Project Story

Land Donation Memorializes Del Fairfax

The Whidbey Camano Land Trust has just announced creation of the Del Fairfax Preserve on North Whidbey Island. Dr. George Fairfax of Oak Harbor donated the 50-acre property off Zylstra Road.

In announcing the gift, Land Trust Executive Director Patricia Powell noted that: “the chance for others to enjoy this spot of permanent wildlife habitat and open space on the north end of Whidbey Island was especially important to Dr. Fairfax.” George fondly remembers the Puyallup and Auburn valleys of his youth as areas of rich farmland and tidy truck farms, and he laments that they are mostly developed today. “I didn’t want to see that happen on Whidbey,” he said.

George and his father bought the property in 1973 for investment purposes. If sold on the open market today, buyers would likely have harvested the timber and put houses there. Instead, Dr. Fairfax wants it to remain unspoiled for future generations. “I want to preserve some of the island the way it is,” he said.

The 50-acre property has many features worthy of permanent protection according to Powell. Much of the property is high quality second growth Douglas fir forest, with a lush undergrowth of salal, swordfern, salmonberry, oceanspray, snowberry and wild rose. Other native plants include Indian plum, red elderberry, huckleberry, serviceberry, and Oregon grape. Near the center of the property is a beautiful, 18-acre rolling hayfield edged on all sides by native forest and a small perennial wetland surrounded by alders with an understory of willow, sedges, spirea, and rushes.

“I’ve watched beautiful areas full of trees and wildlife on Whidbey Island and all around the state cleared to the ground”, observed George’s daughter Roxanne Fairfax. “I’ve seen industrial parks, strip malls and housing developments take the places where wilderness was once abundant. It has frustrated and saddened me until now. When my father found the Whidbey Camano Land Trust, he had an opportunity to preserve 50 acres of unspoiled land and all its wildlife. What a great gift.”

In keeping with Dr. Fairfax’s wishes, the Land Trust will maintain the property as wildlife habitat with healthy forest, wetland and pasture land. The property is closed temporarily until the Land Trust completes an interim management and public outreach plan. At that point, the Land Trust will make low-impact public walking trails open to the public. Powell noted that the property also has an array of ecological features that may eventually be of interest to classes in the nearby Oak Harbor school district as part of their environmental studies curriculum.