Vendovi purchased by land trust

The Trust says the 217-acre island will remain permanently protected from development. The organization is working on a natural inventory and management plan for the island that will likely accommodate some public access. Until that plan has been completed, however, public access will not be permitted. A caretaker has been retained to live on the island.

The $6.4 million purchase price was raised from anonymous private benefactors, including $3.0 million in donations and a $3.4 million bridge loan. The Preservation Trust is now actively fundraising to pay off this loan. "We approached every potential conservation partner we could think of, but the price and terms were simply too much," said Tim Seifert, the Preservation Trust's executive director. "We had essentially concluded that Vendovi was going to be out of our reach when these extraordinary new friends stepped in to offer their help."

Vendovi Island had been listed for sale at $14.5 million before the owners attempted to sell the property at a well-publicized auction held in September in Seattle. The San Juan Preservation Trust submitted the highest bid at that auction ($3.3 million), but the sellers exercised their right to refuse to sell the island at that price. The island last changed hands in 1966 when John and Lyla Fluke paid about $225,000 the property, according to Katie Jungquist, treasurer of Skagit County, Wash. It currently has a taxable value of about $3.1 million, in part because more than half of Vendovi is included in a government program dedicated to growing trees that are harvested for commercial timber, according to a Skagit County official.

Essentially undeveloped but for one small residence on the island, the Preservation Trust had long considered Vendovi to be one of the most important unprotected properties in the San Juan Islands. "This deal has come together quickly, and we haven't had much time to explore," said Seifert, "But at first glance it appears to be among the least disturbed of all the private islands we've seen."