North Olympic Land Trust icon will be guest of honor at third annual Conservation Breakfast

Published 12:01 am Sunday, April 22, 2012

PORT ANGELES — John Willits, North Olympic Land Trust board member, displayed his sense of humor when asked how he feels about being named the guest of honor for the land trust’s third annual Conservation Breakfast.

“I don’t feel like the guest of honor when everyone else is also getting a free breakfast,” he said with a smile, according to Matthew Randazzo, public relations consultant for the land trust.

The breakfast will be at 8 a.m. Friday at the Red Lion Hotel, 221 N. Lincoln St., Port Angeles.

The breakfast is free, though donations to support the land trust will be accepted.

Space is limited, and RSVPs are required.

To RSVP for the breakfast, email Matthew@NOLT.org or phone 360-460-8823.

Willits, a retired forestry and survey instructor from Peninsula College, has served since 1994 as a board member on the land trust that works with property owners to create voluntary legal agreements to protect an area’s conservation value in perpetuity.

Conservation

A conservation easement on his 42-acre Quacker Farms waterfowl preserve in Dungeness, which was finalized on Sept. 22, 1995, was the land trust’s first with a local landowner.

It was the first of four negotiated for Willits’ property across Clallam County.

It also was the first of dozens of land trust conservation easements in which Willits has played an integral role, Randazzo said.

“John has procured more easements from other people than any other NOLT person,” said land trust co-founder Gary Colley.

Willits served for 18 years as chairman of the conservation committee.

“No one is likely to ever be as effective as John,” said Jim Mantooth, who has succeeded Willits as the chairman of the committee.

“He’s sat for hours in people’s kitchens, talking quietly with them,” Mantooth added.

“He’s had countless breakfasts with potential donors and easement holders.”

Willits negotiated agreements that have conserved more than 400 acres that provide habitat and food for migratory birds in the Dungeness Valley, and has personally planted 25,000 trees on his properties on the Olympic Peninsula, Randazzo said.

As a professor, Willits founded Peninsula College’s Forestry Tech and Land Surveying Tech programs prior to his 1995 retirement.

Not eager at first

After spending 27 years teaching the arts of stewarding and surveying the local environment, Willits was not initially eager to spend his retirement volunteering for the land trust, Randazzo said.

“When I first read about NOLT in the newspaper, I thought to myself, ‘Here is another do-gooder outfit that’s going to tell people what to do with their land,’” Willits said.

Gradually, he said, he began to see the appeal of the voluntary approach to land conservation.

“It made perfect sense: Let’s actually reward people for good behavior,” Willits said.

“Let’s respect property owners’ rights and give them an incentive to do the right thing.”