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The San Juan Preservation Trust Reviews
2001 Activity at Annual Meeting
posted 05/03/02
About 125 people attended the 23rd annual meeting of The San Juan Preservation Trust on Shaw Island on Saturday for a report and slide show on the Trust’s activities in 2001, to hear featured speaker Jean Hocker, and to enjoy a picnic and tour of conservation land on Shaw.
"Conservation land trusts are thriving," said Hocker, recently retired President and CEO of the Land Trust Alliance. The Land Trust Alliance is the national organization that advances and supports the nation’s conservation land trusts. Hocker reported that there are now 1,263 local and regional land trusts at work across the country, a 42% increase in ten years. Land trusts have now protected over 6.4 million acres in the U.S., an area twice the size of Connecticut and 226% more than ten years earlier.
Hocker complimented the achievements of The San Juan Preservation Trust. Since its founding in 1979, the Trust has protected over 9,000 acres across the islands of San Juan, Skagit and Whatcom counties, including 20 miles of island shoreline. During 2001, the Trust completed nine land-conservation transactions, adding 219 acres to Trust protection on Guemes, Lopez, San Juan, Stuart, and Orcas Islands. Bob Myhr, who has served as Executive Director since 1985 and will retire at the end of 2002, was recognized for his many contributions to the Trust’s success.
The following individuals were elected as new trustees: David Ashbaugh, Lopez; Roger deRoos, San Juan; Oakley Goodner, Lopez; Rick Machin, Fidalgo; and Judie Wilgress, Waldron. The following existing trustees were re-elected: Anne Hay, Orcas; Dale Hazen, Fidalgo; Fred Ellis, Shaw; Patsy Sangster, Lopez; and Andy Wickstrand, Orcas. Retiring trustee and treasurer Morris Dalton of Lopez was recognized for his 18 years of devoted service.
"We are very grateful for the visionary islanders who founded the Trust twenty-three years ago and for the countless others who have advanced the mission of the Trust," said Alan Davidson, President. "We still have much work to do, and we are looking to the future with confidence."
Year 2000 reviewed at Trust's Annual Meeting
posted 04/26/01
San Juan Preservation Trust held its 22nd annual meeting Saturday, April 21
and reviewed another successful year of land preservation in the San Juan
Islands. During 2000, the Trust completed fourteen land-conservation
transactions on seven islands and continued its program of education events
and outings.
Judy Gilson Moody, President, and Bob Myhr, Executive Director, reviewed
the Trust's activities last year. Dr. James Carpenter, Curator of
Entomology at the American Museum of Natural History, presented a keynote
address on "Biodiversity: From Fieldwork to Policy." An exhibit of
paintings of Preservation Trust lands by members of the Island Arts League
on San Juan Island was displayed in the Theatre. Following the meeting,
Trust members enjoyed a luncheon and a conservation easement tour on San
Juan Island. Members came from across the islands and the mainland to
participate in the meeting.
The following individuals were re-elected as trustees:
- Karin Agosta, San Juan
- David Black, Lopez
- Ferdi Businger, Guemes;
- Alan Davidson, Orcas;
- Florence Harrison, San Juan
- Eliot Scull, Henry.
President Moody
honored retiring trustees Dodie Gann of San Juan and Marsha Waunch of Orcas
for their years of devoted service.
Conservation easements given to the Trust in 2000 protect 127 acres of open
farmland on Orcas and Lopez islands, 100 acres of woodland habitat on San
Juan and Guemes islands, and, in its first easement on Lummi Island, 70
acres of forest, meadow, and wetland. Conservation easements are land
covenants granted by private landowners to qualified conservation
organizations. They are customized for each landowner and restrict the use
of land to varying degrees. Conservation easements last in perpetuity, and
land protected by conservation easements remains in private ownership.
The Trust also completed three land acquisitions last year. With the
support of generous donors, the Trust purchased the new 219-acre Disney
Mountain Preserve on Waldron Island, including a mile of pristine shoreline
on President's Channel; the Demopoulos Marsh property on Guemes Channel,
directly across from Anacortes; and a six-acre woodland preserve on San
Juan Island. The Trust also received two gifts of land on San Juan and
Sinclair islands.
"In a year which saw the release of census data indicating a 40% increase
in the population of the San Juan County islands over the past ten years,
it was especially gratifying to experience the continuing strong support of
islanders for our programs," said Judy Gilson Moody, President of the
Trust's Board of Trustees.
"People are drawn to the San Juans by our small, friendly communities, our
beautiful landscapes, and our abundant wildlife," said Mike Cooper, Manager
of Planned Giving and Outreach. "Increasingly, people realize that we
cannot have the blessing of community without the blessing of land."
Check out San Juan Preservation Trust's Web site for more information on these events.
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