Submitted by the San Juan Preservation Trust.

Tim Seifert, who has served as the San Juan Preservation Trust executive director for 15 years, is stepping down.

“It remains the honor of my life to work for the people who support the Preservation Trust,” said Seifert.

The Preservation Trust’s board of trustees has launched a nationwide search for a senior director of operations to eventually replace Seifert. Seifert will remain with the Preservation Trust to help his successor meet the organization’s supporters and learn about its work. This period is expected to last at least a year.

According to Steve Jung, president of the San Juan Preservation Trust’s Board of Trustees, Seifert’s work has transformed the islands.

“Over the past 15 years, Tim Seifert has brought the San Juan Preservation Trust to national prominence among conservation land trusts,” said Jung. “Since Seifert joined the organization in 2002, it has added more than 130 properties, 28 miles of shoreline, and some 9,000 acres to the islands’ conservation network, more than doubling the amount of land that had been protected before his arrival. This includes such iconic gems as Mosquito Pass Preserve and the adjacent Henry Isthmus Preserve, Turtleback Mountain and Turtleneck Preserves, Watmough Bight Preserve, Vendovi Island and Mount Grant Preserves. Tim’s leadership over the past 15 years has been nothing short of transformational in the preservation of natural landscapes and working farms and forests in these islands.”

In 2006, Tim and an initially reluctant board elected to join in partnership with the San Juan County Land Bank and the Trust for Public Land to purchase Turtleback Mountain, a daunting undertaking with a six-­month deadline to raise $18 million. With this widely-­celebrated regional success and one of the most significant land conservation victories in the San Juan Islands, the Preservation Trust has since tackled dozens of other permanent protections under Seifert’s guidance.

“We owe it to everyone who has believed in us to identify an individual who shares our passion for protecting these islands that we all love so deeply,” said Seifert.

Jack Groban, managing partner of Jack Groban & Associates will conduct the search for Seifert’s replacement. More information about the position is available at sjpt.org/employment.

Founded in 1979, the San Juan Preservation Trust is a private, nonprofit, membership-‐based land trust dedicated to helping people and communities conserve land in the San Juan Islands of Washington State. It was awarded national accredited status by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission in 2012.

Since its founding, the trust has permanently protected more than 300 properties, 47 miles of shoreline and 17,600 acres on 20 islands, including land now managed as public parks, nature preserves, wildlife habitats and working farms and forests.