President Donald Trump’s executive orders and funding freezes continue to impact the islands through various departments and organizations. The back-and-forth nature of the litigation process, i.e., lawsuits, stays, appeals, etc., is offering some relief to those in need of funds while also contributing to an overall atmosphere of uncertainty.

Parks

More than 24,000 probationary federal employees have been terminated since Jan. 20. Probationary means any employee who has gotten a new job, promotion or transfer within the last 12 months. One thousand of those terminations occurred on Feb. 14 within the National Parks Service.

San Juan Island National Historical Park, which includes both English Camp and American Camp, was one of the parks with probationary employees. One was terminated without notice on Valentine’s Day – others were worried they were next, according to an anonymous source within the department.

“The park is fully staffed and gearing up for a busy summer season as usual,” Elexis Fredy, superintendent of SJI National Historical Park, said in response to a long list of questions regarding the layoffs and potential rehirings.

“NPS employees nationwide are preparing for an exciting peak season, with a shared goal of delivering exceptional service and unforgettable park experience,” the NPS Office of Public Affairs told the Journal in response to questions about the layoffs. “We’re committed to keeping access to national parks seamless, so that everyone can enjoy the beauty and wonder of these treasured landscapes across the country.”

In the meantime, a federal judge granted an injunction against the Office of Personnel Management, finding the terminations unlawful and requiring their reversal. The Trump Administration asked for a stay, which was denied. That decision was appealed to the Supreme Court, who just this month ruled with Trump for 16,000 of the terminations, halting rehirings.

Islanders gathered at American Camp on March 1, joining a nationwide “Save Our Parks” protest and supporting the local employees who dedicate their time and efforts to the parks.

“People don’t understand, this impacts every single person,” an anonymous citizen said about the parks. “As a community, we’re probably going to have to identify resources and figure out how to keep things going that are really important. But at the same time I say that, I don’t want to give this federal administration a get-out-of-jail-free card. I don’t think people should be volunteering at national parks. These are people’s jobs.”

The terminated NPS employees have been rehired as of this month — after weeks of limbo and being out of work. Now, with litigation continuing, they’re unsure whether they will stay, and even more hesitant to speak out about what’s happened and how it’s impacting their lives.

Health and community services

On March 27, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced sweeping employment cuts and department consolidations, under the direction of new Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy.

Kennedy and President Trump’s plan to “Make America Healthy Again” wasn’t well-received by many states, 24 of which joined together in a lawsuit on April 1 against the Department of HHS for “abruptly and illegally terminating $11 billion in critical public health grants to the states.”

Washington state could lose $159 million in public health from these cancelations if funding is not restored.

San Juan County Health and Community Services Department Director Mark Tompkins says that his department relies heavily on state and federal funding.

“We have a fairly large grant budget,” he said. “We are probably half funded by state and federal grants. Primarily the funds we do receive are used for staff salaries and benefits, so any reduction would be a potential impact to staffing. Clearly that’s something we are aware of and monitoring closely.”

Tompkins clarified that nothing has happened locally, yet – no grants have been pulled.

“As of right now, we are in wait-and-see mode,” he said. “We’ve not had any direct impacts. We haven’t received notifications saying any grants are ceasing immediately. At this point, it’s all speculation. We are continuing to monitor what, if any, reductions may be coming from state level or federal level that would impact our programs and services. For now, we wait.”

Agriculture

The San Juan Islands have 18,400 acres of active farmland, according to the Ag Guild, which produces “mixed vegetables, orchard crops and berries, lavender and other herbs, fiber, grains, hay, grass-fed meats (beef, pork, lamb, goat, poultry), dairy products and eggs, as well as value-added products, including compost, artisan cheese, and distilled spirits.”

Farmers frequently rely on reimbursement grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, meaning they invest their own cash upfront and then are paid back later. Many farmers on the islands use these grants, such as the REAP (Rural Energy for America Program) grant and EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program) grant for infrastructure and operations.

“These grants are an important pathway to keeping agriculture on the islands viable for our community,” Adam Greene of Oak Knoll Farms, said. “The commercial farms out here are too small to benefit from the large ag subsidy programs we are seeing currently promoted by the federal government, but we’re still hit by all the same market forces, with our costs in some cases more than doubling.”

Fertilizer and large agricultural equipment have been two large cost increases, according to Greene, but not the only ones. Many small farmers on the islands had already spent their own money on previously approved grants and were awaiting reimbursement when the Jan. 20 executive orders froze USDA funds.

“We were stuck not knowing if we would ever see that funding,” Sarah Pope, Greene’s partner at Oak Knell, told the Journal. “There are a number of other island farms that had the REAP grant and were in the same boat.”

The Island Grown Farmers Cooperative, which is the meat processor for almost all farmers on the islands, recently installed a new solar array on their Skagit County building. The improvement would ultimately result in $11K-plus in energy savings per year but would cost $92K, which the REAP grant was approved for prior to installation. With January’s executive orders, USDA funds were frozen after the solar installation, but before reimbursement.

According to IGFC members, island farmers started to get nervous not only about their own grants and reimbursement but about what a financial struggle their cooperative could potentially face if those funds didn’t come through. Having limited options for butchering means one big blow to one organization, through no fault of their own, could have countywide implications.

The relief felt by farmers with the March 25 release of USDA funding came with a side of confusion – as they were asked to “review and voluntarily revise their project plans to align with Trump’s Unleashing American Energy Executive Order,” which meant “eliminating Biden-era DEIA and climate mandates embedded in previous proposals.” It’s unclear the purpose of the request or the deadline, as in some places on the USDA website, it says that modifying grant proposals isn’t required in order to receive funding.

The lack of clarity around why proposals need to be revised within 30 days and what the USDA is looking for created more tension, even as funding is currently rolling out. Pope had her solar project reimbursed this month (notably without revising her proposal) but isn’t sure she even wants to start her second project because of how uncertain everything is.

“The contract was already signed in December, the grant has been approved,” she explained. “But our uncertainty is whether to invest money to purchase equipment and begin work on the project.”

She believes the uncertainty is what’s causing the most damage to the farming community right now.

“It’s important to recognize that just the uncertainty is really impacting farmers,” she said. “This is planting time. How can people decide to invest in planting a crop if the market might not be there for it? People are having a tremendously stressful time just trying to figure out what to do.”

When asked if they felt pressured to change their grant proposal as a way to not jeopardize future funding, Greene said, “Absolutely. We spent a ton of time working with our USDA grant officers, other farmers all over the nation, and even lawyers, trying to figure out what to do. We did not ultimately modify our grant, but we didn’t know what was going to happen until the reimbursement check was deposited.”

One local farmer, who preferred to remain anonymous, was extremely anxious to witness the chaos that occurred around grants that were technically a legally binding contract with the government.

“One of our grant officers was fired, but then rehired a week later, but they weren’t able to get back on the computer systems because the IT folks had been fired as well,” the farmer explained. “So we were communicating with our USDA contact on their personal cell phone, often late at night, working together to get this sorted.”

Ultimately, this kind of disorganization and unreliability impacts the decisions farmers make, especially when they can’t trust government-signed contracts.

“Agriculture needs a constructive working relationship with the government to work efficiently for our communities,” the anonymous farmer said. “That isn’t always the case, of course, but this level of chaos was unprecedented and so incredibly damaging. Even though our grant was eventually paid, for many farms that has not been the case in what was really a grossly dishonest bait-and-switch.”

The Ag Guild

Lauren Bigelow, executive director of the Ag Guild, has had a front-row seat to how funding cuts have impacted public farming programs. One grant in particular that has been frozen – they were supposed to reapply in February – impacts the Ag Guild, the Food Hub, the Conservation District, WSU Extension and the Northwest Agricultural Business Center.

“Between all of us, we have important hands on farm planning and distribution logistics, workshops and resources,” Bigelow explained. “We put on the San Juan County Agricultural Summit, run the Farmer to Farmland program, work with WSU to provide workshops throughout the year, help people write grants, offer education. There’s a mentorship program where we partner new farmers with more established farmers and are able to pay the mentors for their time. Basically we are helping facilitate a passing down of knowledge within our farming community.”

The Farmer to Farmland program has been put on hold indefinitely while funding is established.

Last year’s grant was for $300,000 – the Ag Guild has been planning for 2025 as though they’d have a similar amount. They have about $180,000 that should be reimbursed but systems are frozen, no information is coming, and everything is in limbo.

“Even our grant managers don’t have an idea of what’s going on, so it does feel like it’s not just the application that’s delayed,” Bigelow said. “There’s certainly an undertone of – is it even going to be available at all? We are in a really precarious situation.”

They’ve had to cut their staff hours in half and let go of the Farmer to Farmland coordinator. Bigelow is wearing most of the hats, trying to run all of the programs and solve all of the problems while coming up with a new strategy moving forward, and dipping into savings that may never be reimbursed.

She is surprisingly upbeat for being in such dire straits. She, similar to the other executive directors who have been impacted by these cuts, is seeing this as an opportunity to figure out local fundraising and work with other agencies.

“We are going to try to work together – to raise the water for all boats versus feeling like we are competing for the same resources,” Bigelow said. “There’s an opportunity for us to connect with the community in different ways. We get to communicate more clearly what the issues are, what the services are and why they matter.”

She feels sure that the island community is in a position to move things forward – with or without federal help.

“We live in such a special place. If you live here, it’s because you want to. You have this connection and care for this place,” Bigelow said. “It naturally makes people kind of co-creators, or feel some level of ownership in creating the culture here, and deciding what’s successful here. It’s empowering and so engaging. We live in a great container to try out some of these new models and there are some really exciting conversations happening.”

Libraries

The Washington Digital Library Consortium is a group of 40 small and rural libraries that provide broad access to e-book, e-audiobook and e-magazine collections – managing resources and materials that these smaller areas would not have the ability to administer otherwise.

The San Juan Island Library, Orcas Island Public Library, Lopez Island Library, Shaw Island Library and Guemes Island Library are all members of the consortium.

On March 14, an executive order was released by the federal administration making “deep cuts” to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which funds the WDLC through the Washington State Library. Although the libraries here are primarily funded through voter-approved property tax levies, the consortium members and their patrons will still see the effects of federal cuts.

A WSL position would be eliminated from the consortium, which plays a key role in purchasing added copies, in meetings with the Executive Advisory Committee that sets terms for the service and budget planning and oversight for the consortium. The role of the Office of the Secretary of State as a fiscal agent for the WDLC would be discontinued. And there would be a $50,000-$65,000 decrease to the budget for acquiring copies.

“If these consequences come into play,” SJI Library Director Laurie Orton said to the Journal, “the WDLC may need to focus on a future structure without the aid of the WSL or the fiscal agency of the OSOS.”

WSL’s LibTech program could be cut, which would increase pricing and decrease quality of technology available to libraries. Employee trainings would likely decrease, consultants would be eliminated and grants for innovative programming and services could be impacted.

“Those wishing to voice concerns over the federal administration’s executive order against IMLS funding can find suggestions at the EveryLibrary Institute, a nonprofit corporation that supports library funding across the United States,” the island library directors said in a joint statement on March 27. “Our island libraries thank the community for its continual support, and we will continue to work to provide quality services and resources to the community.”