Chimacum Farmstand Sign. Photo Credit: Joe Baier
Jefferson Land Trust celebrated for its model work in Chimacum
Jefferson Land Trust, a WALT member based in the Olympic Peninsula, was recently featured in the Land Trust Alliance’s quarterly publication, the Saving Land Magazine, for its model work in the community of Chimacum.
Chimacum at a crossroads
Chimacum is a farming town that sits on the main thoroughfare from Seattle to Port Townsend. As a quickly growing town, it faces challenges in how to address its new needs for infrastructure, housing, and land access. In the spirit of community visioning, the Jefferson Land Trust teamed up with local partners to form the Jefferson Land Works Collaborative to address these needs. The collaborative determined that together the community must preserve its rural character and economy in its search for sustainable growth.
Using land preservation to address local needs
The Jefferson Land Trust has used working land protection as a way to support this vision and address local needs. For example, the land trust recently acquired a farm property that had been on the market for years. Jefferson Land Trust is now exploring options to turn the space into an incubator farm as a way to offer land access and training to local growers, build farmworker housing to address local housing needs, or protect the property’s riparian zone as salmon spawning habitat.
With the help of grants and a lot of forward momentum, the land trust is now working with the municipality, schools, landowners in the next phase of planning. “This has been an integrated effort on the part of many different partners,” said Sarah Spaeth, Director of Conservation and Strategic Partnerships at Jefferson Land Trust. “Beyond land preservation, we want to ensure that these farms stay as part of our agricultural economy and heritage.”
Jefferson Land Trust’s Chimacum project now has national coverage
The excellent visioning, partnership, and perseverance by the Jefferson Land Trust has made Chimacum into a model project, now with national coverage. You can read the full Chimacum Crossroads piece here in Saving Land Magazine Fall 2016 Issue.
Jefferson Land Trust works to preserve open space, working lands, and habitat in Jefferson county, located on the beautiful Olympic Peninsula. Congratulations to the Jefferson Land Trust for inspiring the national land trust community!
