Erik leading a field day out on the land with the Tidelands to Timberline natural history course.
Congratulations to Erik Kingfisher, Jefferson Land Trust’s Director of Stewardship and Resilience, who was recently awarded the 2025 Eleanor Stopps Environmental Leadership Award by the Port Townsend Marine Science Center (PTMSC)! This annual award recognizes significant contributions to protecting and conserving the Olympic Peninsula’s natural environment.
“I’m one of the many very dedicated and passionate people who are investing in this place and the future generations that will be caring for this place after we’re gone — and I’m honored to be recognized,” Erik said.
Erik, who accepted the award at PTMSC’s Annual Stewardship Breakfast on November 18, was recognized for 25+ years of dedication to conservation and environmental causes, including his role with Jefferson Land Trust over the last 18 years. His commitment to environmental work on the Olympic Peninsula runs soul deep and spans land conservation, land stewardship, community building, climate resilience, and natural history education.
“My skills and fire for making real and lasting and meaningful progress toward a future that respects and nurtures the ecological wellbeing of the land and water of this place, have been a really good fit with the Land Trust. It’s really the continued support for the Land Trust that’s helped me make a difference, and be a conservation leader,” he said.
In his role at the Land Trust, Erik works with landowners, state and local governments, local organizations, granting agencies, and many others toward shared goals of environmental resilience and long-term land protection in our region. As an expert in conservation easements, and in natural land management, he works with an excellent stewardship team to ensure that, once the Land Trust protects a place, it is cared for and protected in perpetuity. He collaborates on and contributes to a large range of local environmental projects and programs — from wildfire protection to community forestry to our green burial initiative and more.
Erik admiring an old-growth western white-pine in the Bogachiel Rainforest, near Forks, WA. Photo by Bettina von Hagen.
His projects have included helping lead the organization’s strategic conservation and climate-resilience planning efforts, and helping lead the protection and creation of Chimacum Ridge Community Forest over a 13-year period.
Erik also founded Jefferson Land Trust’s northwest naturalist program, including the popular annual Tidelands to Timberline natural history course, which he co-leads and co-coordinates with other expert naturalists in the area. Since 2012, this innovative, hands-on course has inspired hundreds of community members, helping them appreciate and understand the boundless wonders of our local lands and waters. (Registration for the 2026 course is open now: click here to learn more and apply.)
Award namesake Eleanor Stopps was an active Pacific Northwest conservation community member from the 1960s through the 1990s. She founded the Admiralty Audubon Chapter, and was a catalyst in establishing the Protection Island National Wildlife Refuge. Stopps passed away in 2012 at the age 92.
Congratulations, Erik, and thank you for your ongoing and inspiring dedication to the lands we all love.
PS: Read more about Erik and the award in the Peninsula Daily News!
PPS: Click here to read a poem by Erik: “Deep Breaths On Arrival”
