June 8, 2009:
greetings to one and all,
i want to give you all an update and thank the people who helped out at the recent fundraiser.
many thanks to the following:
live music: marge stensrud and hawk arps
power point presentation: madrona
special speaker: bob myhr
set up entertainment: nancy’s grandkids
food servers: mica arps, elena borhani, alex buffum and tamira vonjar
food provided by: raiti waerness, holly b’s, vita’s, nancy huber, tara dalton, marianna and myself
wine provided by: riait (and limeade)
wine server: karen peterson
art sale attenants: anne and michael karp
art work: the lopez artist guild
set up/decoration crew: randy waugh, nick and susie teage, alisa ball, nancy and mike huber, dave jeager, hawk arps, affa, marianna, the four kids, myself
clean up crew: nick and susie, hawk, the kids, maya borhani, alisa, marianna, madrona, anne and michael karp, myself
special thanks to the artists and our wonderful patrons…we had a fun evening and raised $2900!! the account at the land bank now has approximately $3500 in it.
we have booth space at the market every saturday from 10 am – 2pm. if you would like to sign up to sit with the table, please let me know. starting in july, i plan to lead walks on the land. please let me know if you can help with that.
thank you to everyone who sent a check to the land bank on behalf of this land. this is a great start on a big project…any help and support id greatly needed and heartily appreciated.
also, special thanks to linda hudson for her bird display and excellent help thru the evening.
until later,
heather
May 4, 2009:
Greetings,
I hope this email finds everyone doing well and enjoying the spring weather. My beets poked their little red heads up thru the dirt yesterday so it’s pretty exciting around here.
Although the weather postponed our December fundraiser and kept us all focused elsewhere, several exciting things happened over the winter regarding Odlin South, so i thought i would bring everyone up to speed. As many of you know, we elected a new Commissioner of Public Lands by the name of Peter Goldmark last November. I am told that he is more conservation minded than his predecessor and that he supports use of public lands by the public. Lincoln Bormann, the director of the Land Bank, has talked with Mr Goldmark a bit regarding our project to let him know that this land is important to us and that we are we are working on a purchase plan. He also asked that Mr Goldmark determine a reasonable price for the parcel and to confirm what portion of the parcel will be gifted to the preserve. At this time, I have not heard back on either of those questions. In December the San Juan County Council members visited the land along with state representatives Dave Quall and Jeff Morris. The council then drafted an official document to the DNR to request that the entire Odlin South parcel be added to the Trust Land Transfer Program. The land was accepted to the program; but alas, it is so far down the list that no financial support will likely come of the nomination. Due to high need and tight budgets, many parcels nearer the top of the list will not be funded either. Also in December, signs went up to deliniate the roadside boundries of Oldin South. In January, Scott Rozenbaum and I went out to take diameter measurements on some of the rare aspen in the grove. We measured half a dozen trees and found one with a girth of 34.75 inches which is very close to a tree documented by Robert Van Pelt in his book titled ‘Champion Trees of Washington State'. Van Pelt's champion aspen is 36 inches in diameter. Scott emailed Van Pelt with our findings and invited him or a colleague to visit our grove. As of this writing, Scott has not heard back from Van Pelt.
These various bits of news which took me all of 20 minutes to record took some actual time and effort to accomplish. I am gratful to Bob Myhr, the County Council, Lincoln Bormann, Tim Clark, Dennis Macintosh, Jody Snapp, Kay Keck and others. These accomplishments are very exciting, but they are just the beginning of the real work. Over the past 15 months that I have been working on this project I have been told by the DNR, the Land Bank, County Parks, County Council, Lopez Hill people, San Juan Preservation Trust, other fund raising people in the islands and my own mind that the only way this will work is if we make it clear to the DNR thru our actions that we want this property to remain in the public domain. The way to do that is get involved; educate yourself on the subject, get involved by volunteering and write a check made out to the Land Bank earmarked for Odlin South. Donations do not have to be large (although of course that would be great) but a more regualr stream of checks will make an impression. If every one of you reading this email sends a five dollar check to our account at the land bank after reading this email that will show some committment to this endevour. In order for this project to succeed it needs more people involved than the handful who have carried it this far.
Here are some plans I am working on for the coming spring and summer:
There will be a table at the Farmer’s Market with a donation pot, brochures and a small poster. We will need a person to sit the table every week. I would like to have local plants for sale at the table as well. I have salal, fir and cedar trees that can be potted for sale. If any of you have local flora to contribute or
are willing to help me pot plants…please contact me.
I would like to have Saturday walks on the land led by one or two people especially anyone who can speak about the history, mycology, local flora and fauna, soil hydrology and forest life and health of the land. We'll have people sign up at the Farmer's Market and start the walk after the market closes around 2 pm. If you would like to guide, let me know.
The last and most pressing bit of news is this: the December auction sponsored by the Lopez Artist Guild which was postponed due to snow, will be held Saturday evening May 23. Yes, that's Memorial Day weekend. The event will be at Community Center as previously planned. We need a dozen or so volunteers to help set up, to 'man' the table and to help with break down/clean up at the end. we also need help with elegant sweet and savory finger foods for the evening.
So there you have it…it may seem like a lot to ask at this time of year and in this economic climate. The thing is, if we let this opportunity go by, its gone. To my knowledge, there is no other undeveloped piece of land this size avaiable on Lopez, let alone one with an aspen grove and a wetland. And definetly nothing like this next door to Odlin Park. Altho few of us have a relationship to this land or feel emotionally connected to it in the ways that we embrace Watmough, Iceburg, Shark Reef, Colville Point, Lopez Hill or others, this parcel is still a unique and beautiful bit of creation. It is valuable because it exists. So be a Lorax and speak for the trees. I know we can do this…I look forward to hearing from you soon…the fundraiser is only three weeks away!!
Thanks,
Heather
PS
Here is the address for the ceheck you are about to write to the Land Bank, as well as a fact sheet on Odlin.
San Juan County Land Bank
350 Court Street, No. 6
Friday Harbor, WA 98250
Telephone: 360-378-4402
Fax: 360-378-2934 |
- Odlin South is approximately 103 acres of mostly forested land on the north end of lopez
- it is located just south of and adjacent to Odlin Park
- in the 1920's the federal reserve gifted roughly 80 acres to the county as Odlin Park and 103 to DNR
- it is the last parcel of this size and nature available to purchase for preservation on Lopez (
another land mass of this size would have to come from several private holdings and they would not have a wet land and an aspen grove)
- to acquire and reunite these two parcels would create a property larger than spencer spit
- this land has recovered rather well on its own from the cut in the early 1990's
- there are two wells on the property, one is functional, the other is not in use
- the San Juan County Land Bank currently has the water rights, which come up for renewal mid 2009
- the Land Bank will 'broker the deal' and accept money on our behalf
- the area under and around Odlin South is water short
- this land is important to fresh ground water recharge
- it is an important filter as water heads thru the park= bay = sound = ocean
- it is unique due to the wetlands and aspen grove
- aspen are indigenous trees and second largest living organism after mycelium. There are other, smaller pockets of aspen growing on the island.
- this will be a park reserve that the parks department will oversee.They have no immediate plans to develop this land.
We need:
- active on-going support to procure and maintain this land..
- to let the state and county hear a loud YES for this land thru our actions and donations
- to brainstorm and act on funding sources
- grant writers
- tech support
- to get the kids involved
Rough acreage of other island parcels:
- Lopez Hill = 400 acres
- Watmough = 375.39
recent land bank addition = 7.44 ($1,019,850.00 = $ 135,980. per acre)
spencer spit = 132.52
- Odlin South = 103
- Odlin Park = 78.4
- combined = 181
- Bella Tierra = 20.6
- Iceburg Point = 93.27
- Shark Reef =39.4
- Colville Point = 61.39
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