Gordon Conservation Easement

San Juan Island

With a view towards the future of their land, over twelve acres of coastal rocky shoreline in the more heavily-developed area of Pear Point on San Juan Island was conserved in 1996 by David and Betty Gordon.  The property consists of 829 feet of shoreline.

“We’ve been talking with our children about donating a conservation easement for several years,” David Gordon explained at the time of the gift.  “They—and our older grandchildren—all want to keep the property in the family, but they don’t want to see the land developed.  This seemed like a good way to protect it into the future.”  The protected property includes relatively undisturbed forest, rocky open shoreline, and remnant native grasslands hosting large populations of wildflowers, including camas, fawn and chocolate lilies, spring gold, calypso orchid, and brodiaea.  The waters off the property are a foraging area for harbor seals and for bald eagles which perch in the shoreline trees and nest in nearby properties.

Located east of two other Preservation Trust conservation easements on Pear Point, the Gordon property can be seen from the waters of Griffin and North Bays.  “We bought the property in 1957, built a small summer house in 1979, and added on from there,” Gordon adds. “My neighbors had already donated easements, and they helped me become more knowledgeable about how the Preservation Trust works.  We feel great about our decision.”