Short’s Family Farm
Short’s Family Farm
Acres Preserved:
253
Year Conserved:
2016
Category:
Conservation Easement
Natural Features:
Port support for agriculture makes sense. Our primary mission is to provide facilities that support good jobs. We also support the idea of community resiliency through growing food here in this county.
- Eron Berg, Executive Director, Port of Port Townsend
A Birds-Eye View
Short’s Family Farm is a metaphoric mountain in the landscape of Chimacum agriculture. One of the largest active farms in the region, the 254-acre property has a long local heritage and a large amount of productive farmland to support the economic, environmental, and cultural resilience of the community.
The farm also contains significant habitat for salmon, waterfowl, and other wildlife. Chimacum Creek, in which several species of salmon migrate and spawn, runs for a mile through the farm’s pastures. Naylor Creek also runs through the property, providing habitat for coho salmon, steelhead, and cutthroat trout. The farm also has excellent winter waterfowl habitat. From late fall to late spring, migratory Trumpeter Swans and other waterfowl find nourishment and refuge in the flooded low-lying pastures and ponds adjacent to Chimacum Creek.
Directly across Center Road from Short’s Family Farm rises forested Chimacum Ridge, where the Land Trust is working with the community to establish 953-acre Chimacum Ridge Community Forest. In fact, 65-acre Valley View Forest Preserve, which will be the entrance to Chimacum Ridge Community Forest when it opens, was purchased from the Short family.
In 2023, the Port of Port Townsend purchased the farm from the Short family with the goal of developing and maintaining infrastructure and establishing uses of the property that will help sustain and expand agriculture in Jefferson County.
The Preservation Story
This iconic Chimacum farm, known for popular products like 100% grass-fed beef and “Magical Soil,” was tended by generations of the Short family. Jefferson Land Trust worked with landowners Roger and Sandy Short to permanently protect the farm. The conservation easement the Land Trust purchased in 2016 permanently limits development on most of the land, ensuring it can’t be subdivided or converted from agricultural use.
By choosing to protect their land with an easement, the Shorts were able to protect their family legacy while ensuring the farm’s agricultural productivity for future generations. By making a permanent investment in this farmland through a conservation easement, the Land Trust ensured that the property’s greatest values to our community — its vast acres of farmland, wildlife habitat, open space, and scenic qualities, as well as its economic, environmental, social, and cultural benefits — are preserved for all time.
The protection of Short’s Family Farm was possible thanks to the Short family and funds provided by the Washington Recreation and Conservation Funding Board Farmland Preservation Program, the Federal Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program, and Jefferson County Conservation Futures Funds program.
The Protected Property Today and Tomorrow
The Land Trust was pleased that the Port of Port Townsend asked us to play a meaningful advisory role in the planning process for the farm’s future upon their purchase of the farm in 2023. We were glad to share our knowledge of the land and its history, and also help the port understand and incorporate the terms and objectives of the conservation easement into their plans.
With local farmers beginning to lease the land from the port beginning in 2024, and important infrastructure to serve the local food system in the works, the story of Short’s Family Farm continues to evolve — demonstrating the power of using conservation easements as long-term tools to protect our community’s wellbeing, resilience, and rural character.
More Information
To get the latest information about what’s happening at Short’s Family Farm, visit the Port of Port Townsend’s website.
