Vashon’s land trust is poised to buy a swath of land that for decades held a strawberry farm, a purchase that would be the nonprofit’s first-ever farmland preservation project.

With initial funding in hand, the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust is already under contract to purchase 12 acres of farmland behind the K2 building from islander Miyoko Matsuda, who with her husband farmed strawberries there until the early 1980s. The property is currently a hay field, but the land trust hopes the spot, which it plans to pay about half a million dollars for, could one day be used as community farm land.

“It’s one of the few pieces of property on Vashon that has been in agricultural production since the 1930s,” said land trust director Tom Dean. “There’s a huge history of agriculture there.”

Walking the property last week, Dean explained why the land trust recently jumped on the opportunity to purchase it. The rolling property behind K2 abuts a meadow outside the Open Space for Arts & Community as well as a 5-acre wooded parcel that Miyoko’s brother owns and promised to the land trust in his will. The picturesque spot, with views of both Mount Rainier and the Olympics, is good habitat for raptors, songbirds and other animals that prefer meadow habitat, Dean said.

“Fallow fields don’t provide good habitat,” he said. “An active farm is better habitat.”

Part of the property, a piece with a home and garage, is zoned industrial and could be built on if not protected. Keeping the site public would also keep it open to pedestrians, who frequently use it to walk between Center, the Open Space and Island Center Forest.

“Even if it was a horse field, it would be fenced off,” Dean said. “We will preserve public access. We will preserve meadow features. There’s a lot we will accomplish just by purchasing it.”

The land trust announced the pending purchase last month, after its 15-member board approved the project and members donated $75,000 in seed money.

The nonprofit will now shift its fundraising focus to government sources, where Dean says there’s significant money available for farmland preservation. The land trust has agreed to pay $510,000 for the property and estimates needing another $19,000 for fees, repairs and other costs.

“There’s some good money out there for farmland preservation, from the Farm Bill on down,” he said. “We probably will come back to the community for a couple more thousand.”

Miyoko, who is now in her 80s, said she’s happy to see her property go to the land trust, as are her stepdaughters in Seattle.

“We had talked about how nice it would be if it could continue in agriculture because it was started by their father and grandfather, who put a lot of work into it,” she said. “They were quite excited about being able to do that.”

The property was purchased by the Matsuda family in 1930, when Heisuke and Mitsuno Matsuda, Miyoko’s in-laws, bought 10 acres behind K2 for $2,000. Because the couple were Japanese immigrants and couldn’t own property then, they bought the parcel in the name of the American-born son of one of their friends, and he held on to the deed until the couple’s son Yoneichi turned 18.

In 1942, however, the Matsudas, along with many Japanese on Vashon, were sent to internment camps. Following the end of WWII, they returned to Vashon with Yoenichi and their daughter Mary, who would later write a memoir about her experiences called “Looking Like the Enemy.”

Yoneichi eventually took over the farm, which grew to 50 acres during its height in the 1950s. In 1957 he was named Conservation Farmer of the Year by King County for building a storm-water detention pond for irrigation.

Yoneichi and Miyoko, whom Yoneichi married after his first wife died, grew strawberries there until around 1981, making it the last large-scale strawberry farm on Vashon. In 1985, Yoneichi died of a heart attack, and Miyoko, the last Matsuda living on Vashon, has farmed hay there since.

“It’s not great quality hay, but there’s a demand for it because it is local,” Dean said.

The land trust would be happy to see the 12 acres remain in hay, which is still considered agriculture. “But we’re trying to have a little bigger dream than that,” Dean said.

The nonprofit is considering how the centrally located land could be used as community farmland — rented to a farmer or farmers and somehow used for community benefit. For instance, classes could be held there, Dean said, or produce grown there could be sold to the schools.

The land trust has been given time to raise the needed funds, and Dean expects the purchase to close sometime next year. Until it develops a plan for community farmland, it will continue to grow hay there and rent out the farmhouse. It is currently surveying farmers about the possibilities.

“That’s a long discussion,” Dean said. “We’re not going to rush it.”

Nan Wilson, the president of the Vashon Island Growers Association (VIGA), said the nonprofit is excited about the purchase behind K2, explaining that the price of land is one of the biggest barriers to starting new farms. VIGA is already talking with the land trust about potentially partnering on a project there, though they’re not yet sure what it would look like. She noted that VIGA recently began its own strategic planning process.

“Our goal is to look at how VIGA can best support the development of agriculture on Vashon … whether it’s a redesign of the farmers market or to partner with the land trust to make land available for new farmers and to create cooking classes for people to eat the food that’s grown there,” she said.

While purchasing farmland is new for Vashon’s land trust, most land trusts have done farmland preservation projects, Dean said, and those in Eastern Washington focus largely on preserving farmland.

“It’s a resource that’s been slowly disappearing everywhere,” said Ted Sullivan, who manages King County’s Farmland Preservation Program, part of the Department of Natural Resources and Parks. “The natural function of any urban area is to grow, and in a sense you don’t want that sprawl to eliminate the resources that make it a wonderful place to live.”

King County has purchased farmland preservation easements on more than 14,000 acres in the county, including 224 acres on Vashon. Most of the preserved farmland on Vashon is at Misty Isle Farm, a cattle farm where 208 acres are now preserved for farming. Under such an easement, land can change hands but can only be used for agriculture.

As for the Matsuda property, Dean said he feels positive about raising funds for the purchase, though the nonprofit does have reserves it can fall back on. He’s heard a range of reactions to the land trust’s foray into farmland, though most have been supportive.

“Some people really love it,” he said. “We may even have some new major donors.”