Oregon Public Broadcasting

Conservationists are in a race against the clock to save a sizable forest on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound.

The Whidbey Camano Land Trust needs to raise about $2.5 million between now and next Thursday. Land trust director Pat Powell hopes the ugly pictures from the Gulf oil spill motivate donors.

Pat Powell: "People are really thinking about protecting natural heritage. This is a place – Whidbey Island – that is special for everyone. Protecting the forest helps protect the island, Puget Sound and really helps us to pay back our planet."

Powell says the roughly one square mile forest is known locally as the Trillium property. Three banks own the parcel through a foreclosure. They set the June 10th deadline.

If the land trust fails to raise the remaining two-and-half million dollars, it expects the forest to be sold to a back-up buyer and then developed with houses.On the web:

Whidbey Camano Land Trust