PORT ANGELES — The North Olympic Land Trust’s first executive director is leaving to take a position with the national Land Trust Accreditation Commission.
Greg Good will leave at the beginning of the year for a one-year training program in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
“A door has opened for me that will allow me to take my land trust experience to a national level,” said Good, who began work at the Port Angeles-based organization in July 2008.
“Though we are sincerely sorry to see Greg leave, we are delighted to congratulate him on his new position,” said David Morris, president of the land trust board.
“Greg has done an outstanding job as NOLT’s first executive director.”
The board has promoted Michele d’Hemecourt, conservation director, to acting executive director, the land trust board said.
“It is an honor that the board is entrusting me with this responsibility, and I am excited to do everything I can to help NOLT continue to pursue its valuable conservation mission,” d’Hemecourt said.
The board plans to initiate a national search prior to naming formally a new permanent executive director.
During Good’s tenure, the nonprofit land conservancy reached agreements with local landowners to conserve close to a thousand acres of economically and ecologically vital land across the Olympic Peninsula.
Good also expanded relationships with government and tribal agencies and nonprofit partners, the board said.
First public park
This year, the North Olympic Land Trust applied for national accreditation and opened its first public park, the 255-acre Elk Creek Conservation Area in Forks.
Before joining the land trust, Good was deputy director of the Orient Land Trust in the San Luis Valley in Colorado and had done similar work for the Larimer County Open Lands group in Loveland, Colo.
For more information on the land trust — which is based at 104 N. Laurel St., Suite 104, Port Angeles — phone 360-417-1815 or visit www.nolt.org.