Kate Miller is the executive director of the Okanogan Land Trust, a nonprofit with two staff and an intern that protects working farms and ranches, wildlife habitat and water resources across Okanogan and western Ferry counties. Scott recorded this in their office in the town of Okanogan, in the county of Okanogan, a naming situation he admits gets him every time.

Kate did not plan this career. She was born in Chapel Hill, grew up overseas while her father worked in global public health, went to Reed College, and finished a PhD in cultural anthropology in California. There was a postdoc in Vienna and teaching at Western Oregon University. Then COVID rearranged everything, a friend pointed her toward local environmental nonprofits, and she has now run this one for over five years. Her husband teaches at Tonasket Elementary.

Most of this conversation is about one property.

Bonaparte Meadows is 745 acres in the Okanogan Highlands, below Bonaparte Mountain near Bonaparte Lake, and at its centre sits roughly 265 acres of calcareous fen. Kate explains the distinction most of us never learn. A bog catches and holds rainwater, which is what makes bogs acidic. A fen is fed by groundwater welling up through the site. At Bonaparte that water filters through limestone, which makes it a calcareous fen, one of the rarest wetland types in the United States and the largest peat wetland in Okanogan County. Its deep peat soils hold water, store carbon, and feed cold clean flows into the Okanogan River watershed.

Parts of it had been mined for peat. The family that owned it wanted to sell rather than place an easement, which meant the only way to protect it was to buy it outright.

So a two person organisation in one of Washington's least populated and lowest income counties set out to raise 1.5 million dollars. Kate walks through how that actually works: state Recreation and Conservation Office grants that require a local match, the Ponderosa Dinner they hold every summer, the end of year mail campaign, and the part that surprised her most, which was how hard and how fast her own community gave.

On August 12, 2026, five days after this conversation was recorded, Okanogan Land Trust announced that the For the Fen campaign had reached its 1.5 million dollar goal. Project partners include Trout Unlimited, the Okanogan Conservation District, North Central Washington Audubon Society, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and Sparrow Song Consulting. Restoration planning comes next.

You can learn more about Bonaparte Meadows and its extraordinary capacity to sequester carbon, store water and provide habitat for wildlife and plant life on the Okanogan Land Trust campaign page. Giving now supports the stewardship fund for the property.

Also covered: what a conservation easement actually restricts and what it leaves alone, why parcels under about 80 acres rarely qualify, how many years one easement takes, the 36 easements the trust now holds, and the worthy projects it has to turn down because two people can only do so much.

Plus a divemaster certification in Egypt, and a firm ruling on cake.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome, and an office in Okanogan, in Okanogan County

00:50 Chapel Hill, then overseas, then Reed, then a PhD in anthropology

06:02 What a land trust is, and what an easement does

08:46 Getting paid for an easement, or donating one for the tax benefit

12:31 How big a parcel has to be

13:11 So how long does all this take (watch her face)

17:24 Working with landowners

21:43 The water rises up through limestone, and that changes everything

30:37 Putting the water back

33:27 How you actually raise the money

34:57 The Ponderosa Dinner

40:54 What surprised her about her own community

44:46 Why this place, and who wanted it protected

46:34 What is next for the trust

49:32 Thirty six easements and counting

51:02 The projects they have to say no to

58:03 Where Kate eats

01:01:11 Getting divemaster certified in Egypt

01:06:14 Exploring Okanogan County

01:12:08 Protecting the trails around Wenatchee

Kate's local picks

Smallwoods, a little south of Okanogan toward Malott, for the porch, the smoked meats and the milkshake. Bonaparte Lake Resort, which is proud of its dinners and runs a smoked prime rib on Saturdays, with a reservation strongly advised in high season. She also named Crafted, Freebird, Tugboats and Scott Brothers.

Links

Okanogan Land Trust: okanoganlandtrust.org

Bonaparte Meadows and the For the Fen campaign: okanoganlandtrust.org/protect-bonaparte-meadows-3

Exploring Washington State Podcast: explorewashingtonstate.com/podcast-2/