LITTLE BOSTON — The quiet growth of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe is creating quite a loud buzz amongst its members. With the House of Knowledge nearly completed, the tribal council running better than ever and a grand total of $49 million in tribal assets compared to $21 million in 2001, it has come a long way.

The release of the S’Klallam’s 2005 annual report illustrates just how well the tribe is doing. The number of tribal employees increased some 25 percent during the last few years, growing from 259 in 2001 to 339 last year. To that end, the tribe’s annual payroll for all operations saw a significant boom of about 50 percent during this period, increasing from $4.6 million to $9.3 million.

The improvements are not all monetary, however.

The tribe is close to completing its House of Knowledge project, and with it, tribal programs are coming to life. The report and Tribal Council Chairman Ron Charles both detailed a list of improvements, like the educational program that is successfully underway.

The Career and Education Department is now offering courses for two- or four-year college degree programs. The education center also provides opportunities to students of all ages. This program is buoyed by the 42 new computers and networking equipment the tribe installed courtesy of a grant from the National Library of Medicine. The classrooms now have online access, fueling the learning programs.

Another program the tribe has been able to start is creating foster homes. The Foster Care Program started up in 2005, and the tribe was able to gain licensing for homes on and off the reservation for foster children.

These programs fit the tribe’s mission, which is to provide a better quality of life for all tribal members.

Along with the annual report illustrating programs and financial success, the S’Klallam has been working to regain land that belonged to its ancestors. So when a 390-acre piece of property Washington State Department of Natural Resources went up for sale in November 2004, the S’Klallam Tribe didn’t hesitate to join the bidding.

It won, but had to take out a $4.3 million loan to purchase the property. At that time, there just wasn’t enough cash available in tribal reserves to pay the full amount, Charles said. To pay off the loan, the tribe is harvesting timber from the land, using the Weyerhaeuser Corporation to do the actual logging.

“We bid out to the highest bidder, which was Weyerhaeuser,” Charles. said. “We knew that it was almost inevitable that those trees were going to get cut down. We jumped in because we knew if another company got that land, they would level it.”

Charles said the tribe worked carefully to create a logging plan that would have the least environmental impact.

“We looked pretty carefully into planning,” he said. “We brought in habitat biologists, looked at critical areas and left buffers around stream areas. We did what we thought was prudent with the areas around the streams.”

Charles predicts that the loan will be paid off in the near future, and in the meantime, the tribe is working to fill in the space that the logging is leaving in the forest.

“That area’s current designation is forestry,” he said. “We’ll probably replant in a couple of months. There is still some logging to go, but we are ready to replant as well.”