North Olympic Land Trust’s annual Conservation Breakfast is our community’s largest celebration of local land conservation, bringing together about 400 community members and partners for a morning of networking and sharing excitement about conservation efforts in our area. We look forward to this event every year.
In an effort to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 over the coming weeks, the Land Trust has decided to postpone our 12th Annual Conservation Breakfast until later this year. We will let you know when the new date is set and look forward to celebrating with our community at that time. Updates can be found here on our website.
Please rest assured that local conservation and the work of the Land Trust will continue to move forward during this challenging time. For example, the Land Trust is on the verge of an extremely exciting land purchase, scheduled to happen very soon. Stay tuned for opportunities to celebrate these emerging milestones and accomplishments together.
While we wait to see you in person later this spring, we are excited to share this short video of two cougars interacting over a scavenged bull elk carcass, provided by our scheduled Conservation Breakfast speaker, Wildlife Program Manager Kim Sager-Fradkin. Please enjoy with the sound on!
Thank you for your continued support of the Land Trust. The next few months will be challenging for local non-profits that planned to host fundraising events. We appreciate your support as we work through this situation!
We expect the event program details to remain the same for the eventual reschedule. Information is below.
The Land Trust is excited to announce that Kim Sager-Fradkin, Wildlife Program Manager for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, is slated as the featured speaker for this year’s Conservation Breakfast. Sager-Fradkin will discuss her ongoing and cutting-edge field research on cougars of the North Olympic Peninsula.
Sager-Fradkin holds a B.S. in wildlife biology from Humboldt State University and an M.S. in wildlife resources from the University of Idaho. Her work has two primary tracks: the first to explore wildlife response to removal of the Elwha dams, and the second to contribute to tribal subsistence harvest activities by monitoring populations of elk and deer and the predators that rely upon them. Sager-Fradkin’s most current research focuses on cougar genetics, dispersal patterns, and diet. In 2018, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe initiated a cougar research project, leading to a partnership with Panthera, the only organization in the world devoted exclusively to the conservation of wild cats. Together, the tribe and Panthera created the Olympic Cougar Project, a large-scale collaborative effort to assess cougar connectivity in western Washington State. This fascinating project is currently expanding to establish additional partnerships and study a larger area of the Olympic Peninsula.
Please stay tuned for the announcement of the Outstanding in the Field award recipient.
photo credits: elk & swans – John Gussman, cougar – Dave Shreffler
Breakfast is complimentary with an RSVP. Seats are not assigned. We will begin collecting RSVPs when a new date is announced.
Thanks to the generosity of the following food and beverage donors and this year’s sponsors, all proceeds raised at Conservation Breakfast directly benefit local land conservation.