Kate Poss reports:
The spectacular view of Whidbey Camano Land Trust’s new Keystone Farm and Forest Preserve is a fitting legacy for [Pat] Powell, who retired last month as the trust’s executive director after nearly 20 years of working to preserve key Island County properties….
Saving scenic or sensitive properties has long been Powell’s passion. Before accepting the role as the land trust’s executive director, she worked as director of land protection for the Nature Conservancy office in Seattle, and before that she was a special land acquisition manager for the State Department of Natural Resources.
…[T]he land trust has saved more than 10,000 acres of shoreline, tidelands, trails, forests, open space, farmland and wetlands on Whidbey and Camano islands.
They Said It
“Those were the golden years, the heyday of DNR,” she recalled. “I helped facilitate (state) trust-land transfers in San Juan and Island counties, preserving estuaries and old-growth forests. Putney Woods and the Trustland Trails (on Whidbey) are results of that time.”
“It’s been a privilege to protect land where you live,” she added.
[Ed. Note: Ms. Powell also serves as a councilwoman for the Town of Coupeville.]
