The Barber of the KP: Making the Land Better

Forestry is one of the most selfless acts you can do.”

Driving on the Key Peninsula Highway, one is bound to see the Robinson property, across 84th Street NW from the Red Barn Youth Center. Overflowing with invasive Scotch broom, every spring the land bursts into a field of golden flowers, like something out of “The Wizard of Oz.”

But in late August or early September, one would have seen a lone man barreling through the property on a tracked Bobcat E50 excavator with a Fecon mulching head, shredding the foliage, gouging pathways through the thick growth.

There’s method to this carnage. He bobs and weaves, working around some areas, leaving patches of growth here and there. Like a finicky eater at a salad bar, the mechanical monster chooses its targets. Young Douglas-fir, evergreen huckleberry, salal — in fact, any native plants that survived the years-long onslaught of the aggressive Scotch broom — remain as little islands awash in a sea of destruction.

All in a day’s work for forestry contractor Dan Wehmeier, the barber of the KP.

A confessed “tree geek,” he runs Wehmeier LLC, which works with private forest owners and the state of Washington to provide silvicultural land management and wildfire mitigation services on the KP and beyond.

The 52-year-old Wehmeier, with his glasses, dad bod, and baseball cap, does not fit the image of the tree-hugging environmentalist. He grew up in a logging family in Gorst and cut down trees all over Western Washington. He also did a stint with Parks Tacoma.

Today he collaborates with organizations like the Mason Conservation District, the Great Peninsula Conservancy, the Nature Conservancy of Washington, and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation to ensure a greener future. But this sort of work is still too rare, in Wehmeier’s opinion.

“I believe one reason there aren’t many companies doing this kind of forestry restoration work is simple: it’s easier to take from the land than it is to give back,” he said. “One of my biggest pet peeves that I’ve seen with logging is everybody takes the timber. And then by law, you have to plant (new trees). So that gets planted, and then it gets neglected. And the majority of landowners don’t know what to do.”

That’s what happened to Joseph Robinson, 44, who works at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. In 2019, he moved with his family from Port Orchard to his 9-acre KP property. On an arborist's advice, he clear-cut the trees. But over the years, the invasives took over. As often happens, they quickly became impossible for busy homeowners to control.

“We didn’t even know what Scotch broom was," Robinson said.  “We thought, ‘Oh, look at that bunch of pretty flowers coming up.’”

Then this year Robinson attended a fire management meeting and heard about the increased wildfire risk with Scotch broom, which burns hotter and higher than native plants.

“And it was, like, ‘Oh man, we’re in a powder keg right now,’ ” he said. “So, we went ahead and put our application request in with the fuel reduction program.” 

The Robinsons qualified for the Department of Natural Resources service forestry program, which, since 2021, has advanced forest resiliency, native plant restoration, and wildfire mitigation in Western Washington, building on the lessons of Eastern Washington wildfire disasters. The program brings foresters, contractors, and landowners together and, most importantly, funds most or all of the work (“Wildfire Risk Reduction and Forest Cleanup Come to the KP,” July 2025).

Within a couple of months, Wehmeier was running his rig through the Robinsons’ property, liberating native growth from the tangle of invasives. He pointed out the shredded Scotch broom and Himalayan blackberry, which he leaves on the ground. Running to a depth of 4 inches, this will serve as mulch to not only help retain water for thirsty native plants and trees, but also to retard the growth of the Scotch broom seeds, which remain viable in the soil for up to 70 years.

Eventually, Wehmeier will plant 1,100 fir trees, 700 white pines, and a grove of 700 Garry oaks (the only kind native to the Pacific Northwest) on the property. “The guy will have acorns that he’ll be able to feed his animals and add a little diversity to the land,” he said.

The Robinson property is a success story. With more people aware of state and county resources for wildfire mitigation, there could be more to come.

Wehmeier has worked over 90 acres on the KP. “It’s been my goal to use as many resources as possible to minimize the cost to the landowners,” he said.

By his own admission, Wehmeier is a rare breed of forest contractor.

“There’s some loggers and developers that will really walk the land, take the owner through all the processes,” he said. “And then there’s some; they’ll take the check, and they’re gone.”

Wehmeier sees a better, more thoughtful way to do forestry work. He credits his outlook in part to his Cherokee roots. He traces his family back to the Trail of Tears — a tragic episode of a people losing their land. This has only made him value his home all the more.

“Forestry is one of the most selfless acts you can do. Because everything I’m doing today, I will not benefit from it. It’s my kids, my grandkids, the neighbor’s kids, the kids that come over to the Red Barn. They will be watching this grow, and they will benefit from all of this.”

Looking around at his handiwork, a more intentional sort of clear-cut, he said, “It’s very satisfying.”