Empowering a Land Trust to Precipitate Landscape Level Conservation
A group of interested parties in the Seattle area were concerned that a working forest consisting of 100,000 acres that served as the city’s viewshed, watershed and recreational area eventually would be subdivided and sold off for development. The group’s greatest challenge was convincing the landowner, a prominent forest products company, that the land could be protected under a conservation restriction that would still allow it to remain a working forest.
Our initial efforts focused on helping the group establish a business worthy non-profit land trust and facilitating a purchase agreement with the landowner. These efforts set the stage for the property to be acquired by another party, which, in turn, sold a conservation easement to the County that protects the land from development and allows for its continued management as a working forest.
