Dodie and Ernest Gann
It Started with a Skier, a Pilot, and a Vision.
In 1980, Olympic ski captain Dodie Post Gann and her husband, author and pilot Ernest Gann, saw the San Juan Islands beginning to change. Driven by the belief that “if you watch it being destroyed, you get protective,” they took action and donated the Preservation Trust’s very first gift of land, a 35-acre forested parcel. Decades later, through their visionary estate plans, they left behind an exemplary legacy of conservation in partnership with the San Juan Preservation Trust by permanently protecting the entire 748-acre Red Mill Farm.
Today, the Gann Society is an inspiring community of conservation supporters who stand next to the Ganns by including the San Juan Preservation Trust in their own estate plans.
When you include the San Juan Preservation Trust in your estate plans, you are standing right next to the Ganns, ensuring that the places we love today are here for tomorrow.
Current Gann Society member at a membership gathering in May | Staff archive
Gann Society Gathers for Salmon Recovery
Back in May, current members of the Gann Society met at the Orcas Hotel for lunch. The highlight of the gathering was an insightful presentation on Salish Sea salmon recovery by Preservation Trust Board Director and fellow Gann Society member Barbara Rosenkotter. As San Juan County’s past coordinator for salmon recovery for over a decade, Barbara was the perfect person to connect the dots between land conservation, healthier waters, and salmon populations in the Salish Sea.
As climate change reshapes our region, including the Preservation Trust in your estate plans helps ensure pristine shorelines, maturing forests, healthy watersheds, and abundant local farms thrive for generations to come.
Three generations, one shared love for these remarkable islands.
