Stewardship: The Often Unseen (and Sometimes Gross) Work that Keeps Our Lands Healthy and Beautiful
When it comes to conservation stewardship, we often picture people working together to dig holes for native plants while creatures of the forest chatter overhead. We don’t always think of stewardship’s grittier side – addressing dumped paint cans, abandoned cars, stolen signs, and the occasional surprise tent. This less-glamorous, behind-the-scenes stewardship work also helps to protect wildlife, keep visitors safe, and preserve the natural beauty of the lands you help conserve.
Over the past year, staff hauled out over 500 pounds of household garbage, including tires, paint cans, furniture, and small plastic debris – some of which floats onto our properties during flood events.
We also removed six abandoned vehicles, multiple full drums of waste oil, and three abandoned tents and campsites (camping is not an allowed activity at our conservation areas). The abandoned camps we encounter are typically sprawling and messy, with food items spread by humans and animals, old clothing, tarps, etc. The footprint of an abandoned camp can be a hundred square feet and often more!
When Skagit Land Trust acquires a new property, our stewardship team assesses if there are any old structures that need to be removed, as we did over on Samish Island this fall. Near the Samish River wetlands, we also removed several sheds and outbuildings in various states of decay- each filled with a bunch of trash and debris. Removal protects the public as well as the land, reducing the risk of injuries or pollution as older buildings degrade and become a health and environmental hazard.
Monitoring and addressing issues on Trust lands requires patience and a sense of humor. Take the Barr Creek Conservation Area sign saga, for example. In 2024, a wooden boundary sign between Skagit Land Trust property and U.S. Forest Service land was damaged. Volunteers replaced it in July of 2024, only to find it vandalized again in October 2025. This time, the sign disappeared entirely and the post was split right down the middle!
Undeterred, staff and volunteer Land Steward Russ Dalton returned to Barr Creek with a replacement sign in November. At
a work party the next month, volunteer Paul Johnson (pictured above) trimmed the signpost to size, smoothed the top with careful sanding, and topped it off with a whimsical moss hat. This ongoing effort really shows how we handle the different parts of stewardship with teamwork and good humor.
Member support makes this work possible, and we’re grateful to the partners and volunteers who help steward the lands we love. Although it’s not always pretty, this work is effective and necessary – and occasionally makes for a good story.
