I am honored to join you and the team in service to our incredible mission at Friends of the San Juans. I look forward to connecting with you soon!
As I review our current work and learn about our history, I am inspired by the important and often hard choices our organization has made and informed. The San Juan Islands and Salish Sea bring front to mind wonderment, adventure, and respect for natural beauty, and call us to consider our sense of place and responsibility within it.
As I share my new role with people who do not intimately know the San Juan Islands (as perhaps you do) they share what they do know—watching wildlife at Lime Kiln State Park or honeymooning in the islands. We all know how important it is to give Southern Resident killer whales their space, and that viewing them from shore at public places like Lime Kiln Point State Park is important. Imagine if Limekiln Village, a planned development for up to 300 units proposed in the 1980s, stood on the westside of San Juan Island for only some to enjoy. This is one of the many victories led by Friends of the San Juans that has benefited millions.
Our work matters. It is guided by science and informed by intentional conversations and research. In an uncertain future, we need to be steadfast in examining policy, law, land use, and social impacts present in our decisions today.
I will be on a Listening Tour over the next two months, and I welcome introductions to the people and places that make the San Juan Islands revered and renowned areas of beauty and natural wonder. If you have any recommendations for my visits, please let me know. I look forward to working with you to protect and preserve the San Juan Islands and the Salish Sea for people and nature!
In Partnership,
Eva Kathleen Schulte Executive Director Friends of the San Juans eva[at]sanjuans.org 360-378-3991
The Friends of the San Juans do such a wonderful job of keeping on top of things like the transit of freighters through the Straits and their impact on whales as well as protecting our environment. Jim and I fell in love with the islands, the wildlife, and fishing. We hope to preserve it, not only for our family but for other families, well into the future.
Glen and Deb Bruels
members, San Juan Island
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