Land Trust wins federal grant for Keystone Preserve

The Whidbey Camano Land Trust was awarded a $1.4 million grant to complete preservation work.

By Karina Andrew • December 13, 2022 1:30 am
Ryan Berry / Everett Herald Ryan Elting, executive director at the Whidbey Camano Land Trust, walks along the beach and looks up at the bluffs that line the property Friday, June 10, 2022, at the site of the Keystone Preserve near Coupeville, Washington. Elting said the natural erosion of the bluffs provides nutrients to the adjacent marine habitat.
Ryan Berry / Everett Herald Ryan Elting, executive director at the Whidbey Camano Land Trust, walks along the beach and looks up at the bluffs that line the property Friday, June 10, 2022, at the site of the Keystone Preserve near Coupeville, Washington. Elting said the natural erosion of the bluffs provides nutrients to the adjacent marine habitat.

The Whidbey Camano Land Trust was awarded a $1.4 million federal grant to complete preservation work on a shoreline property the nonprofit organization purchased this summer.

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation awarded the Land Trust the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Coastal Resilience Fund grant for its work on the Keystone Preserve, a 226-acre property on Central Whidbey consisting of two-thirds of a mile of shoreline, 175 acres of forest and a historic farm that has been operating since the 1850s.

The purpose of the National Coastal Resilience Fund is to invest in efforts to restore or expand natural coastline features that protect against hazards such as storms and sea level rise, according to a press release from the office of Sen. Maria Cantwell, who announced the grant award last week.

The land trust will use $600,000 of the grant to repay emergency bridge loans used to purchase the property. The $6.5 million parcel was the land trust’s most expensive purchase to date. It funded the purchase with money from a private donor and bridge loans from regional nonprofit Craft3, which helps organizations fund conservation projects.

The remaining grant funds will go toward restoring salmon-friendly coastal bluff habitat on the property.

Land Trust Executive Director Ryan Elting said staff members were thrilled to have been selected for the grant.

“There aren’t many chances left to protect this much shoreline and forest on the islands, and allow the public to see first-hand how strategic conservation benefits communities and the environment,” he said.

The Land Trust will match the federal grant with over $3 million of its own. Work on the property is expected to begin this summer and continue through the end of 2025.

Projects on the property will include removing a bulkhead on the shoreline, facilitating public beach access, developing a trail network through the forested area, planting native buffers, reforestation and re-establishing a creek to improve habitat for salmon, birds and other wildlife.

Five National Coastal Resilience Fund grants totaling $18.5 million in Washington state were announced Dec. 6.