Hoedemaker Conservation Easement

Lopez Island

With the support of her three children, Ivaly Hoedemaker — a passionate farmer, grandmother and conservationist — donated a 47-acre easement on her Davis Bay farm in 2001 that permanently protects working farmland, 750 feet of shoreline, sweeping public views to the Olympic Mountains, and one of San Juan County’s most important coastal wetlands.

Originally a dairy owned by the pioneering Davis family, this property is the also site of the birthplace of the first settler (non-indigenous) child on Lopez Island.

“From the time I bought this farm, I’ve always known we would preserve this land,” Ivaly said before her untimely death in 2005. “With this easement, we’re just legalizing what is in our hearts.”