Local land trusts form partnerships to preserve farmland and river and stream habitat
At this time, when we are reminded daily, if not hourly, of the divisiveness in our country, land trusts offer a remarkable model of cooperation. Our local land trusts preserve and protect an impressive array of valuable properties to achieve a common goal by forging partnerships, often collaborating with entities that have seemingly disparate interests.
Begun in 1996, the Community Farmland Trust envisions abundant, sustainable farmland that provides healthy, locally produced food and contributes to a viable farm community. The Farmland Trust permanently owns the farmland, and the farmer owns the home on it. This principle of divided ownership, with its roots in a social justice model, allows farmers to lease farmland from the trust that they couldn’t afford to buy, while also acquiring a marketable equity interest in the farm’s structures.
Scatter Creek Farm and Conservancy is the trust’s signature project, one they accomplished with support of several conservation programs and local tribes. This 100-acre parcel was formerly a dairy farm, complete with multiple outbuildings, some of which are now leased to area farmers for equipment storage. Kirsop Farms cultivates 60 acres, producing vegetables, grain and poultry for local CSAs and farmers’ markets. With burgeoning population growth, threatened food scarcity and diminishing farmland, the Community Farmland Trust’s mission is critical.
The all-volunteer Chehalis River Basin Land Trust actively preserves, protects and restores 4,400 acres of habitat along the shores of Washington’s longest river basin, which drains over 2,660 squares miles as it runs from the city with the same name to Grays Harbor. Working with multiple partners, including the Weyerhaeuser Giving Fund, the Chehalis Tribe, and local wastewater treatment plants, the trust holds interests on several properties in the five counties that are home to the basin.
Much of the trust’s protected property is inaccessible. An exception is the 2.6-mile Discovery Trail, maintained in collaboration with the City of Centralia, which is open to the public.
Since 1987, the Capitol Land Trust has conserved 77 properties in southwest Washington. Four have public access.
One of the most accessible is the Bayshore Preserve, comprised of 74 acres on the western shore of Oakland Bay near Shelton. Its 27 acres of pristine salt marsh abut a former golf course, where the trust removed buildings and a tidal dike to create new tidal channels. For the Squaxin Island Tribe, this property has significant cultural value. The tribe was a crucial member of the 20-partner coalition that collaborated to make the preserve a reality. Visit it online, then put Fido on a leash and check it out in person.
The Nisqually Land Trust was established in 1989 as a vehicle to best protect the Nisqually River Watershed. The state’s Shorelands Management Act of 1972 recognized the Nisqually River as a river of statewide significance. Home to five native salmon species and several threatened bird species, it also is Olympia’s primary source of drinking water.
The NLT led a restoration effort that re-meandered the 2.4-mile drainage ditch into salmon-friendly Ohop Creek. The project took 10 years, collaboration among 30 partners and the planting of 186,000 native trees and shrubs to complete. NLT partnered with the Eatonville School District to create the Kjelsted-Burwash Farm High School STEM Campus, which uses the farm building on the property.
Another NLT undertaking is the Nisqually Community Forest, a working forest managed to benefit watershed communities by providing forestry and tourism jobs, recreation, education, clean air and water and abundant wildlife. This community collaboration is unique, as Joe Kane, the trust’s executive director, explained. “Most timberlands are now managed for the benefit of global shareholders,” he said.
Our local land trusts are crucial partners in improving and maintaining the health of our communities. Organic crops feed us, while restored stream and river habitat save salmon and steelhead, enhancing commercial and recreational fishing and might just bring more orcas into South Sound.
Mary Gentry moved to Olympia in 1966, and has worked in education and law, served on many non-profit boards and is a director for Olympia Federal Savings. She has published two collections of essays, “Quite Contrary” and “Too Far from the Tree.” She is a member of The Olympian’s 2020 Board of Contributors. Reach her at mgentrystoryteller@gmail.com