Collaboration

Capitol Land Trust hasn’t achieved a single conservation success without the collaboration of partners and landowners. Our greatest strength is our ability to bring people together, find common ground, and pursue solutions that best meet everyone’s needs while furthering conservation in our region.

Here’s a few examples of collaboration that works:

Oakland Bay conservation – More than a decade ago, Capitol Land Trust, the Squaxin Island Tribe, Taylor Shellfish Farms, and the Mason Conservation District established conservation of Oakland Bay as a priority for protecting marine shoreline and estuaries in South Puget Sound. Since then, we have worked together with many partners such as the Trust for Public Land, WA Department of Ecology, WA Recreation & Conservation Office, WA Fish & Wildlife Department, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to protect four of the largest undeveloped parcels on the Bay.

Black River Watershed conservation – In 2011, Capitol Land Trust worked with The Nature Conservancy and Thurston County to conserve the 720-acre Black River Farm, just one of the many examples of partnerships creating a network of conserved private -lands between Capitol State Forest, the US Fish and Wildlife Service Black River Refuge, and the Mima Mounds Natural Area. In 2015 Capitol Land Trust worked with The Nature Conservancy and others to establish the Washington Coast Restoration Initiative a new state conservation program that dedicated nearly $2 million for conservation and restoration in the Black River watershed.

Through our latest strategic planning process, we have a new emphasis on building the next generation of conservation leaders, largely through giving students opportunities to learn outside on our preserves. Rather than invest in creating an education department, we reached out to the existing experts in our community to offer access to our properties so they could expand their programs.

Shelton FieldSTEM Initiative: We’re partnering with Pacific Education Institute (PEI) to bring Shelton students to our Bayshore Preserve for hands on Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics learning. Students will study the impacts of our restoration work as they discover how ecosystems function and explore the connections between people and nature.

We also work with many business partners, who share a commitment to a healthy environment and healthy communities. Learn more about our business sponsors here.