The North Olympic Land Trust and Friends of the Fields are one step away from merging into one group devoted to protecting Clallam County land from development through conservation easements.
The merger would mean that Friends of the Fields, formed in 1999 in Sequim to protect farmland in East Clallam County, would become a committee within the Port Angeles-based North Olympic Land Trust, and that volunteers with the group will serve on the land trust board of directors.
Expand emphasis
That will expand both the land trust’s emphasis on protecting agricultural land, and the mission of Friends of the Fields, said Greg Good, the executive director of the land trust, and Bob Caldwell, a founder of Friends of the Fields.
It also will provide a paid staff — two full-time employees counting Good and one part-time worker — for the all-volunteer Friends of the Fields’ projects.
“It’s a great opportunity for both organizations,” said Caldwell, who served on the merger committee, composed of three people from each group, that met for seven months preceding the decision.
“We see the bringing together of the two groups a way to use the best talents of each to accomplish our mission of protecting the important lands of the Peninsula,” he added.
Good said that merger increases the land trust’s focus on sustainable agriculture.
“By merging, not only do we get the expertise of the volunteers, but also get the backing and support that’s out there for Friends of the Fields now.”
Both of the boards of the nonprofits have approved the merger.
But the merger still must be approved by the 350 members of the land trust at the group’s annual meeting Saturday. Good expects the deal will receive membership approval, he said.
Good expects that eight Friends of the Fields members will join the board during the annual meeting, bringing the board membership to 21 members.
“From then on, we’ll have a new board, that’s what the hope is right now,” he said.
The two groups have worked together for some time, said Good, Caldwell and Friends of the Fields president Jim Aldrich.
Friends of the Fields “would do the front end of getting grants and talking to farmers” for agricultural land, “and then the North Olympic Land Trust held the conservation agreement,” Good said.
“One of primary reasons we decided to come together as one was so we can do the whole project from start to finish,” he added.
A conservation easement means that the owners keep the use of the land, but that it can’t be developed.
The merger will help in getting access to grant funds, Caldwell said.
“We have always shared,” he said. “We have never competed, but sometimes we have sometimes diluted our efforts a little bit by having to talk with the same people.
‘More robust’
Aldrich said in a Feb. 26 letter to Friends of the Fields supporters that the expectation is that the merged nonprofit would be “substantially more robust” than either organization acting alone. . .”
“I want to assure you that our initiatives to preserve farmland in perpetuity will continue,” Aldrich said in the letter.
“All of our funds that are in a designated fund to save farmland will be put into the land trust’s restricted farmland fund.”
The land trust has assets of about $1.7 million and an annual operations budget of about $200,000, Good said.
Most of the assets are donated properties. Money in hand is used for endowment and stewardship funds.
The land trust now protects 2,059 acres in Clallam County.
Friends of the Fields now oversees about 151 agricultural acres, Caldwell said.
The group’s major project under way is the protection of 50 acres of Finn Hall Farm in Agnew with an agricultural easement.
Also, Friends of the Fields has supported community organic gardens in Sequim, Caldwell said.
“Both of those should continue pretty much as they were,” he said .
Participants in Saturday’s annual meeting will have an opportunity to join or renew memberships before ballots are distributed, Good said.
More information about the two organizations is available on their Web sites, www.nolt.org and friends ofthefields.org or by phoning the land trust office at 360-417-1815 or Friends of the Fields volunteers at 360-683-7750.
