Conservation donor fills funding gap on Orcas Island

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, March 31, 2026

Submitted by San Juan County.

Last August, the Land Bank was ecstatic to announce the acquisition of a 23.8-acre waterfront property located on Orcas Island’s East Sound — home to 1,300 feet of undeveloped shoreline, including a 260-foot pocket beach, a small intermittent stream, open fields and forest.

The $3.35 million purchase was possible, in large part, through a $1.1 million award in Salmon Recovery Grant funding from the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office. In addition to the RCO funding, a neighbor contributed $400,000 toward the purchase, leaving the Land Bank with an outstanding balance of $1.85 million to be paid via its Real Estate Excise Tax funding. That is, until Land Bank Director Lincoln Bormann got a phone call from a generous Orcasonian: Malcolm Goodfellow.

Goodfellow is no stranger to conservation or philanthropy — he was one of the first donors in the 2006 Campaign for Turtleback and in 2020 gifted a record $5.2 million toward the purchase of 42 acres adjacent to Turtleback Mountain, six of which went to the Lummi Nation and 36 to the Land Bank. The San Juan Preservation Trust also gained a conservation easement over the entire area. Later the same year, he gave another $4 million to SJPT to buy Reef Island.

When asked what prompted this donation to the Land Bank, Goodfellow said, “I want my dollars to go towards a good cause and have lasting meaning. The Land Bank’s core mandate is preserving our natural lands, a subject I am passionate about, but I wasn’t sure if it allowed for monetary donations. So, I made a phone call and learned that yes, the Land Bank can accept contributions as well as property. Making them whole again on this shoreline piece was a no brainer.”