Home - San Juan Preservation Trust

HomeCraig Canine2022-11-14T15:18:09-08:00

plants on mounds_ Sharon Massey FI

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The San Juan Preservation Trust works with our local communities and people like you to permanently conserve and care for special places throughout the San Juan Islands.

We acknowledge that we reside on the ancestral lands and waters of the Coast Salish people, who have called this place home since time immemorial, and we honor the inherent, aboriginal, and treaty rights that have been passed down from generation to generation.

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San Juan Preservation Trust is in San Juan Islands.

4 days ago

On this Native American Heritage Day, we would like to highlight the work of one of many Coast Salish tribal members who have helped us shed some of our cultural blinders and sharpen our understanding of the past and present of the place where we live and work.

Rena Priest is a Lhaq’temish (Lummi) tribal member and writer. She’s the current Washington State Poet Laureate—the first Indigenous poet to serve in that distinguished role.

We were honored to meet Rena in person during one of our Vendovi Wildflower Walks last April, when she was gracious enough to speak to the group about her ancestors’ history in the islands and ongoing treaty rights.

Rena’s poetry draws on history, science, and pop culture to tell stories and reveal truths. While many of her poems employ lyrical passages to create beautiful imagery, they also shine a light on the multi-generational trauma of land theft, genocide, and dispossession of Indigenous people under colonialism.

A good example is one of her recently published poems, titled “Welcome to Indian Country.” It begins with heartwarming, simple verses, almost like a nursery rhyme:

Where is Indian Country?
It’s everywhere we stand.
It’s anywhere we dance.
It’s where the earth loves
the feel of our feet. ...

After a few more lovely, lilting stanzas, the poem ends with a punchline that contrasts sharply–and tellingly–with the rest of its welcoming tone:

Welcome to Indian Country.
It’s everywhere we dance and
where the feast is truly grand.
Welcome to Indian Country.
Now give us back our land!

The message gives us something to think about on this day, and every day.

Read the entire poem and find links to more of Rena’s poetry here:

poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/158380/welcome-to-indian-country

Learn more about Rena and her work here: renapriest.com

#sjpt
#sanjuanpreservationtrust
#sji
#sanjuanislands
#salishsea
#conservation
#landpreservation
#getoutside
#conserve
#connect
#care
#poetry
#LummiNation
#NativeAmericanHeritage
#NativeAmericanHeritageMonth
#NativeAmericanHeritageDay ... See MoreSee Less

On this Native American Heritage Day, we would like to highlight the work of one of many Coast Salish tribal members who have helped us shed some of our cultural blinders and sharpen our understanding of the past and present of the place where we live and work.

Rena Priest is a Lhaq’temish (Lummi) tribal member and writer. She’s the current Washington State Poet Laureate—the first Indigenous poet to serve in that distinguished role.

We were honored to meet Rena in person during one of our Vendovi Wildflower Walks last April, when she was gracious enough to speak to the group about her ancestors’ history in the islands and ongoing treaty rights.

Rena’s poetry draws on history, science, and pop culture to tell stories and reveal truths. While many of her poems employ lyrical passages to create beautiful imagery, they also shine a light on the multi-generational trauma of land theft, genocide, and dispossession of Indigenous people under colonialism.

A good example is one of her recently published poems, titled “Welcome to Indian Country.” It begins with heartwarming, simple verses, almost like a nursery rhyme:

Where is Indian Country?
It’s everywhere we stand.
It’s anywhere we dance.
It’s where the earth loves
the feel of our feet. ...

After a few more lovely, lilting stanzas, the poem ends with a punchline that contrasts sharply–and tellingly–with the rest of its welcoming tone:

Welcome to Indian Country.
It’s everywhere we dance and
where the feast is truly grand.
Welcome to Indian Country.
Now give us back our land!

The message gives us something to think about on this day, and every day.

Read the entire poem and find links to more of Rena’s poetry here:

poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/158380/welcome-to-indian-country

Learn more about Rena and her work here: renapriest.com

#sjpt
#sanjuanpreservationtrust
#sji
#sanjuanislands
#salishsea
#conservation
#landpreservation
#getoutside
#conserve
#connect
#care
#poetry
#LummiNation
#NativeAmericanHeritage
#NativeAmericanHeritageMonth
#NativeAmericanHeritageDay

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San Juan Preservation Trust is at Orcas Island.

5 days ago

Whether it's the rolling hills or the lush valleys, the wide open pastures or the mature forests, the creeks or the ponds, we are so grateful for the beautiful lands and waterways around us.

They give us life and meaning in this world, and it's a pretty nice corner of the world to be in.

This is an aerial shot of a property in Crow Valley on the west side of Orcas Island that we recently acquired (more to come on that later), but we wanted to share it during this holiday week.

The parcel's beautiful mosaic of wildlife habitat, working farmland, fresh-water wetlands and streams, and mixed-age forest containing many old-growth trees has provided expansive pastoral views for generations of islanders. We're proud to protect it in perpetuity.

What special places are you thankful for?

Do you have a favorite nook in the islands that you'd like to share with us?

Let us know in the comments below!

#sjpt
#sanjuanpreservationtrust
#sji
#sanjuanislands
#salishsea
#conservation
#landpreservation
#getoutside
#conserve
#connect
#care
#orcasisland
#farmland
#gratitude ... See MoreSee Less

Whether its the rolling hills or the lush valleys, the wide open pastures or the mature forests, the creeks or the ponds, we are so grateful for the beautiful lands and waterways around us.

They give us life and meaning in this world, and its a pretty nice corner of the world to be in.

This is an aerial shot of a property in Crow Valley on the west side of Orcas Island that we recently acquired (more to come on that later), but we wanted to share it during this holiday week.

The parcels beautiful mosaic of wildlife habitat, working farmland, fresh-water wetlands and streams, and mixed-age forest containing many old-growth trees has provided expansive pastoral views for generations of islanders. Were proud to protect it in perpetuity.

What special places are you thankful for?

Do you have a favorite nook in the islands that youd like to share with us?

Let us know in the comments below!

#sjpt
#sanjuanpreservationtrust
#sji
#sanjuanislands
#salishsea
#conservation
#landpreservation
#getoutside
#conserve
#connect
#care
#orcasisland
#farmland
#gratitude

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San Juan Preservation Trust

1 week ago

Earlier this month, SJPT went to Vancouver (WA) for the Cascadia Prairie-Oak Partnership (CPOP) conference and it was a great time!

The CPOP conference brings together conservation practitioners from northern California to southwestern British Columbia to discuss the protection and restoration of the critically important prairie-oak ecosystem.

Kathleen Lewis, our Conservation Project Manager, gave an overview of the 15-year long San Juan Islands Western Bluebird Project and gave updates on the current status of the Western bluebird population as well as an overview of the advancement of Garry oak conservation and restoration in the islands.

A key point of the talk (directed to others in the land trust community) demonstrated that taking on risky and unproved projects such as this can reap many benefits—for the birds themselves, the advancement of oak conservation, and for the organization who takes it on.

Much of our in recent years has been geared toward improving and proliferating Garry oak trees and their habitat areas. These efforts have helped out bluebirds as well as many other species while also returning many landscapes closer to what they were before settlers took over.

Over the past 20 years, native oak acreage in the islands has more than doubled and we are so proud of the efforts that have gone into that transformation and the benefits that come with it.

#sjpt
#sanjuanpreservationtrust
#sji
#sanjuanislands
#salishsea
#conservation
#landpreservation
#getoutside
#conserve
#connect
#care
#garryoak
#nativetrees
#cascadia
#regionalpartnerships ... See MoreSee Less

Earlier this month, SJPT went to Vancouver (WA) for the Cascadia Prairie-Oak Partnership (CPOP) conference and it was a great time!

The CPOP conference brings together conservation practitioners from northern California to southwestern British Columbia to discuss the protection and restoration of the critically important prairie-oak ecosystem.

Kathleen Lewis, our Conservation Project Manager, gave an overview of the 15-year long San Juan Islands Western Bluebird Project and gave updates on the current status of the Western bluebird population as well as an overview of the advancement of Garry oak conservation and restoration in the islands.

A key point of the talk (directed to others in the land trust community) demonstrated that taking on risky and unproved projects such as this can reap many benefits—for the birds themselves, the advancement of oak conservation, and for the organization who takes it on.

Much of our in recent years has been geared toward improving and proliferating Garry oak trees and their habitat areas. These efforts have helped out bluebirds as well as many other species while also returning many landscapes closer to what they were before settlers took over.

Over the past 20 years, native oak acreage in the islands has more than doubled and we are so proud of the efforts that have gone into that transformation and the benefits that come with it.

#sjpt
#sanjuanpreservationtrust
#sji
#sanjuanislands
#salishsea
#conservation
#landpreservation
#getoutside
#conserve
#connect
#care
#garryoak
#nativetrees
#cascadia
#regionalpartnerships

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