The resident orcas are here mostly from May to September, hunting once-abundant salmon runs. Today, that prey is depleted. A major humpy run is passing through the San Juans right now, but if you’re an orca you have to catch more humpies than you do a massive chinook. And you have to do it in waters that are polluted. Those problems extend beyond a half-mile boundary, and they extend beyond May to September. Those problems are regional and they are year-round. We need to enforce the laws we have now. We need to promote alternative ways to watch the whales and other wildlife. We need to keep improving salmon habitat. We need to keep cleaning up the sea.
When two of three members of the former County Commission have been female, and four of five Friday Harbor Town Council members have been female, gender would seem to be irrelevant in local politics. But there’s one more glass ceiling to shatter: In the Town of Friday Harbor’s 100 years, 24 individuals have served as mayor — all of them men. Come November, Carrie Lacher hopes to be elected the town’s first female mayor.
The San Juan Island Community Foundation has provided funding for a limited number of tickets for Back to the Farm, the San Juan Historical Museum’s barn dance, dinner and fund-raiser. The event is Sept. 19, 3:30-8:30 p.m., on the museum grounds at 405 Price St., next to St. Francis Church. “This is a family event and times are tough for many families,” Museum President Mary Jean Cahail said. “We are grateful for the contribution of the community foundation, which will make it easier for more parents and their children to attend.”
This Friday is the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania. To commemorate the event and honor all who lost their lives that day, there will be a simple remembrance ceremony at the base of Spring Street near Memorial Park.
Luma Libelle Smith was born on Aug. 17 at the birth center on Whidbey Island. Her parents are Alexis Reifenstuhl and Ryan Smith of Friday Harbor. Her grandparents are Gail and Rocky Reifenstuhl of Fairbanks, Alaska, and Margie and Allan Smith of Friday Harbor.
This is a small community. It is disappointing to hear from people who have had conversations with one or two of the council members and who have come away with the observation that those council members have closed their minds to any other views on critical areas and environmental protection.
This fall, the local Amnesty group will provide more opportunities to write to people experiencing human rights violations and to those in governments that have the power to stop those violations. We’ll hold Write-A-Thons at the Naked Bean Café, 150B First St., in Friday Harbor, on the second Thursday of each month from 4:30-6:30 p.m.
On Aug. 25 in Friday Harbor, County Councilman Richard Fralick, Orcas West, presented a very good question to the Critical Areas Ordinance panel of experts. He asked what harm is done by a house on the shoreline. A state wildlife biologist thought carefully about the question, and then answered that a house removes habitat. That is a very good answer for someone who studies land-based ecology. Hearing this answer, you might then think: Well, a house removes habitat if it is near or far from the shoreline, so why do larger shoreline buffers matter?
And these 52 souls traveled to Seattle, joining the Great Migration to one of the designated Doomed Cities, there to live out Humanity’s few remaining days in the Hell that the Great Environmental Leader foretold would befall Man/Womankind Humanity who failed to convert to the Word.
Jazz meets gospel music in two concerts at St. David’s Episcopal Church Sundays, Sept. 13 and 20 at 4 p.m. in Friday Harbor. The arrangements are part of a continuing effort by veteran jazz saxophonist Rich Barker to create jazz arrangements for traditional sacred music.
Charles Chevalier is still at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, recovering from near drowning when his purse seiner sank off the southwest side of San Juan Island Aug. 28. “Yesterday, Charlie was able to get up and walk around a little, but he’s still very weak,” crew member Ken Edwards told the La Conner Weekly News today. “He’s back on the ventilator to give his lungs a rest.”
Change will not happen without ongoing community input. As such, I encourage you to contact the Town Council to make appropriate modifications in the current roads and for future construction before somebody is hurt.
For the last couple of days, we’ve been vacationing on San Juan Island and have been fortunate to see the orca whales several times off the southwest side of the island. What an amazing sight! It’s even more amazing to see how close the whale-watching boats get to them.
