Four South End activists, and a retired Seattle trombonist who donated a huge chunk of his South Whidbey forest land for conservation, will be honored as the Whidbey Camano Land Trust celebrates it 25th anniversary this week.

Receiving awards at the organization’s gala Saturday, Oct. 3 in Coupeville will be Cary Peterson, Diane Kendy, Kathleen Landel and Rene Neff, all of Langley.

Also honored will be Harry Case of Seattle, who late last year turned over 176 acres of mature timberland near Putney Woods off Lone Lake Road to the care of the land trust.

It was the largest parcel of forest land so far acquired by the organization.

The honorees will receive five of the eight awards being presented as the organization marks its 25th anniversary with a series of events, including bus tours of its properties and a special dessert banquet.

“To me they’re incredibly inspirational,” said Patricia Powell, executive director of the land trust. “What they’ve done for the islands is amazing. It sets an example for all of us about what a few people can do.”

Incorporated in 1984, the land trust is a local nonprofit organization working to protect natural habitats, scenic vistas and working farms and forests in partnership with landowners and the community.

It permanently protects land on the two islands from development by buying property and conservation easements, and has secured more than 6,100 acres to date.

From nine initial board members and a single conservation easement on 90 acres, the land trust has grown to more than 800 member households and more than 40 completed land-protection projects.

Land trust members also act as stewards of the acquired land, restoring and maintaining it.

Cary Peterson

Peterson joined the trust in 1993 and served as a board member for 13 years, including two terms as president.

She worked to secure grants, expand the board and to put a paid staff in place, led by Powell.

“I could see the need for land conservation was so great, and the potential so great, that we didn’t have the capacity to meet it,” Peterson said of her initial assessment of the trust.

“Once we had the staff, we had the capacity to really grow and fulfill our mission,” she said.

Peterson, active in a number of organizations on the South End, currently is garden manager at Good Cheer Food Bank in Bayview, where she has overseen the volunteer creation of a huge garden that this year began providing fruits and vegetables for the food bank.

Peterson will be honored as a “Visionary” by the trust.

“I’m all about land,” she said. “Being able to play a role has been really wonderful. I look forward to the trust becoming one of the pillars of our island life.”

Diane Kendy

Kendy spearheaded the conservation effort that eventually shifted the land trust into a higher gear.

She was instrumental in fighting the six-year battle for the preservation of Saratoga Woods about three miles north of Langley.

Kendy’s group battled loggers, developers and other special interests to turn 118 acres, including a stand of mature forest, into a county park.

The effort to preserve the property extended from 1995 to 2001 and featured several ups and downs, fundraisers, lawsuits and a push for county growth management.

The land trust was instrumental in negotiating the ultimate deal.

“That acquisition gave them a real impetus to become a professional organization and get public attention,” Kendy said of the trust, which will honor her as a “Catalyst for Land Conservation.”

“It’s just about the best land trust in the state,” she added. “I’m really an enthusiastic supporter, and probably one of the first to put them in my will.”

Kathleen Landel

Landel, who joined the land-trust board in 2000, is credited with using her organizational skills to guide the group into its current phase.

She helped develop policies, plans and procedures that underpin the organization today, and she will be honored as a “Pro Bono for the Land.”

Landel is a long-time organizational consultant and currently serves as special assistant to Langley Mayor Paul Samuelson.

She said she’s most proud of helping to develop “a very healthy nonprofit — not an easy thing do.”

“It’s a very passionate mission-driven organization, working to move land protection forward,” she added.

“It’s really important for young people to realize the importance of land protection, and for their kids to realize it, too,” Landel said.

Rene Neff

Neff, a former elementary school teacher, is being honored by the trust for her work in establishing an outdoor science classroom for studying salmon.

Her Maxwelton Salmon Adventure began 15 years ago when she organized students, teachers, parents and others in the community to acquire 6.5 acres in the Maxwelton Valley near French Road.

Her students collected pennies to go toward purchase of the land, and they presented their plan to county officials, who eventually provided the money to purchase the property through its conservation fund.

“It was just a great experience all the way around,” Neff said. “It’s just a wonderful learning lab.”

“They do fabulous work,” she added of the land trust. “It’s extremely important. If we don’t walk our talk and contribute to organizations such a this, our beautiful open spaces won’t be there for our children.”

Neff, now a Langley City Council member, will be honored as a “Community Energizer for Land Conservation.”

Harry Case

Case, 81, a retired trombonist with the Seattle Symphony, bought his

176-acre wooded parcel in 1946 at a tax-foreclosure sale for $800. Today, he figures it contains 5 million board feet of timber and is worth more than $1.5 million.

When Case, who was determined to preserve the property from development, approached the land trust, the organization helped to raise $60,000 to purchase the conservation easement.

“I told myself I’d get my own property and take care of it,” Case said, describing how as a young man he came across a vicious clear-cut while on a mountain hike. “I just went in that direction with no looking left or right.”

Case will be honored for his “Gift of the Heart.”

Three other awards also will be presented at the gala.

Maurine Ryan of Coupeville will be honored as a “Conservation Hero” for her efforts to protect the old-growth Whidbey forest known as Classic U. In 1977, she and others stood in front of bulldozers, then set about waging a three-year court battle.

Ryan also was instrumental in preserving Keystone Spit.

Meanwhile, an anonymous woman donor on Camano Island will be honored for offering a conservation easement to the land trust that resulted in the protection of 67 acres of blue heron nesting sites.

And the group Friends of Camano Island Parks will be be saluted for helping to preserve parcels including Iverson Spit, English Boom and Four Springs Preserve.

Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire and the city of Langley have proclaimed this week “Whidbey Camano Land Trust Week.”

The awards will be presented at the gala from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3 at the Coupeville High School Performing Arts Center.

State Attorney General Rob McKenna will speak on the future of land conservation in Washington, and the award-winning duo Tingstad & Rumbel will perform.

J.W. Desserts of Clinton will provide a cake in the shape of a huge map of Whidbey and Camano Islands, with flags marking property protected by the land trust.

Tickets are $10 each in advance and available from the trust.

For information, call 360-222-3310, or visit www.wclt.org.