Grays Harbor County is located in one of the richest natural resource areas in the country. Not surprisingly, Forestry, Fishing and Farming have been vital to the county's economy since the first people inhabited the land.

Forestry:

Over 88% of Grays Harbor County is now covered by renewable forests. What started as land clearing in the 1850's, evolved into an industry that shipped lumber initially to west coast settlements and eventually throughout the world. Lumber production began to decline during the Great Depression, had a resurgence after World War II, and then national economic recessions and rising interest rates in the 1970's took their toll on the county's natural resource-oriented economy. Although the state's log exports declined more than 50 percent since 1989, Grays Harbor was still the largest lumber producing county in Washington and accounted for over 12% of the state's lumber production in 1998. Weyerhaeuser, Simpson, Rayonier and Port Blakely actively manage their forests and Weyerhaeuser, Rayonier and Sierra Pacific ship logs throughout the world.

Fishing:

The native-americans of Grays Harbor were the first to embrace commerce by means of fishing, hunting, and gathering. They lived on a rich diet of salmon, sturgeon, clams, oysters, crabs, mussels and barnacles. Most of the early white settlers were drawn to the area by excellent salmon fishing (King, Chinook, Blueback, Steelhead, Silver, and Chum) which spawned (no pun intended) a fish processing and canning industry. By the 1890s, razor clams, cultivated oysters and crabs were harvested in Grays Harbor. By 1930 there were approximately 800 persons employed in Pacific County's canning industry.

Farming:

Grays Harbor County qualifies as one of the world's most beautiful arboretums. The county's long growing season, mild climate and excellent precipitation produce a healthy diversity of crops and horticultural species.

The County's 400 farms produce over $20 million on 60,000 acres each year.

• Briggs Nursery, the largest grower of rhododendrons in the world, produces more than one million ornamental plants annually; Satsop Bulb Farm raises 3 million daffodil bulbs annually; B & C Farms produces 365 varieties of gladiolas, and Dan's Dahlias grows over 300 varieties of dahlias.

• In 1999, Grays Harbor farmers grew 1,500 acres of sweet corn and 1,000 acres of cannery peas at an average yield of 1,500 tons per acre.

• Briarwood Farms' has more than 1.3 million chickens - about a million produce more than 850,000 eggs a day. And while there were over 400 working dairies until the 1960's, the same number of cows are being milked on just 16 dairies today with greatly increased total milk production.

• Tree farms are an important sector of Grays Harbor's farming economy. Port Blakely, Rayonier, Weyerhaeuser and Simpson have substantial farms in the county. And the Hedlund Tree farm provided the 1999 Christmas tree for the private quarters of the White House.

• The Chehalis Reservation is home to an Atlantic Char fish farm, which are sold nationwide to seafood establishments and fine restaurants.