An environmental education center was dealt a setback in attempts to purchase and protect 175 acres of land on Central Whidbey Island.

The Pacific Rim Institute will receive $300,000 in county Conservation Futures Funds, which is $100,000 short of the amount they wanted to help fund the purchase of the former Au Sable Institute.

Island County Commissioner Angie Homola wants to use some of the Conservation Futures taxes collected each year to pay down debt. That would allow for more money to be doled out for preservation projects in the coming years.

“I don’t like the process of leveraging against the future,” Homola said during a recent staff session.

Robert Pelant, executive director for the Pacific Rim Institute for Environmental Studies, said institute officials missed the chance to purchase the land from the Michigan-based Au Sable Institute.

“We lost the window to get the one-time simple fee purchase,” Pelant said. He added a long-term lease is already in place so the Pacific Rim Institute can still use the property for programs as it tries to raise more money for the purchase.

Island County is expected to collect between $660,000 and $688,000 a year for the next five years from the Conservation Futures property tax. Of that amount, approximately $110,000 a year goes toward the county’s share of the Greenbank Farm purchase, approximately $40,500 goes to pay for the Iverson property on Camano Island, and $50,000 a year until 2017 will go to the Port of Coupeville for a conservation easement on the Greenbank Farm.

After fulfilling Conservation Futures obligations, at least $450,000 a year through 2015 will remain to fund other preservation projects. Conservation Futures are funded by a 6.25 cent per $1,000 assessed value property tax.

The county commissioners are looking to fully fund the other two projects were in the running for Conservation Futures Funds this year.

The Whidbey Camano Land Trust will likely receive $250,000 to purchase farm easements throughout Central Whidbey Island.

The Port of Coupeville will receive $400,000, scattered over eight years, for a conservation easement that will also pay for half of the bonds remaining on the port’s purchase of the property. The commissioners are scheduled to approve Conservation Futures Funds Monday, Sept. 27, at 2 p.m. in the Commissioners’ Hearing Room, Courthouse Annex Building.