The Navy has entered into an agreement with the Whidbey Camano Land Trust to proactively safeguard protected lands and reduce conflicts with people who live or own land near government property used by Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.. 

The five-year Encroach-ment Protection Agreement calls for a partnership between the Land Trust and Navy to protect lands where the organizations’ priorities overlap, such as around the Navy’s Outlying Landing Field (OLF) Coupeville near the south boundary of Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve.

With the agreement in place, the Navy has access to federal funding to purchase conservation easements restricting development around military installations. The Land Trust will take the lead in developing the easement transactions and negotiating with willing landowners. 

The Land Trust and the Navy first collaborated on the Longview (previously known as Plum Creek) Seed Orchard easement in 2007, protecting 46 acres in Ebey’s Reserve from development incompatible with the Navy’s operation of the OLF.  The Land Trust then placed a more restrictive agricultural conservation easement on 38 of those acres, prohibiting all development except for agriculture. The project was such a success that the Land Trust and the Navy wanted to work together again. 

“Working together with the Whidbey Camano Land Trust is a win-win all around,” said Jennifer Meyer, NAS Whidbey Island’s community planning liaison officer. “The landowners win, the environment wins and the Navy wins because land issues that could impact the Navy’s missions, instead will provide a buffer of agricultural or open space uses compatible with our operations.”

A priority list of encroachment challenges was developed as part of the NAS Whidbey Island Encroachment Action Plan. In developing the maps for these areas it was noted that many of the Navy’s concerns matched the acquisition plan for WCLT. On adoption of the plan, the regional real estate team decided to develop one multi-year agreement with WCLT to streamline the acquisition process.

WCLT and the Navy are already pursuing a project with two willing landowners to protect more than 200 acres using funding available under the Navy agreement.  Included within this purchase is habitat for the Golden Paintbrush, an endangered plant that grows only twelve places in the world, including NAS Whidbey Island.