If you your favorite hunting or fishing country is land owned by a private timber company, or if your access is dependant on it, better brace yourself.

Choice industrial timberlands throughout the nation, often with a long history of free public access to hunters and other recreationists, are being sold or developed, as timber values slip and recreational property values soar.

Just a few months after the Washington Department of Natural Resources sealed its land exchange deal with Western Pacific Timber, Weyerhaeuser began marketing choice recreation land, with access to fishing and elk hunting, in the Mount St. Helens area. The area is known as the High Lakes near Spirit Lake Memorial Highway, a popular area that had long been open to hunters, anglers and campers.

Tacoma partners snapped up the first 4,100 acres that came on the market and subdivided 1,354 acres into 19 parcels between 38 and 107 acres, with prices ranging from $191,000 to $613,000.

“I can’t imagine that we’ll continue to have public access up there,” said John Weinheimer, a fish biologist for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Weyerhaeuser sold the land because it didn’t fit with the company’s “long‑term strategic needs,” company spokeswoman Kate Tate said.