North Kitsap’s dense woods seem to be thinning more and more lately, but it’s not all for development of new homes or industrial parks.

Several property owners have explained that the removal of trees and vegetation from traffic-heavy areas was required for long-term projects or, in the case of Olympic Property Group, normal timber harvesting.

The clear cutting that has taken place at the intersection of Cliffside and Little Boston roads was purely a timber operation, said OPG president Jon Rose, noting that it is not being prepped for development.

The company’s tree farms are manufactured on a sustaining yield basis, he said, and only 2 percent of their marketable timber is harvested at a time. OPG owns 75,000 acres within the Hood Canal region and an additional 40,000 acres in Mt. St. Helen’s area.

“That way, there is always something growing, so you don’t get ahead,” Rose said.

Down the road, at the corner of Little Boston Road and Hansville Road, the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe has plans to harvest timber from the 390-acre parcel of land it purchased in November 2004 from the state’s Department of Natural Resources as a means to partially pay for the loan used to purchase the land.

“The tribe’s logging plan mimics the Washington Department of Natural Resources habitat conservation plan (HCP), which means that the land will not be clear cut without leaving areas for fish and wildlife habitat protection,” said Ted Labbe, a biologist for the Tribe’s Natural Resources Department.

“This means bigger stream and wetland buffers (150-foot-wide buffers on salmon streams), as well as generous wetland and small stream protections and additional upland wildlife habitat safeguards,” he explained. “One 10-acre block of timber with old-growth trees and snags, which are havens for wildlife, will be permanently set aside as a wildlife reserve.”

Tribal chairman Ron Charles said it’s important to remember what could have happened if a private developer or logging company had acquired the land instead.

“The tribe’s logging plan goes well beyond the minimal state forest practice rules — it is a statement of the tribe’s commitment to wise natural resource stewardship,” he said. “Through careful management, the tribe can generate timber revenues, protect the land and water and ultimately use some of the land for new housing and economic development. In the near-term, the parcel will remain managed forest land.”

Along Bond Road, between Foss Road and Stottlemyer Road, there was significant cutting back of the woods that closely bordered the state highway last fall. Puget Sound Energy is responsible for that activity, as it has been preparing to install an additional transmission line to its North End electric grid this year. The new line will run from Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor to the company’s Foss Corner substation, located off Stottlemyer Road. Transmission lines feed into substations that are placed strategically around the county and provide energy to PSE customers.

PSE also applied to the City of Poulsbo last fall for a conditional use permit to build a new energy substation on a 2.55-acre parcel, located on southwest corner of the intersection of Lincoln Road and Maranatha Lane. The site would contain a substation that includes electrical structures, a transformer, drainage system, a spill containment system, fencing and perimeter landscaping. Three new poles, between 55 and 65 feet in height, would connect the new substation with the existing transmission line along the east side of Maranatha Lane. City of Poulsbo planner Randy Kline said the application is still being reviewed by the city.

Next to the PSE property is a 3.62-acre parcel area, between Kevos Pond and Maranatha Lane, that has been leveled. According to the Kitsap County Parcel Search Web site, the taxpayers are Carl Zimmer and Michael O’Conner but calls to inquire about activity on the property were not returned to the Herald by press time.