Push is on to save Orcas Island landmark

Turtleback Mountain is getting by with a little help from its friends — some you've heard of, and some you haven't.

A coalition of conservation groups — the San Juan Preservation Trust, the San Juan County Land Bank and The Trust for Public Land — has one more month to raise money to buy the mountain on the west side of Orcas Island. Once in trust, the 1,578-acre natural landscape would be opened to hikers and forever closed off to developers.

Financial support has ranged from a $1 million matching gift from a Stuart Island family to 20 percent fee discounts that Orcas Island's chimney sweep is offering customers who have contributed to the Turtleback campaign.

"The Far Side" cartoonist Gary Larson has created an original artwork for the effort. The cartoon is screened on T-shirts being given away to donors who give at least $150. It features doctors tending to the mountain in a hospital emergency room. One doctor is applying a defibrillator while another is removing developers and tossing them into a waste can.



http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003295560_turtleback09m.html

is to let the private market deal with it.

won't turtleback look pretty covered with gated enclaves? just look at all the privatized shoreline in washington state - that's worked out great for everyone!

:sarcasm: