Lush greenery in Quimper West Preserve, where Paul Becker and his wife Lisa Crosby enjoyed many forest walks. Photo by Wendy Feltham.
Lisa Crosby shared this photo of Paul Becker waving at Fort Worden.
For nearly 30 years, Paul Becker and his family enjoyed walking the wilderness trails of Jefferson County. After Paul was diagnosed with cancer in 2016, their daily nature walks became a welcome balm.
This past month, two years after his passing, Paul’s family decided to make a family gift to Jefferson Land Trust’s Quimper Wildlife Corridor Challenge in his memory.
“Paul grew up in a small town, and Port Townsend really spoke to him because of the way that people can make a true difference in small towns,” his wife Lisa says. “He loved the whole town, and part of loving the town was the walks we would take together.”
On their walks together, they found an opportunity to deepen their connection to the land they called home. “We started really tapping deeply into every nook and cranny we could find for daily walks,” recalls Lisa. “His body and mind were under so much stress with the kind of cancer he had that daily walks became very, very important to him in a way they hadn’t been before.”
Paul Becker walking amongst the trees in Quimper West Preserve.
In fact, it was only after Paul was diagnosed that Lisa got out a map and found Quimper West, the 107-acre preserve which is part of the Quimper Wildlife Corridor. “I was like ‘Wow, this is amazing!’…We had some lovely walks together, just taking various loops through it…but we knew it wasn’t permanently preserved.”
Parcel by parcel, since 1995, Jefferson Land Trust has protected hundreds of acres of once-vulnerable land in the Quimper Wildlife Corridor, but critical gaps still threaten an array of wildlife, wetlands, and rare old-growth forest. This very generous gift in memory of Paul will support the Land Trust’s continued efforts to save and steward this precious area and keep it accessible to all who seek its sanctuary.
“We were so sad to lose Paul,” said Sarah Spaeth. “This gift in his memory means a lot to all of us at the Land Trust and will be so helpful in permanently protecting more of the corridor that Paul loved and enjoyed with his extended family and friends.”
Paul’s family is in good and generous company: the Land Trust is grateful for the many recent gifts that have been given to the Quimper Wildlife Corridor Challenge in memory of loved ones or to honor someone. In addition to this family gift in Paul Becker’s memory, the Land Trust has received gifts in memory of memory of Ed Bernthal, Elizabeth Breunig, Danny Deardorf, George Fisler, Jerry Gorsline, Cynthia Gorton, Tom H, David Hill, Scott Landis, Beth Lorber, Lyn Loubere, Thea Meersman, Rich Pindell, Pinks Podrat, and Winifred Robson, as well as gifts in honor of Kathleen Mitchell, Kay Sagmiller, and Sarah Spaeth.
