As someone who spends much of my free time exploring island trails, I want to thank Lee Taylor and all of her staff and volunteers at San Juan Island National Historical Park for their recent efforts.

The ongoing prairie restoration work at American Camp reflects an active and thoughtful approach to land management that’s most welcome, and is the result of months of toil by many I’m sure.

Coupled with the ongoing controlled burns on Mt. Young, the smooth transition to NPS management of the former DNR Mitchell Hill and private Westcott Bay properties, and many other less obvious initiatives, we on the island are blessed to have such gems of open space all around us, and are lucky that they’re in such good hands.

Often it’s negative feedback that gets the most attention, but it feels important to appreciate the time and effort it takes to maintain some of these incredible resources that we might otherwise take for granted.

Brendan Cowan, Friday Harbor