Island Dispatch | Fall 2020

“While land conservation has often focused on upland values, such as farmlands, forests, or scenic views here in the San Juans, it is equally important to focus on shorelines,” says Tina Whitman, Science Director at Friends. “That’s because the health of our shorelines is directly connected to the health of marine species such as Chinook salmon and the Southern Resident orcas.”

Conservation easements are a good tool for protecting coastlands from harmful “improvements”—things like shoreline armoring, excessive vegetation removal, and dock construction—which can degrade healthy shorelines and cause permanent loss of natural resources critical to endangered salmon and Southern Resident orcas.

“Conservation easements are a powerful tool that can be customized to each landowner’s desires to protect the places they love, while also providing long-term protection of shoreline habitats, which are central to our island economy and environment,” says Angela Anderson, the Preservation Trust’s Executive Director.

With funding from the Washington State Salmon Recovery Funding (SRF) Board, SJPT and Friends have taken a fresh look at protection tools and adapted them to better meet the needs of private property owners and shoreline habitats and species. With more than 40 years of experience protecting lands with conservation easements, the Preservation Trust was well-positioned to implement strategic efforts focused on salmon-recovery needs. And Friends, with almost 20 years of shoreline monitoring work to its credit, is able to pinpoint high-priority areas to protect. It also connects regularly with waterfront owners through their technical-assistance programs.

Results to date of this multiyear effort include the permanent protection of priority marine shorelines on Waldron (1,000 ft.) and Lopez (800 ft.) islands, as well as projects nearing completion on Shaw (500 ft.) and San Juan Island (1,400 ft.).

Just this summer, the program closed on the purchase of a conservation easement at Lopez Island’s Mud Bay Tree Farm. The easement protects 800 feet of marine shoreline and 27 acres of intact uplands.

“The protected shoreline of Mud Bay Tree Farm provides critical habitat for forage fish spawning and a feeder bluff to sustain the beaches of Mud Bay, one of the most productive shoreline habitats in all of the San Juan Islands,” says Debby Clausen, former Conservation Director of the Preservation Trust. “Two generations of the DeBruler family have stewarded this property with a long-term vision of conservation and sustainability. This conservation easement continues that commitment for the benefit of future generations.”

The Preservation Trust and Friends are continuing their work to improve protection of high-quality habitats for forage fish and marine food webs. Interested property owners can contact Vickie Edwards, SJPT’s Conservation Director, at vickie@sjpt.org for more information.

Go to sjpt.org/mud-bay-video to learn more about our Mud Bay Tree Farm project.