Don Bucknell Land Acquisition Fundraiser

Countless houses on Waldron have been built with lumber milled by Don Bucknell from his land near “The T.” Don retired his mill about five years ago, but his legacy of providing shelter now evolves in collaboration with the Community Land Trust of Waldron Island (CLTWI). The CLT is very excited to announce that we have signed an agreement with Don to purchase his 5-acre parcel to be held in perpetuity and offered as an affordable housing site for future leaseholders! Don will retain a life estate and continue to enjoy his property.

Don’s land is home to neatly stacked piles of lumber, draped in tarps, awaiting their potential. Forest and hedge encircle his space, dappled in fruit trees planted long ago. Don and his siblings Anore, Jimmy and Susan were raised on Waldron on North Bay, after their parents moved from the orange groves of Southern California in the early 50s. From their beach home they would run to school, sometimes delivering their cow to pasture on the way, or stopping to float cottonwood boats in the roadside ditches when they overflowed. Alaska called Don to live in 1970. He built whatever he needed: his own house, a boat for travel and subsistence fishing. He kept sled dogs for transportation and caribou hunting. For several decades he was immersed in the vast Arctic landscape, working as carpenter and longshoreman, learning traditional ways from Iñupiat people, “really living,” he said. He returned to Waldron in 1990, and still lives light on the land with few modern conveniences.

The CLT is seeking to raise $120,000 towards the purchase of Don’s land which includes the purchase price (no improvements), closing costs, campaign expenses and future site cleanup. We are seeking one-time contributions as well as multi-year pledges (5 years or less) and feel uniquely prepared to oversee this exciting opportunity, having built our capacity and vision over the past years. Our goal is to secure the majority of funds needed by our anticipated closing date of March 15th, 2025 and we hope this will be accomplished with broad community support at every level of giving.

Once acquired, Don’s land will be the fourth property under CLT stewardship, which currently includes two residential leaseholds and The Commons. This emblematic opportunity has the potential to meet many of the needs at the heart of our mission by supporting a year-round community, ensuring that the land will stay affordable, and helping our elders to age in place. 

Thank you for considering how you can contribute to this impactful project on Waldron! The money collected during this fundraiser will be earmarked specifically for this project. You can donate online to this fundraiser in two ways:

All major credit/debit cards accepted. You do not need a PayPal account to pay with a card using PayPal.

You can also download and fill out a physical pledge form and mail it to:
Community Land Trust of Waldron Island
PO Box 11
Waldron, WA 98297

THE COMMUNITY LAND TRUST OF WALDRON ISLAND IS A 501(C)(3) NON-PROFIT. ALL DONATIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE.

BRAVO, CLTWI!

Over the past few years the CLT board, made up of 5 to 7 volunteers, has made it a priority to build the capacity of the organization so that the purposes of the Community Land Trust of  Waldron Island can be realized. A major player in the successful fulfillment of these goals is community support and partnership. This support is achieved through newsletters, meeting minutes and outreach letters. To easily review the CLT’s recent achievements see the list below.

2023  

• Mail Bay lease transferred to second-generation leaseholder.  

• Firebreak work completed at The Commons through a DNR grant.  

2024  

•After 30 years of ownership, all survey monuments on The Commons were found and marked with steel posts.  

• Walking trails traversing the Land Bank easement were created at The  Commons. 

• Several successful events and a work-bee were held at The Commons. 

• Improved community and membership outreach by sending two  newsletters, monthly emails, and an outreach letter 

• Hosted an estate planning workshop  

• Updated and improved CLT website, donation and membership renewal forms

• Compiled a comprehensive membership list numbering several hundred  

• Drafted a job description for a project manager 

• Began to develop and refine our 5-year Strategic Plan 

• Streamlined bookkeeping and budgeting workflow 

2025  

• Provided employment for Waldron foresters through DNR grant that will create a healthier forest and reduces wildfire risk at The Commons 

• Began work on revising the resale formulas for our ground leases and to make them consistent and fair  

• Networked with other community land trusts in our county and wider region 

• Signed a Purchase and Sale Agreement with Don Bucknell

• Started a fundraising campaign to raise $120,000 to purchase Don’s property

PROJECT DON

The CLT is seeking to raise $120,000 towards the purchase of Don Bucknell’s land which includes the purchase price (no

improvements), closing costs, campaign expenses and future site cleanup. Per bylaws, we held a membership meeting on

February 8th, 2025, where 23 participants unanimously approved the ballot language for the motion to purchase Don’s

land.

Voting Procedure: Paper ballots were distributed to all voting members via postal mail or post office cubby on Monday,

February 10th, 2025. Each ballot included a return envelope with a space on the back for the member to sign, indicating

that he/she has voted. The member will vote on the ballot, put it in the return envelope, sign the return envelope, and mail

the envelope to the Land Trust or return it to ballot box at p.o. The voting deadline will be March 12th. All ballots must be

received by that date. Mail to/from Waldron has been increasingly slow; we urge all members to return ballots as soon as

possible.

An election monitor was appointed by the Trustees. The monitor will receive the mailed-in ballots, maintain a list of

members who have voted, open the envelopes and put the ballots into a sealed ballot box, retaining custody of that box for

the duration of the voting period. Empty signed envelopes will be retained separately. Ballot measure will pass with a 2/3

majority of the ballots submitted. Voting results will be announced via email to all members and by posting on the PO

bulletin board, within 5 days of the close of voting period.

Background Information: We have reached agreement with Don Bucknell to purchase his land for $100,000. We

arrived at this purchase price based on current assessed value for the land only, and the ‘value’ of providing Don with a

life estate after closing and for the duration of his lifetime. We will pay Don $15,000 at closing, and then $1,000 per

month until the balance is reached. If our fundraising is successful, we can adapt our payment schedule to accommodate

both Don's needs and the CLT's capital budget.

The CLT will assume responsibility for removal of any materials Don has left behind.

With respect to due diligence, from the title report, discussions with Don and our physical inspection of the property, we

are aware of the property corner locations, the location of the easements that provide access to neighboring properties

(Susan Bucknell and April Hinsberger), and the condition of the drilled well. We have already worked with Chicago Title

to remove one exception to title that had to do with an expired forestry classification. Bill Appel donated his time to

represent the CLT in the transaction and helped provide the agreements. Don retained his own Counsel to review the

documents. They were executed on January 12th, and if all goes as scheduled, we anticipate the closing to occur on or

about March 15.

Budget: We have developed a preliminary budget for fundraising purposes, which totals $120,000. This includes: $100,000--

purchase price; $2500--closing costs (title and escrow, transfer taxes due to Buyer, etc.); $10,000--site clean-up; $5,000-

fundraising consulting/marketing materials; and $2500—miscellaneous. Any money raised above this amount or unspent from

the above categories will be used towards planning/permitting associated with future housing.

Capital Campaign: We are incredibly pleased with the early support that the community has provided in a very short

period of time, and is with enormous gratitude that we are announcing that we have raised $99,100 towards our $120,000

goal. This puts us at 82% of our campaign.

We initiated our campaign by reaching out to a number of individuals who expressed early interest in the project or have

the financial capacity and interest to support this effort with gifts above $1000. To date, we have received 13 $5000

pledges, and we are hoping to reach a total of 15 at this level. We also received a very generous pledge of $25,000!

We are thankful that Don has allowed us to buy his land over time with payments of $1000/month. This has allowed us to

structure our campaign so that gifts can be made in the form of pledges that can be paid off over 5 years. So, for example

if you decide to pledge $1000, you can make payment of only $200/year. We plan to reach out to the community more

broadly in the coming 2 weeks and our hope is to be close to our total goal by the time we close in mid-March.