CLC adds 4,800 acres in 2006

CLC adds 4,800 acres to conserved column during year of growing national recognition

Conservancy closes on 22 projects with a value of $17 million

Dec 29, 2006

Over the past year, newspapers and magazines have increasingly talked about the environment and market forces. Markets could prove to be the environment's best friend -- if only “greens” could learn to love them, the headlines proclaimed.

The marketplace as an environmental tool may be years away in other areas, but it is a reality in Washington, especially through the work of the Cascade Land Conservancy. A number of milestones of the past year accomplished by the CLC, the Cascade Agenda program and leading governments point to this region becoming a national leader in the next wave of conservation, using the marketplace like never before to achieve large-scale conservation. Long known as one of the major laboratories for conservation, the region is now stepping forward nationally.

“The Cascade Land Conservancy is clearly one of the most innovative land trusts in the country,” said Mary Pope Hutson, Chief Operating Officer of the national Land Trust Alliance. “The CLC is showing many land trusts what can happen when the marketplace is used to its full potential to achieve significant conservation.”

Leading governments also point to the region’s growing reputation for dealing with growth in market-based ways. In 2006, King County continued one of the most successful transfer of development rights (TDR) programs in the country, working with a local developer and the Girl Scouts to conserve hundreds of acres near Carnation while allowing a condominium project in Seattle to accommodate more housing.

Gov. Chris Gregoire’s proposed 2007-09 budget includes funds to fully implement a TDR program in the Central Puget Sound region, helping both working lands and the uplands areas around Puget Sound – and demonstrating that the region is becoming a leader in this technique.

“We’re a land trust and we started in the woods,” said Gene
Duvernoy, President of the Cascade Land Conservancy. “But we soon found ourselves in the cities and towns of the region and in the marketplace developing solutions. Call it Conservation 2.0 because we believe we are developing the conservation tools to save the best of this region for many generations.

The Cascade Land Conservancy is the umbrella organization that helped launch The Cascade Agenda and still acts as principal host for the program. The Agenda’s goal is to keep the region spectacular into the next century, conserving 1.3 million acres of working forests and farmlands while revitalizing the region’s cities and towns.

Among the year’s highlights

The CLC closed on 22 properties totaling more than 4,800 acres, ranging from 900 acres of pristine estuary at Pysht on the Strait of Juan de Fuca to a one-acre acquisition in West Seattle that will eventually become part of the Longfellow Creek Greenspace
The Bullitt Foundation in November awarded the CLC a $1 million grant to advance the goals of The Cascade Agenda. It was only the second time the foundation has made a grant of that size.

“While this grant is of an exceptional size for us,” said Denis Hayes, Bullitt Foundation President and CEO, “it reflects the far-reaching promise of The Cascade Agenda and the proven track record of the Cascade Land Conservancy."
Two property closings used a new “signature fund,” where high net worth individuals do not donate money but guarantee loans, using the strength of their balance sheets. The arrangement allows the CLC to access low-cost capital.
The Conservation Investment Fund, a privately placed security with a modest return to investors that buys properties for critical conservation, has matured into a $4 million fund doing cutting-edge investments around the region.
The CLC’s and City of Seattle’s Green Seattle Partnership continued to accelerate its program with more than 150 acres of forested parklands now in the partnership’s unique restoration process. The partnership is one of the largest urban forest restoration programs in the country with goal of eventually putting 2,500 acres into permanent restoration by 2025.
Mason County officials enthusiastically applauded CLC’s decision to open operations on Hood Canal and Mason County to better serve projects on the peninsula, making the CLC a truly regional organization. A new map of CLC projects shows transactions over the past 10 years in 12 counties – Clallam, Grays Harbor, Jefferson, King, Kitsap, Kittitas, Lewis, Mason, Pacific, Pierce, Thurston and Snohomish.

A flurry of activity at the end of the year resulted in more than 600 acres conserved or placed into permanent public or private ownership.

In Kittitas County, 400 acres of critical habitat near Easton, including a one-mile stretch of stream frontage on Cabin Creek, was permanently conserved as the CLC joined with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) to apply for funding from the Federal Endangered Species program.

“This federal land acquisition program, known as Section 6, was designed to help state agencies conserve critical habitat for endangered species that they might not otherwise be able to protect”, said Jill Arango, Kittitas County Conservation Director for CLC.

In a complex land transaction, CLC purchased the property from American Forest Resources of New York last year, using funds from the Conservation Investment Fund. Then CLC worked closely with both the WDFW and the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to come up with state matching funds for the acquisition. The newly conserved land will be transferred to WDFW ownership and will be open to the public for recreational access.

The successful protection of the property is seen as a huge success for the future of private-public partnerships. The transaction was also one of the first to use the Conservation Investment Fund for the initial purchase.

In Pierce County, a key 188-acre property on the upper Carbon River just short of the Mount Rainier National Park entrance was acquired by the CLC in late December. The property has been included as part of the Mount Rainier boundary expansion.

The CLC plans to hold this property for up to two years eventually transferring it to Mount Rainier National Park when funding is secured by the National Park Service. The Park Service is seeking funding in 2007 through the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

“Many in Pierce County share our concern about development in this sensitive region,” said Ryan Mello, Pierce County Conservation Director for the CLC. “The Cascade Agenda calls for protection of forestland and land for public parks and recreation. This property is also important to ensuring the health of the Carbon River, and the endangered Chinook salmon and bull trout in the river.”

Other benefits from the transaction include preservation of critical habitat along the Carbon River, conservation of prime timber habitat, providing a buffer for Mount Rainier and preventing development from moving up to the gate of Mount Rainier National Park.

At Pysht, a conservation easement was acquired on one of the most pristine estuaries in Western Washington. The transaction was done in close collaboration with the owners, Merrill and Ring, to allow some management of the forest land while the vast majority of the property is conserved. Such “working forest” arrangements are one of the key market-based tools being used in The Cascade Agenda’s work to achieve significant land conservation in the region.

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