||| FROM TANJA WILLIAMSON for SAN JUAN COUNTY LAND BANK |||
San Juan County Land Bank has received the requested Conservation Agriculture Resource Team’s (CART) Coffelt Farm Report, a review, analysis, and recommendations for agriculture at the SJC Land Bank’s Coffelt Farm Preserve on Orcas Island.
The SJC Land Bank will use this report to help inform and guide a Request for Proposal (RFP) process for future long-term farm lease(s) at Coffelt Farm Preserve. Following review and consideration of the Report and public input, the SJC Land Bank Commission and staff will develop a process and timeline for the RFP.
You can download a copy of CART’s Report from the Land Bank’s website by CLICKING HERE . Comments can be emailed to tanjaw@sjclandbank.org or mailed to the office:
- SJCLB,
- 350 Court Street No. 6
- Friday Harbor, WA 98250.
Please submit your comments by May 16, 2021.
After the comment period closes, Land Bank staff and commissioners will review and address public comments at their May 21 st commission meeting.
Note: If you would like a printed copy of CART’s report mailed to you, please contact Tanja Williamson at 360-378-4402 or tanjaw@sjclandbank.org.
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Here’s a thought-
Let the Lum family continue to do the amazing work they do with this land.
End of study.
Thanks for publishing this Orcasonian and thanks to our community in advance for reading it. The report is also available at the San Juan County Landbank website. As a member of the CART (Conservation Agriculture Resource Committee) team I am looking forward hearing feedback from our community. The team is made up of local farmers, neighbors and professionals in our community (see the full list at the beginning of the report). There are some interesting ideas presented as well as examples from around the country. I expect most will learn something from this interactive report.
Kudos to the team which put this report together…very thought provoking…while I recognize that implementing the educational goals will be challenging, I believe that the premises behind the public ownership of the property make it imperative that those goals be realized.
Also…while I believe I found some mention of a “farm stay” program as an adjunct to the educational aspect of Coffelt Farm, creating the cottages and infrastructure for a “farm stay” program would have the potential for a revenue stream and add an “eco-tourism” aspect which I believe would be most welcome in our community.
While simply preserving the property as a working farm is admirable in some respects, doing so would fall way short, in my opinion, of the dreams of the many people who’ve volunteered countless hours serving as Coffelt Farm Stewards, and does not even come close to justifying the use of Land Bank funds used to acquire the property.