Joel at a North Olympic Salmon Coalition (NOSC) work party at the Land Trust’s Snow Creek Estuary Preserve in 2016. Photo by Charles Espy, courtesy of NOSC.
Joel leading Land Trust staff through his family’s property in 2008.
We were deeply saddened to learn of the recent passing of local fisherman, salmon recovery advocate, and beloved friend Joel Kawahara, who lost his life at sea in August.
When he wasn’t fishing, Joel dedicated much of his life to advocating for salmon recovery and for the livelihoods of fisherpeople and fishing families. In support of keeping salmon abundant and protected, he served on a number of boards and committees, testified before government officials, and frequently published letters and op-eds. He cheerfully volunteered at work parties with local nonprofits to help restore salmon habitat, planting thousands of trees. He was a mentor and friend to many in the commercial fishing industry and beyond.
In 1995, Joel’s parents, Hitoshi and Alice Kawahara, worked with Jefferson Land Trust to permanently protect their 80-acre historic family homestead on Dabob Bay with a conservation easement. Alice was born on the property, and spent much of her life living there.
The family donated the easement, which was one of the Land Trust’s first conservation easements and our biggest at the time, because they wanted to ensure that this extraordinary property was protected forever. They saw that land around them was being clear-cut, causing significant downstream impacts, and that other properties were being developed nearby.
Alice and Hitoshi Kawahara with a framed photo of an ancestor.
Joel went on to make his permanent home on the property, and the care and love he had for that land was deeply rooted in his family’s history. Over the many years of partnership since acquiring the conservation easement, Jefferson Land Trust staff and volunteers regularly met with him to walk the extensive property, monitor the easement, and look for any changes. Joel dearly loved that land, and we always appreciated the chance to learn from him while walking through the towering western redcedars, bigleaf maples, and Douglas-firs.
A memorial service for Joel is planned for October 26 from 1:00 – 5:00 pm at the Quilcene Lantern.
To learn more about Joel and his extraordinary life, please read this moving tribute in the Seattle Times.
