With help from generous community donors, the North Olympic Land Trust successfully raised the dollars necessary to conserve additional acreage in the Dungeness River Delta.

The 10-acre parcel, named “24-Carrot Farm” by the land trust, was officially conserved when the land’s title was transferred on April 2.

Tom Sanford, land trust executive director, said the $175,300 used to purchase the conservation easement was raised entirely from local citizens to ensure the land will forever be used for wildlife habitat and farming.

“In recent years,” Sanford explained, “local folks have helped build a Sustainable Agriculture Fund with the land trust that is intended precisely for opportunities such as this.”

Sanford said the transaction was complicated and resulted in NOLT and Nash’s Organic Produce jointly purchasing the property. NOLT purchased the development rights while Nash’s purchased the land.

Funding for the conservation easement was raised in part through a local campaign that provided peninsula residents with an opportunity to support the plan through direct contributions.

Local grocers collected the cash, including Dungeness Valley Creamery and Nash’s Organic Produce, Dungeness; Sunny Farms, Carlsborg; The Red Rooster Grocery, Sequim; and Agnew Grocery and Feed.

With the recent addition, more than 580 acres have been conserved in the Dungeness Delta area, including 240 acres of prime farmland. Another 340 acres has been conserved primarily as wildlife habitat.

NOLT is a nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving the land that sustains the communities of the Olympic Peninsula. Local citizens established the organization in 1990.

Over the past 23 years, the organization has conserved more than 2,700 acres of economically and ecologically vital land on the Olympic Peninsula.

North Olympic Land Trust is accredited by the Land Trust Alliance.