PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson Land Trust’s Look to the Land’s funding campaign has raised almost $8.6 million, surpassing its original goal of $8.25 million.
Money raised funded the purchase of the 853-acre Chimacum Ridge Community Forest, the seeding of an endowment to maintain operations across land trust properties and the seeding of a fund for flexible land acquisition, said Kate Godman, director of philanthropy.
“This campaign is a story that’s years and years and years in the making, beyond the three years of the campaign,” Godman said. “Starting in 2010, when Chimacum Ridge was identified as such an important keystone project in the Chimacum watershed. It’s taken hundreds of project partners, volunteers, donors and funding partners to bring us to this point. We’d love to express how deeply grateful we are to the community.”
Jefferson Land Trust (JLT) expects to open the community forest for public access in late summer or early fall, Godman said. September is the goal, she added.
Last summer, having raised $6.36 million, JLT moved into the public phase of its fundraiser. That saw a total of 439 gifts from 293 households, Godman said.
“We were just blown away by the community response,” Godman said. “All of those gifts, from the smallest to the largest, were so important in helping us blow past that goal. We were thrilled and honored and humbled that the response was so strong and so enthusiastic.”
A primary strategy which Godman attributes to the success of the campaign was taking people on tours of the ridge. A final campaign report detailed 87 tours were provided as a part of the fundraising effort.
“I would say Sarah did the majority of those,” Godman said, referring to Sarah Spaeth, JLT’s director of conservation and strategic partnerships.
“I lost count,” Spaeth said.
“There’s no substitute for getting people out into the space and telling the story, then the whole thing comes alive in supporters’ imaginations,” Godman said.
Core committee members held fundraising gatherings at their homes, Godman said. The campaign also relied on conventional strategies, like sending information and requests to JLT supporters via mail, she added.
“There were a lot of coffee and pie and tea dates as well,” Spaeth added.
Longtime donors were ready to hear of the campaign’s significance, Spaeth said.
“The whole gist of the campaign was about resiliency,” Spaeth said. “Certainly resiliency in this community forest, but resiliency as an organization, resiliency in us being able to respond to opportunities, that really touched a chord in people.”
Chimacum Ridge has 19 tributaries coming off of it, feeding into the main stem and the east fork of Chimacum Creek, Spaeth said.
The watershed has been a focus for a wide range of stakeholders, including the North Olympic Salmon Coalition, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Jefferson County Conservation District, Spaeth said.
“All of these partners and community members are trying to bring back the summer chum salmon,” Spaeth said. “We want to make sure that the water that comes off the ridge is clean, that it doesn’t have a lot of sediment that’s clogging up the creeks.”
The impact that sound management of the ridge could have on the watershed galvanized the community, Spaeth said.
“I think what’s really compelling about the Chimacum Ridge story is the watershed story and how it ties in with habitat, working farmland and the headwaters,” Spaeth said.
“On Chimacum Ridge, it’s a different kind of forest management than has traditionally been used on our landscape,” Spaeth added. “By working to protect multiple types of tree species, multiple age classes, that makes it more adaptable for climate change and also for fire resiliency.”
Chimacum Ridge Community Forest Manager Ryen Helzer said JLT is working with community partners to assess what kind of capacity the local supply chain has to receive wood from harvests on the property, set to happen every five to 10 years.
“There’s going to be a multi-use trail from the parking lot of Valley View Forest that will connect up to the top of Chimacum Ridge Community forest,” Helzer said. “That will link up to a harvest road that is at least a 3-mile loop with another harvest road that spurs off for another mile on the north end of the property.”
JLT completed a cultural assessment needed to make a trail between the Valley View Forest parking lot and the ridge, Helzer said.
Work on the first stretch of the trail is currently being done with the help of a Washington Conservation Corps crew, he said. The stretch will be wheelchair accessible, he said.
JLT also is working out details on how to grant access to the ridge to people with disabilities, Helzer said. The trust has taken steps in exploring the possibility of giving gate access to Jefferson Transit’s Dial-A-Ride Program.
JLT plans to expand the parking lot of Valley View Forest’s parking lot to 27 standard spaces, two spaces for handicap vans and a space for a horse trailer, Helzer said. Helzer said permits are in with Jefferson County for a second access from the road so school buses can access the lot.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
