Island Dispatch | Summer 2018

If you’re a little hazy about the difference between the San Juan Preservation Trust and the San Juan County Land Bank, you’re not alone. While both organizations protect important natural areas within the islands, there are some clear differences between our missions and mandates.

The Land Bank is an agency within the San Juan County government. Its work is funded primarily by revenues from a one-percent tax on real estate transactions—which county voters first approved in 1990 and reauthorized in 1999 and 2011—supplemented by state and federal grants. More than 70 percent of the Land Bank’s protected lands are open to the public. As a government agency, the Land Bank is also obliged to provide public access to its decision-making processes. Its acquisition and expenditure plans are subject to the County Council’s approval.

The Preservation Trust (that’s us!) is a private, nonprofit organization that raises money for operations from private sources, including families,  individuals, businesses, and foundations. SJPT’s decision-making is not bound by public process, as is the Land Bank’s. As such, we can act more quickly and flexibly than governmental agencies typically can when compelling conservation opportunities arise. As an apolitical organization, SJPT has minimal exposure to the vicissitudes of voter opinion or legislative agendas.

Providing public access to its protected lands was not a central tenet of SJPT’s original founding or mission. We do, however, recognize the vital importance of connecting people with nature, and we support that goal through our outreach and educational programs, as well as by permitting full (or, in some cases, limited) public access to several of our preserves.

While there are fundamental differences between SJPT and the Land Bank, these differences have given rise to complementary strengths. The two organizations consult each other frequently, always searching for opportunities when our combined strengths could result in a conservation victory that neither of us could pull off individually.

This spirit of collaboration has resulted in 16 joint conservation projects since 1998, including some—such as Watmough Bay, Turtleback Mountain, Mount Grant, and Zylstra Lake—that both of us count among our “greatest hits.” While the details of our respective roles in the logistics and funding of these acquisitions may fade with time, both organizations have assumed complementary responsibilities—whether it’s raising money for acquisition, owning and managing the land, or holding a conservation easement on it—that have protected some of our islands’ most treasured places in perpetuity. So, to the future of this fruitful 20-year partnership, we say “Vive la différence!”