Match Unlocked Thanks to YOU | Eighty individuals and families made gifts totaling $100,508 during our summer fundraiser—exceeding our goal and helping us access a $100,000 matching gift! Your support has allowed us to post another full time job opportunity, the next step in our ongoing transition toward being a fully staffed organization carrying on our founders' legacy. Thanks to you, our future looks bright. | Position Available for Engagement Director | |
Do you or someone you know have the experience and energy to lead our public engagement work?
WEAN is hiring an Engagement Director. The person in this role will mobilize the public, increase membership in WEAN, increase the engagement of members in environmental advocacy and civic action, and tell WEAN’s story to Island County community members and the larger public.
The right person for this job will enjoy the challenge and opportunity of defining this new role as we move out of our founders’ era and into becoming a fully staffed organization.
Please click here to view and share this opportunity.
| Thank You, Whidbey Community Foundation | We were honored to receive a $5,000 grant from Whidbey Community Foundation (WCF) in November. WCF serves a vital role in our community, awarding over $206,000 to 40 nonprofits this year. Their other services include publication of a nonprofit directory and provision of training and capacity-building support for nonprofits. Thank you, WCF, for your support of WEAN and for all you do to make our community stronger. | Deer Lagoon Advocacy Opportunities | By Carlos Andersen and Whidbey Audobon Society | Photo by Carlos Andersen | |
Deer Lagoon Preserve is a National Audubon registered Important Bird Area (IBA) with at least 211 different bird species documented. It consists of marsh, tidelands/mud flats, open water, and surrounding woodlands. The species mix is appropriate to these habitats. Washington State Fish and Wildlife has concluded Deer Lagoon is the single most important site on Whidbey Island for use by waterfowl, year around. The lagoon is a critical resting and feeding site for migrating shorebirds in the spring and fall. It has been labeled the most important wetlands in Island County. River otters and coyotes are frequent visitors.
Deer Lagoon Preserve is under increasing pressures and needs enhanced protections. To learn how you can help, please visit Whidbey Audobon Society's Deer Lagoon Preserve Advocacy page.
| CEO Robert Pelant, DVM Steps Down at Pacific Rim Institute |  | |
Founder and Chief Executive Officer Robert Pelant, DVM is retiring from his position with Pacific Rim Institute for Environmental Stewardship (PRI), effective December 29, 2023.
Living and working on the Coupeville site since June of 2005, Dr. Pelant succeeding in bringing a large portion of prairie remnant back to good health and in building out a robust prairie restoration program. Stock from PRI's native plant nursery has served to increase biodiversity onsite, where Pelant and team steward 100 acres of prairie and 75 acres of Douglas fir forest, as well as at other project sites around the Pacific Northwest. The return of the golden paintbrush is just one example of PRI's restoration success.
From their website, "The golden paintbrush plant (Castilleja levisecta) is listed on the Endangered Species List as threatened in the State of Washington. PRI has one of the largest and most rapidly expanding populations in existence."
Dr. Pelant has built collaborative relationships with restoration ecologists, educators, and tribal members and has nurtured connections leading to a return of traditional indigenous camas harvesting on the Coupeville prairie. He has been a great partner to WEAN, including by protecting and restoring the prairie we worked so hard to defend in the 1990s and 2000s.
WEAN's office is located in the Roost at Pacific Rim Institute. While we'll miss Robert, we wish him a joyful retirement and hold the deepest hope that his successor and other team members at PRI will carry on and expand his exemplary restoration programming.
| Keeping an Eye on Washington's CAFOs | Photo from Washington State Department of Agriculture, Public Domain | |
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) pose significant dangers to human, animal, and environmental health. As pointed out in John Lovie's article on the subject (see Surf or Turf?, in Sidebar), Washington State has one cow for every seven people.
A June 2021 decision by the Washington State Court of Appeals found that CAFO permits had been issued in violation of the law, and the Department of Ecology's revised permits have fallen short of addressing all of the issues of concern to the court.
From Friends of Toppenish Creek, On January 6, 2023, a coalition of five environmental groups, Friends of Toppenish Creek, Puget Soundkeeper, Center for Food Safety, Waterkeeper Alliance, and Sierra Club, filed an appeal with the WA State Pollution Control Hearings Board regarding Ecology’s newly issued WA State Discharge Permit and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). The appellants believe that the permits are contrary to law because they are inconsistent with the requirements and intent of the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) and the WA State Water Pollution Control Act (WPCA).
Keeping an eye on intensive animal agriculture operations, including feedlots and dairies with open manure lagoons, is key to protecting our land, water, and health. Washington State has fallen short in this work time and time again, and we need more attention on this issue at the county, state, and federal levels.
Thank you, Friends of Toppenish Creek, for working to reduce the harm of CAFOs in our communities.
| Curbside Recycling Survey | |
Curbside recycling is coming to South Whidbey, and Island Disposal is surveying the community to understand interest in the new program.
While it's far from a perfect solution, this will make recycling more accessible for some residents and is a step in the right direction toward reducing household waste. We recommend reusing containers as a greener alternative.
Respond to the survey here.
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Environmental Justice a Key Theme Throughout Biden’s National Climate Assessment, by Kristoffer Tigue, Georgina Gustin, Liza Gross, Victoria St. Martin, Inside Climate News | State of the Climate, from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information | Sound Off: New Growth Planning Will Shape the Future, by Island County Commissioner Jill Johnson, the South Whidbey Record | Plant of the Month: Acer Macrophyllum (Bigleaf Maple) | Photo by Kenny Louie, CC2.0 | |
The species name tells you: macro=big, phyllum=leaf.
I’ve got those huge bright yellow leaves all over the front of my driveway. Funny how you don’t really notice the tree until those big bright leaves start drifting down. Bigleaf maples prefer steep and wettish sites, but will do well in many habitats. Really big old specimens are whole ecosystems in themselves. The best example I can think of is the tree on the west side of Smuggler’s Cove Road, across from where the Harry Wilbert Trail comes down from the ancient cedar. It’s a big tree, with crooked branches in all directions. Those crooked branches are covered in moss and Licorice fern, among other species. The crown is a giant apartment complex of birds, squirrels, and chipmunks. There’s a row of them, evenly spaced, along Newman Road, planted by a woman who, as a child, came across the country in a covered wagon. The family settled in Langley, and she collected seedlings and planted them as she walked to school each day.
|  | Photo by Peter Stevens, CC2.0 | |
People have seen the ‘helicopter’ seeds floating down, but long before that, fairly early in spring, the flower catkins elongate. I never tried, but others have made fritters of those catkins. I’m told they’re very nice to eat. My old friend Myrna Twomey tapped the trees for sap. It takes an awful lot of sap to make a little syrup. I was not overly impressed with the final product. I’ve seen plans and proposals to create a Bigleaf maple syrup industry, but those never seem to take off. It's just nowhere as nice as “real” sugar maple syrup from New England. Among other things, we don’t have the climate for it. What makes it work in Vermont is to have fairly warm (at least above freezing) days and hard frost nights.
Good Grub reports, Bigleaf maple flowers are harvested in spring when they are budding on the tip and are fully open at the base of the flower cluster. They are full of sweet nectar and pollen. Try eating the flowers straight, using them as a garnish on salads or soups, or adding them to baked goods like pancakes. Bigleaf maple leaves are traditionally used for pit roasting and for wrapping food. In early spring, bigleaf maple trees can be tapped to gather sap. This is heated and reduced into maple syrup.
There are usually a whole lot of Bigleaf seedlings around mature trees. They are easy to dig and transplant when less than one foot tall, and you’ll be doing the world a favor because people really don’t want Bigleaf maples growing in their rain gutters, driveways, or road edges. Do think about where you plant them, because they will grow up much faster than you expect.
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