Harry Case easement secures
176-acre ‘incredible forest’
Shoes crunch in the gravel as Harry Case and his grandson Shawn Connor head up the forest road. A hairy woodpecker drums on a nearby Douglas fir, but Harry’s eye has landed on something else: alders sprouting in a strip of bare earth on the road shoulder.
It was a joy to write the Harry Case story for the Summer 2008 issue of the Whidbey Camano Land Trust newsletter. Case signed away development rights on a 176-acre working forest he had lovingly tended his entire adult life. The conservation easement assures that this land will remain forever in forest – not be carved up for home sites – and will continue to provide precious habitat for wildlife and a refuge for people.
Prairie deal saves 83 acres of prime farmland
“What do we have here?” Mark Borden asks, stooping to pick up a grayish clump from the soil of his farm field in the Fort Casey uplands.
“Yup. It’s an owl pellet. Let’s see what it was eating.” He begins pulling it open as his wife, Erin, and their three children gather round.
“Look at those incisors,” he remarks, uncovering a tiny skull with two pin-like, front teeth.