Category: Latest News
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What’s at Stake With “Essential Public Facility” Designation for Renewable Energy Projects in San Juan County?
San Juan County is considering changes to the Comprehensive Plan that would classify utility-scale renewable energy projects, such as large solar arrays, battery storage sites, or experimental tidal energy devices, as Essential Public Facilities (EPFs). Friends of the San Juans supports responsible renewable energy, but we have significant concerns about a blanket approach to EPF…
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Housing and San Juan County’s Comprehensive Plan Update
Housing in San Juan County is deeply tied to the health of both people and the environment. When homes are unaffordable, residents are forced into survival mode, limiting community participation and fueling cycles of inequality and environmental degradation. With nearly half of all homes sitting vacant or used seasonally, sprawl increasing, and affordability shrinking, Friends…
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Community Resilience and San Juan County’s Comprehensive Plan Update
Known as the “Comp Plan,” the County’s Comprehensive Plan includes goals and policies to guide how our community will look in the future. This includes policies to protect our remaining forests, agricultural lands, and healthy shorelines; a blueprint for our community’s transportation needs; goals for developing housing to serve everyone in our community; and much…
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Honoring Native American Heritage Month
Every November, Native American Heritage Month invites us to honor the histories, modern day cultures, and ongoing leadership of Indigenous peoples across the United States. Here in the San Juan Islands and the greater Salish Sea, this month carries a particularly deep meaning. The islands are the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary homelands of multiple Coast…
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San Juan County Comprehensive Plan Update – the Final Push
San Juan County is close to finalizing their latest update to the Comprehensive Plan or Comp Plan. The Comp Plan provides a high-level framework for issues like housing, transportation, water, climate, and land use. Once approved, the updated Comp Plan will guide new policies and shape how the County prepares and plans for growth over…
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Restoring Eelgrass to Protect Herring and Salmon
Follow along as Friends of the San Juans improves conditions for eelgrass! Eelgrass meadows are a cornerstone of the San Juan Islands’ marine ecosystem. But in many local herring spawning areas, eelgrass meadows have declined along with the herring populations that depend on it. Since Chinook salmon rely on herring as a critical food source,…
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Environmental Coalition Appeals Whatcom County Decision for Expansions at Ferndale Terminal
A coalition of six environmental organizations has taken the next step to ensure those voices are heard. The coalition filed a formal legal appeal of Whatcom County’s decision to permit 33 major terminal expansion projects, 31 of which were completed several years ago without permits and without a thorough environmental review.
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Volunteer Spotlight: Elyse Woodruff
Friends is honored to have Elyse Woodruff join the Friends team as a new member of our Legal Review Committee! Elyse was first introduced to Friends through one of our European Green Crab community science trainings on Orcas Island this summer. Inspired by the presentation, she invited Friends to bring the program to her neighbors…
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Friends of the San Juans Restores Critical Shoreline Habitat at Neck Point, Shaw Island
Friends of the San Juans (Friends) has successfully restored another ecologically important beach in San Juan County. Neck Point, the westernmost point of Shaw Island, is treasured by islanders and marine life alike, and it has now been designated as a vital spawning habitat for forage fish, a cornerstone species in the Salish Sea food…
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A Super Volunteer Story: Meet Tony Imkamp
Every summer, the San Juan County Fair brings people together to celebrate the community, farms and agriculture, and island spirit that make this place so unique. For Friends of the San Juans, it’s also an opportunity to connect with supporters and share how each of us can contribute to protecting the San Juan Islands and…
