"Every species lost is an evolutionary experiment ended — a door that took four billion years to open, closed in a generation. We exist to keep as many of those doors open as possible."
Dillon Thomson — Executive Director
This page is about the land FGC holds permanently, and how land gets into permanent protection.
Industrial civilization does not pause. Species do not wait. Every acre that remains intact is an acre where the body's own repair processes can continue — where cold water can still reach salmon, where root systems can still hold the soil, where the slow chemistry of old growth can still do what only time and undisturbed ground make possible.
We work with landowners, Tribes, and communities across Cascadia to put land beyond the reach of development permanently — through conservation easements, outright donation, and direct care. We hold it not as owners but as constituent parts of the same body it belongs to. What we are defending, when we defend it, is something we are also made of.
Our first held parcel is 15 acres in the Elk Creek watershed, Del Norte County, California — old-growth redwood country where the Klamath Mountains meet the Pacific.
Elk Creek watershed · Photo: Justin Garwood
- Coho salmonendangered
- Northern Spotted Owlthreatened
- Port Orford cedar
- Pacific Giant salamander
- Roosevelt elk
- Cougar · Black bear
Conservation Easement
A legal agreement between you and FGC that permanently limits certain uses or development on your land while you retain ownership. Terms are negotiated to reflect what you want protected and how you want to use the land going forward. Once established, FGC monitors and enforces the easement in perpetuity.
In practice this means baseline documentation, regular monitoring, and legal enforcement when needed.
Most common option. You keep the deed.
Land Donation
You transfer ownership of your land to Fertile Ground Conservancy outright. The land is permanently held for the communities of life who inhabit it — removed from the possibility of development in perpetuity, regardless of what happens above it. This option may carry significant tax benefits and ensures the land is actively tended rather than simply restricted.
Immediate and permanent. May qualify for tax deduction.
Bequest
You include a provision in your will or estate plan to leave your land to Fertile Ground Conservancy upon your death. You retain full ownership and use during your lifetime. This is a powerful way to ensure the land you love is protected for the long term without giving anything up now.
Retain use for your lifetime. Plan for what comes after.
Want to support the care of this land rather than donate land of your own? Support the work →
Start a Conversation
If you own land and are thinking about its long-term future, we'd like to hear from you. There's no obligation — just a conversation about what's possible.