Sept/Oct Beans For Bags Spotlight: Jefferson Land Trust
Jefferson Land Trust is a nationally accredited, community-driven, nonprofit conservation organization in Jefferson County. The Land Trust works with willing landowners to permanently protect the wild places, forests, wetlands, farms, and scenic areas that are critical for wildlife and that also make Jefferson County such a special place to call home — today and for generations to come.
Since 1989, the Land Trust — in partnership with generous donors, government agencies, the timber industry, the U.S. Navy, and local community groups — has protected nearly 18,500 acres of land through purchases and with conservation easements on local farms and other private land.
Each year, the Land Trust hosts hundreds of local students during outdoor education field trips on its nature preserves. And hundreds of community volunteers help care for those nature preserves by maintaining trails, restoring native species, and removing invasive weeds.
Learn more at www.saveland.org
Chimacum Ridge Community Forest Update
Chimacum Ridge from Beaver Valley by Robert Tognoli
For more than a decade, Jefferson Land Trust has been working to protect Chimacum Ridge with the vision of establishing the Chimacum Ridge Community Forest. Thanks to outstanding support from generous donors, conservation partners, and granting agencies, the organization recently completed the purchase of 853-acre Chimacum Ridge Forest — the Land Trust’s largest land acquisition to date!
Once it’s combined with the Land Trust’s adjacent Valley View Forest Preserve, Chimacum Ridge Community Forest will total 918 acres of working forest, wetlands, and wildlife habitat. The community forest will be a shared living resource that’s deeply connected to its community, locally controlled and managed, and free and open to all people and creatures. It will have economic, ecological, and social (educational, recreational, and cultural) benefits for our community and will model a regenerative relationship with the land — forever.
With the land now purchased, the trails and infrastructure need to be built, the public use and selective harvest plans finalized, and the ecological baseline studies completed before Chimacum Ridge Community Forest can open to the public in 2025.
The exciting progress on Chimacum Ridge Community Forest is supported by Jefferson Land Trust’s $8.25 million Look to the Land campaign for a resilient future. To learn more and join the Look to the Land campaign, visit the campaign website at www.saveland.org/looktotheland.
Are you interested in exploring Chimacum Ridge Community Forest before it opens in 2025? The Land Trust is hosting a series of “sneak peek” community tours throughout the summer and fall. To learn more and sign up for a tour, visit www.saveland.org/RidgeTour.
Supporting Local Farms and Farmers
The Land Trust was founded in 1989 and for its first 13 years focused primarily on protecting and restoring wildlife and salmon habitat. Then, in 2002, the organization took a broader look at our local landscape and expanded its mission to include protecting working lands — the iconic farms and forests of our area.
By partnering with farmers and ranchers to permanently protect their lands from development, the Land Trust is helping them meet their goals, maintain their ways of life, and preserve their legacies. Farmland protection keeps the land intact, productive, more affordable for the next generation of farmers, and forever open to wildlife.
This decades-long effort has been very successful. With community support and the partnership of local farm owners, Jefferson Land Trust has permanently protected 21 local farms totaling more than 1,500 acres.
The Land Trust also looks beyond land protection to pursue innovative projects and partnerships to support our farms, farmers, and farming communities.
One way it does this is by participating in the Jefferson LandWorks Collaborative. Formed in 2009, the LandWorks Collaborative is a network of local nonprofit partners working for a common goal: to keep Jefferson County’s working lands productive and profitable, thus ensuring their long-term viability.
The collaborative is made up of Jefferson Land Trust, Jefferson County Conservation District, Craft3, North Olympic Development Council, Port Townsend Food Co-op, and the Washington State University Jefferson County Extension.
LandWorks partners collaborate to find ways of supporting our local food systems. Members of the collaborative work closely with farmers, foresters, and business owners, providing education and assistance in market development opportunities, resource management, land acquisition and preservation, and more.
Thank you to Tim Lawson, Robert Tognoli and John Gussman for their photography.