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources for final signature.

In the spring of 2007, the Friends of Lopez Hill and the DNR worked together successfully to get the state legislature to fund $5.95 million to compensate this school trust lands property so that it could be leased to the county. The county will retain the right to acquire the property outright. In the past, a similar arrangement with DNR led to the outright county park ownership of Shark Reef park.

Lopez Hill is the highest point on the island and a large water recharge area. It can now be Lopez’s “Central Park” with old growth timber and an extensive trail system.