Our History
Local citizens established North Olympic Land Trust as a nonprofit organization in 1990 after Clallam County Public Works Director Craig Jacobs, then county parks director, provided information about the growing Land Trust movement across the United States. The parks department lacked funds to create parks from all the land property owners wanted to sell or give it.
Currrent members of the Land Trust’s Board of Directors, Gary Colley and Orville Campbell, were among those who helped draw up the organization’s bylaws and obtain its status as a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit.
Now Colley, a local attorney, and other members of North Olympic Land Trust’s Standards and Practices Committee are helping the organization qualify to be among the first in the nation receiving accreditation when the Land Trust Alliance makes that program available.
Since its founding, the Land Trust has protected more than 1,300 acres, including habitat for salmon and other wildlife, farmland, sustainable timberland, clean water and air, scenic vistas, open space and historic areas. The organization offers services throughout Clallam County and western Jefferson County. Most of the lands it protects are between the Twin Rivers, west of the Elwha, and the Sequim-Dungeness Valley. Another organization, Jefferson Land Trust, serves eastern Jefferson County.