Late fall 1984 or early 1985

Craig Lee of The Trust for Public Land in Seattle and several conservation activists from Wenatchee attend a meeting of the Save the Riverfront Committee at the East Wenatchee home of Cliff and Mary Bates. Lee describes what a land trust can do, what a conservation easement is, etc. . . . In a subsequent meeting, about a dozen Wenatchee-area residents meet at Mark and Rosemary Shipman’s house and move ahead with plans to form the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust with Mark Shipman as the first president. In addition to the Shipmans, participants include Eliot and Tina Scull, Joan VanDivort, Don and Thea Fager, Chuck Largent, Larry Riegert, Edgar Meyer and Gene Fairchild.

Twenty-five years later, CDLT Executive Director Bob Bugert would write: “Through sheer tenacity, willingness to stand up against conventional wisdom and a fair amount of pluck, they pulled it off. . . They created an organization that focused on voluntary agreements to set aside properties to benefit both the public and the individual.