PORT ANGELES — The North Olympic Land Trust has raised $115,000 of the $125,000 it needs to preserve another farm for future generations, Clallam County commissioners learned this week.
Tom Sanford, executive director of the land trust, briefed commissioners on the successes and challenges in land conservation in Clallam County.
In its 26-year history, the nonprofit has permanently protected more than 3,200 acres of farmland, forest land and fish habitat across the county, he said.
“Come harvest season every year, our center of attention really focuses towards farmland,” Sanford told commissioners Monday.
“Right now, we’re in the midst of a campaign to continue the process of conserving local farmland.”
Sanford said the land trust had raised $115,000 of the $125,000 needed to preserve the 60-acre historic Ward Farm on the banks of the Dungeness River.
Last year, the land trust received a $344,000 state grant for the permanent conservation of the farm at Ward and Woodcock roads, which was settled by William Ward in 1857.
“We’ve since been working with the community to raise what’s left, and hopefully we’ll be announcing soon the permanent conservation of the historic Ward Farm,” Sanford said in a board work session.
Clallam County has lost 70 percent of its farmland since the 1950s.
The land trust and its partners are working to preserve in perpetuity the 23,000 acres of remaining farmland, most of which is in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley.
Of the 3,200 acres that the land trust has conserved, 460 acres are working farms.
“It’s our culture,” Sanford said. “Irrigation Festival … We’ve got some heritage to maintain here.”
In addition to farms, the land trust has preserved more than 1,800 acres of forests, including 460 acres of working forests, and 12 miles of river and stream habitat, board member Dennis Dickson said.
“We act on the community’s behalf from the standpoint that our community land base is the bedrock of our culture, our economy, our homes and our daily lives,” Dickson told commissioners.
“We all depend on this land. We make our livings and live our lives on the land, and we know that conserving the land, farms, the fish and the forests of this land will pay direct dividends back to our quality of life.”
In the past quarter-century, the land trust has been involved in conservation projects along Sieberts Creek, Ennis Creek and the Elwha, Pysht, Sol Duc, Lyre and Dungeness rivers, Dickson said.
In 2014, the land trust purchased the 280-acre Lyre Conservation Area, which is open to the public for non-motorized day use providing access to a half-mile of marine shoreline and the Lyre River estuary.
The land trust is now working with the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe to place woody debris in the Pysht River to improve salmon habit.
Sanford said the county’s forests, farms and rivers help the economy and provide “ecological services” such as clean water, clean air and salmon runs.
“There are opportunities for growth,” Sanford said.
“We’re just wanting to make sure that’s done in a manner that farmland remains available for farming, that river corridors are accessible for recovery of salmon populations, that our forests continue to play the really diverse role they’ve played for eons in this community.”
Among the challenges for farm preservation, Sanford said, is Clallam County’s aging demographics.
The average age of a primary farmer operator in the U.S. is 58.3.
Clallam County has the second-oldest average farmer operator in the state at 62.1 years, trailing only Skamania County (62.2 years), Sanford said.
“The idea being is these farms are changing hands,” Sanford said.
“What can we as a community do to make sure that they successfully change hands and remain in farmland? One of the ways is to make sure they’re priced and valued right.”
Ryan McCarthy of the Dungeness Valley Creamery said the North Olympic Land Trust and Friends of the Fields preserved his in-laws’ 38-acre farm in 2008.
The transaction allowed his in-laws to liquidate a portion of their assets and retire, allowing McCarthy and his wife, Sarah, to continue farming, he said.
“Here in Clallam County, real estate values are driving costs up to where it’s hard to support agricultural land for actual farming,” McCarthy said.
“So we were very fortunate to be able to participate in this program as a family and transition this farm into the next generation.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsula dailynews.com.
