In the end, patience and cooler heads prevailed.

Pope Resources and the Department of Ecology have reached an agreement regarding the final cleanup plan for the Port Gamble mill site.

And as the North Kitsap Forest and Bay Coalition’s option on Pope’s North Kitsap land neared expiration March 28, enough money had been raised to buy a significant amount of land and shoreline with more funding possibly coming. As of this writing, negotiations were yielding more time for the coalition to raise money for land acquisition.

Consider this moment: Three great efforts — the final cleanup of the old mill site, the acquisition of North Kitsap forestland and shoreline for public open space, and the expansion of the Port Gamble townsite — are converging for a perfect storm of environmental protection and economic vibrancy. Acquisition of shoreline and associated uplands is key to preserving the health of the bay after the cleanup is completed.

This is a historic time, indeed. Where we are today is a testament to diligence, patience and compromise.

Pope Resources had hoped to keep two docks in place at the old mill site until it received permission for a new dock. Pope feared that if it removes the two docks before it applies for a new dock, then it won’t have anything to offer as mitigation, lessening its chances of getting approval for a new dock. In the latest agreement, Ecology is allowing Pope to keep the docks until 2015, giving Pope time to apply for the new dock permit. And Pope has agreed to remove the docks by 2015, no matter whether it has approval for a new dock.

The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe and the Suquamish Tribe, who have treaty rights to fish and harvest in Port Gamble Bay, have been concerned that a new dock would pose a new threat to the health of a long-beleaguered bay. But they’ve given signs of easing off on their opposition, as long as the dock does not meet the state Health Department’s criteria of a marina, which means automatic shellfish-harvesting closures. Pope officials have said the dock will not meet the criteria of a marina.

The North Kitsap Forest and Bay Coalition — whose members include conservation organizations, state Fish and Wildlife, Kitsap County, the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe and Suquamish Tribe — had raised enough money by March 28 to acquire the Port Gamble Shoreline Block (564 acres, including 1.8 miles of shoreline) and possibly the Heritage Park Expansion Block (366 acres). More grant applications could result in the acquisition of more land to be conserved as public open space, and Pope officials have said they will await the results of those efforts before putting any available land on the market.

Pope Resources has spent $10 million on bay and upland cleanup so far. Still to be done: The removal of 1,800 creosoted pilings and removal of above-water structures, and dredging and removal of wood waste from the bay. This work will likely begin in 2014. It will be the beginning of a new era for Port Gamble Bay.

We thank all of those who have worked so hard for so long to get us to this point in time, when Port Gamble can become economically viable in a responsible way, while protecting the health of the bay and honoring treaty fishing and harvesting rights. Such an effort may be a model for similar conflicts elsewhere.