latest news

The 2019 Fall Great Island’s Clean-Up (GICU) is coming this Saturday, September 28. This twice a year county wide cleaning event is when residents and visitor’s, individuals, businesses, clubs, school groups, parks and land trusts come together to pick-up litter and marine debris. Friends of the San Juans helps organize the beach clean-ups for San ... read more

You’ll see a timeline of our major accomplishments over the past 40 years, get updates on Friends’ current programs, and discover how you can get involved to protect what you love about the San Juan Islands and Salish Sea. Enjoy! Click here to download our 2019 newsletter. 

Thursday July 25, 4:00-5:30 p.m., San Juan Island Brewing Co., 410 A St., Friday Harbor., WA Join Friends of the San Juans in thanking 20 soldiers from the US Army’s 569th Engineering Dive Detachment who have been removing derelict fishing nets off of the west side of San Juan Island since July 7, 2019. Thousands ... read more

Curious about the role that vacation rentals play in our local community? What about the growth of vacation rentals around the world? A small, diverse group of Orcas community members have been gathering and researching this issue for the past couple of months and they’d like to invite you into the conversation! This community conversation will ... read more

Friends of the San Juans has launched a habitat restoration pilot project for public and private landowners on Lopez Island to prevent the spread of Italian Arum – we need your help. Italian Arum is a noxious weed and toxic to people and animals. Noxious weeds can degrade important wildlife habitat and natural areas and ... read more

Andrew Hursh studies at Vermont Law School, focusing on environmental law, public lands, and international climate change agreements. His motivation for a public interest legal career developed out of his science background and graduate research modeling climate change effects on soils. Andrew is a backcountry enthusiast and reveres special, wild places, which need dedicated public stewards. ... read more

Photographer, filmmaker, former NASA researcher, bird expert, and Lopezian Peter Cavanagh will present a photographic journey of a voyage along the Scotia Arc to Antarctica. Come learn more about the vast polar desert, its amazing wildlife, and how changes in climate there impact us locally and globally. A Photographic Journey: Climate and Antarctica Thursday, May ... read more

GiveBIG to protect what you love in the San Juans! Each dollar you donate to Friends of the San Juans on May 8 will be matched up to $25,000 by a generous donor! Your investment and support will help us: PROTECT AND RESTORE BEACHES for forage fish and salmon to enhance the food web for ... read more

Help make the San Juan Islands “Plastic Free by the Sea”! This year’s Great Islands Clean-up is on Saturday, April 20, 2019. Join the county-wide greening event and collect litter from public beaches and roadways. There will be litter clean-up events happening on Orcas, San Juan, Lopez and Shaw Islands this year. Litter picker-uppers will ... read more

In late January we traveled to Olympia with six high school students from Friday Harbor High and Spring Street International Schools to participate in the 2019 Environmental Priorities Coalition’s lobby day. We joined 500 other Washington State citizens and environmental groups to promote a transition to 100% clean electricity, orca emergency response, oil spill prevention, ... read more