San Juan Preservation Trust

The San Juan Preservation Trust is a private, non-profit and membership-based land trust dedicated to helping people and communities conserve land on the San Juan Islands in Washington state. Noted for its $6.4 million purchase of Vendovi Island in 2010 and its $18.5 million acquisition of Turtleback Mountain on Orcas Island in 2006, the Preservation Trust has permanently protected 270 properties, 38 miles of shoreline and 16,000 acres on 20 islands, including land now managed as public parks, nature preserves, wildlife habitat, and working farms and forests. The organization was founded in 1979. The first transaction of the trust was made by Ernest K. Gann and Dodie Post Gann in 1980, when they donated 38 acres of their farm as a working agriculture preserve.