LITTLE BOSTON — With winter fast approaching and deciduous trees losing their leaves, the 390-acre area along the Hansville Highway the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe is having logged is more apparent than ever.

But tribal members are urging residents not to worry as the site is scheduled to be replanted soon with the help of a few green thumbs.

“We’re just waiting for the loggers to finish up their work,” said tribal chairman Ron Charles. “They should be done in the next couple weeks, then we’ll start replanting trees. It could be a few months afterwards, but we are planning on it.”

Crews from the Weyerhaeuser Corporation expect to finish logging the site by mid-November, said Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe Planning Director Barrett Schmanska. Replanting will take place over the next three to four months.

“A forester has been hired, and we’ll be putting in a variety of species,” he said. “Mainly hemlock, fir, cedar and other native trees.”

Kitsap County sold the property in question to the tribe for $4.3 million in November 2004. The S’Klallam took out a loan to purchase the land and has since been harvesting timber to repay the amount.

“We haven’t paid it back yet, just partially,” Charles said. “We’ve still got a ways to go.”

Despite the magnitude of the logging, he added that he hadn’t had many comments from the community about the project.

“We’ve had a few phone calls expressing concerns, mostly from neighbors,” Schmanska said. “They were concerned about trees falling on the property and property lines. We’ve actually had people from Hansville call and compliment us on the logging operation.”

The tribe has followed the Washington State Department of Natural Resource’s guidelines for logging an area, in some cases exceeding the buffer requirements.

“We had a tribal habitat biologist map out 10 acres that was an important wildlife habitat that we’ve left alone,” Schmanska said. “It was primarily upland wildlife habitat, with some scattering of old growth trees and bird and animal habitats. There was no reason for the tribe not to log it, but it was left alone.”

This winter, once logging efforts conclude, the land will be open to those seeking firewood, he said.

Early in the 2007, the new trees will start showing up. It will take about 20 to 25 years for the forest to be resorted, Schmanska said, noting that the tribe has no other plans for the land beyond growing trees and creating natural habitats.