The fact that he’s eager is a good sign.

His experience and dedication should help the North Olympic Land Trust as well.

After a six-month search, the trust hired Greg Good, of San Luis Valley, Colo., to become the organization’s first executive director. He is due to start July 1.

“I can hardly wait to get there and start work,” Good said from his home in Colorado. “The Olympic Peninsula is my favorite place in the United States and I’m honored to be able to help the communities of the North Olympic Peninsula preserve the special qualities of the region.”

Good has experience with other land trusts. He is deputy director of the Orient Land Trust in Colorado, which preserves prime wildlife habitat and agricultural lands in the San Luis Valley. His duties included fundraising, membership programs, grant writing, education program development and land preservation documentation development.

Good also did similar work for the Larimer County Open Lands group in Loveland, Colo.

Good completed an undergraduate degree in international business and finance at Indiana University and a natural resources management degree at Colorado State University. He did graduate study in environmental science and regional planning at Washington State University.

“I think the combination of my business and science backgrounds will enable me to make a difference for future as well as present generations,” Good said. “I hope to be able to help the organization do great things and be a leader in the area.”

Orville Campbell, trust board member and hiring committee chairman, said the decision to hire Good came after about six months of work.

“We had numerous applications from the local area as well as from across the United States and around the world,” Campbell said. “We believe Greg will be a great fit for the land trust’s needs.”

The trust board believed the creation of the executive director position would help the organization become more effective in protecting the area’s natural and cultural assets.

Numerous businesses, individuals and foundations contributed financially to provide funding for the new position, office space and equipment.

The organization will move to a larger office space in the same building to accommodate the growth in staff. The office is located in the Morse Building, 114 N. Laurel St., Port Angeles.

A July 10 public open house will welcome Good and show off the new office space. Details will be announced as they are made available.

Local citizens established the North Olympic Land Trust in 1990 when the national land trust movement was accelerating. The trust hired part-time staff a few years later and hired its first full-time staff member about a decade later.

The nonprofit organization protects more than 1,500 acres of North Peninsula land, mostly through permanent legal agreements with property owners who agree to give up selected development rights in order to provide public benefits such as wildlife habitat, farmland, timberland and scenic vistas and open space.

For more information about the land trust, visit its Web site at www.

northolympiclandtrust.org or call 417-1815.