Fleagle Conservation Easement

Guemes Island

Robert and Marianne Fleagle donated this 20-acre conservation easement on Guemes Island in 1995 in an effort to preserve habitat for bald eagles and peregrine falcons. Their property sits adjacent to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Square Harbor Preserve on Guemes’ eastern shoreline.

“We are very interested in preserving the natural environment not only in the San Juans but elsewhere,” Dr. Fleagle said at the time of the donation. “Though we’ve owned the property since 1976, we only became aware of the Preservation Trust recently. The fact that a friend and neighbor had made a similar gift to the Trust was an added inducement. We talked it over with our two sons and their wives and everybody thought it sounded good.”

The Fleagle land faces south and is visible from downtown Anacortes across Guemes Channel. Under the terms of the easement, no trees over 18 inches in diameter or over 100 years old can be harvested (unless they are considered dangerous) in an effort to create conditions for old-growth forest in the future.