Next time you see Roger, Sandy and the Short clan, please give them a giant THANK YOU for their patience and vision in protecting their magnificent farm for future generations.
Roger and Sandy Short have ensured their family land, one of Jefferson County’s largest active farms, will never be subdivided or converted from agriculture. Home to popular products like delicious 100% grass-fed beef and “Magical Soil,” this 254-acre farm is an important anchor of Chimacum’s agricultural economy and community — it has a long heritage, a large commercially productive portion of the property, productive land, and continued agricultural production is viable.
Next time you see Roger, Sandy and the Short clan, please give them a giant “Thank you” for their vision, foresight, and great patience with the long process of protecting their land. They have protected the farm’s agricultural productivity for future generations, and ensured the land will be used for sustainable agricultural purposes. They have also protected important wildlife habitat on their farm. Chimacum Creek, with its migratory habitat for several species of salmon, runs for a mile through Short’s pastures. Naylor Creek also runs through the property, providing habitat suitable for coho salmon, steelhead, and cutthroat trout. The farm also hosts one of the best winter waterfowl habitats in the county. During the winter months, migratory trumpeter swan and other waterfowl find refuge in the flooded low-lying pastures and ponds adjacent to Chimacum creek. Roger Short’s land management practices preserve low-growing grasses that create prime trumpeter swan habitat, and maintain water passage through Chimacum Creek in areas that would otherwise be choked with invasive reed-canary grass.
Within the context of the surrounding landscape, the permanent preservation of Short’s Family Farm builds on 340 acres of farm and forestlands in the vicinity that are already protected. And when the land trust’s work to preserve forestland on Chimacum Ridge, right across the road from Short’s Family Farm, is complete, there will be over 1500 acres of contiguous protected farms and forests in Chimacum.
This project was possible thanks to the Short family, community support, and through funds provided by the Washington Recreation and Conservation Funding Board Farmland Preservation Program, the Federal Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program and Jefferson County Conservation Futures Fund.
