The County will work with stakeholders to define common messaging, identify strategies to manage wildlife/human interactions, and educate the public.
||| FROM SAN JUAN COUNTY COMMUNICATIONS |||
In an effort to manage interactions between island wildlife and the public, the County is hosting a series of community conversations. Pulling together a group of stakeholders including land managers, federal, state and local agency representatives, and community members, these conversations will provide an opportunity to define common messaging, identify strategies to manage wildlife/human interactions, and ways to educate the public.
Background
Many island residents have expressed concern about unlawful interactions between humans and wildlife over the years. Recently, locals have asked for Council guidance on the matter, prompting a series of meetings with local landowners and public land managers that culminated in a public presentation to Council on August 5, 2025.
During the presentation from Deputy County Manager Tillery Williams, the Council reviewed current examples of feeding and baiting wildlife – in particular, foxes on San Juan Island. The San Juan County Council discussed opportunities to support ongoing efforts to curtail inappropriate interactions with wildlife, focusing on education and outreach. The Council discussed the possibility of adopting an ordinance to more fully enforce wildlife restrictions, but noted a desire for additional outreach first.
Next Steps
At the August 5 meeting, Council directed staff to further engage with stakeholders by coordinating resources and continuing to collect public feedback. The stakeholder group that will be addressed includes public land managers and local landowners, representatives from the parks and environmental groups, representatives from the tourism industry and photographers, as well as other interested parties.
Members of the public are invited to provide comment or feedback on the topic by emailing communications@
Targeted resource gathering and outreach will be conducted throughout the fall with a summary report anticipated early in 2026.
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Ah yes the County Council and agency staff have nothing more important to attend to than one more tempest in a teapot. SJI is a hotbed of ill-informed scofflaws wrongly considering themselves as “environmentalists” and “animal lovers” while illegally feeding deer, stunted fox and bald eagles. Diseases are taking out unfit and susceptible fox, racoons, hares and deer (again). Fools arriving from lives suburban wastelands think that this place is a natural wonderland. Nothing could be further from the truth. A few years back there were a couple of well-attended public meetings about the deer overpopulation and positive effects of hunting. Many minds were opened to the light of our highly disturbed terrestrial ecosystem reality. The National Park Service met with the public and has responded to serious threatening human behaviors at American Camp by effectively managed the small contingents of stupid photographers circling dens and feeding road fox.
Mis guided fools even include a retired sheriff creating Eagle Jams on Roche Harbor Rd in summer by feeding Eagles chicken. Cape San Juan as expected harbors some incredibly dim people.
My point is that we cannot do anything more to prevent stupid people from doing stupid things regarding wildlife. There are many fox dens around the island that are on private lands and generally unbothered by intrusions. Unpredated deer are back on the upswing and soon car repair shops and businesses that sell fencing materials will be busy and turkey vulture populations will increase. All by themselves almost like real nature. Bring on the cougars!