Check out our “Living with the Shoreline” Guide

Click here to view our “Living with the Shoreline” guide.

Waterfront properties in the San Juan Islands are part of a beautiful, complex, and increasingly fragile marine ecosystem that supports salmon, rockfish, seabirds, whales and human communities. Decisions made by owners of shoreline property can influence more than just their land. As one property owner noted “I wondered what can I, as one small person, do to help all of the animals that live in the water? It turns out that the orca feed on salmon, and salmon feed on the tiny little fish that spawn on my beach. For this reason, I will do all I can to keep our shoreline natural.”

Friends of the San Juans created the “Living with the Shoreline Stewardship Guide” to help provide information about cost effective and natural approaches to protecting waterfront property. The guide provides extensive technical information and resources on key topics of interest including vegetation management, coastal erosion and flooding, and the protection and restoration of habitat. Local landowners and properties are also highlighted throughout.

Click here to download the guide, or pick up a copy at the Friends of the San Juans office 650 Mullis St. Suite 201 in Friday Harbor.

Friends has done so much to identify those critical beaches where the forage fish are spawning and that is work that I value greatly. Once we know the spawning locations, we can permanently protect those very important beaches.

Debby Clausen and Kim Sundberg

members, San Juan Island