Puget Sound

Since establishing our Washington office in 1975, The Trust for Public Land has become a conservation leader in Puget Sound, preserving natural forest lands that capture and filter fresh water supplies, and protecting the shoreline of our unique inland sea. In the 1990s, we gained focus with a comprehensive analysis of the area’s conservation needs. At the same time, the Puget Sound Land Action Fund was created to pool gifts from many donors, giving the Washington team much needed resources to save land under immediate threat.

In 2007, we joined with The Nature Conservancy and People For Puget Sound to form The Alliance for Puget Sound Shorelines. Within three years, our collective efforts pushed forward legislation, helped restore degraded waterfront, and acquired ten new parks and natural areas. In 2010, we purchased Kiket Island— slated to become a nuclear power plant in the 1970s—and in a ground-breaking agreement establishing Kukutali Nature Preserve, the first public park jointly owned by the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission and a sovereign Indian nation, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community.

Today, we are leading a new coalition of 14 land trusts and conservation organizations with even more ambitious goals. The Shoreline Conservation Collaborative is committed to significantly increasing the pace and quality of conservation over the next decade, permanently protecting 150 shoreline sites and restoring an additional 30 properties.