Our History

A handful of community leaders with a vision for the future founded the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust in 1985. From 1985-1999 CDLT was an entirely volunteer organization that played a major role in the local and regional effort to protect access to the Peshastin Pinnacles climbing area, Spider Meadows, and the Columbia River Loop Trail.

In 1999 the CDLT board decided that CDLT could play a much greater role in local conservation efforts if they hired an executive director and opened an office. A successful fundraising effort enabled the Board to hire Gordon Congdon as Executive Director of CDLT in the fall of 1999, and he began work in an office at 15B Palouse Street in Wenatchee. At that time CDLT had 40 supporting members, owned no property, and had an operating budget of about $2,500 per year. Currently CDLT has six staff, over 800 members, owns 2,957 acres of land, holds conservation easements on 2,523 acres, and has assets (mostly land) worth $14.8 million.

Since 2006 CDLT has increased its focus on stewardship and sustainability of the organization. When we take responsibility for conserving land through a conservation easement or fee ownership, we commit to being stewards in perpetuity. For this reason we have an obligation to ensure our long-term financial stability and health. To help provide this stability we held a very successful Endowment Campaign in 2006, raising $2.67 million to create an Endowment fund. The Endowment Fund is currently at $3 million and providing over $100,000 per year in annual operating support. To help keep our operating expenses low, we secured grant funding to purchase office space, and in fall 2010 purchased a building in downtown Wenatchee which we share with the Trust for Public Land. Thanks to the grant from the Icicle Fund, we were able to purchase the building outright and benefit greatly from not having a mortgage or rent.