PORT TOWNSEND – With ambitious 2005 goals that include bumping its membership from 400 to 500, Jefferson Land Trust is a conservation organization with a mission reaching deeper than the tree roots it protects.
Some of those roots can be found in more than 850 acres the land trust now protects in perpetuity throughout Port Townsend and East Jefferson County.
About 716 acres alone is protected in the growing Quimper Wildlife Corridor “ribbon of green,” extending east from Fort Worden State Park.
A higher community profile in habitat protection partnerships, an executive director in her first year at the helm and a newly remodeled uptown headquarters at 1033 Lawrence St. are the most visible developments at the nonprofit organization approaching its 17th year.
Less visible but boldly stated are plans to increase professionalism, efficiency and financial stability at the land trust.
Achieving a collaborative community process between development and land preservation, rather than pitting one against the other is the bottom line for the land trust, its leaders say.
“We want to help the community achieve a balance,” said Mark Dembro, land trust board president.
“That’s part of a higher standard of living.”
2005 goals
To maintain that balance, Jefferson Land Trust’s board adopted goals falling into four categories: land conservation and stewardship, fund development, education and outreach and administration.
To increase its financial capacity and flexibility to conserve land, the trust’s No. 1 goal in 2005 is launching an Opportunity Campaign to raise a minimum of $150,000 in discretionary reserve funds.
The dollars would be earmarked to purchase “immediately threatened” lands, supplement government land acquisition limits, purchase options on lands and underwrite easement preparation and stewardship costs for low-income landowners.
This goal came after a “frantic scramble” to raise $20,000 in four weeks to save from clearcutting a stand of trees along the state Highway 20 gateway into Port Townsend.