Here’s a thought…
“The competition between Nature and the economy is deep and broad.
In the short term, the economy usually wins. In the long term …?”
BILL APPEL
Land Bank meeting coming up on March 20
||| FROM SAN JUAN COUNTY CONSERVATION LAND BANK COMMISSION ||| The San Juan County Conservation Land Bank Commission will hold its monthly meeting Friday, March 20. The meeting is scheduled from 8:45am – 11:10am via
Review the Critical Areas Ordinance update at community meeting on April 6
A first draft of the updated regulation is now available for public comment, and the Department of Community Development (DCD) is holding a community meeting to accept feedback and walk residents through the documents. |||
The Island Gardener for March 2026
||| FROM ORCAS ISLAND GARDEN CLUB ||| March in the garden is always a bit of a tug-of-war between patience and pure excitement. Even after all these years, I still find myself getting swept up
Earth Day Orcas News | Join in the 4th annual celebration
||| FROM MARCY MONTGOMERY for EYE OF THE WHALE ARTS ||| 2026 marks the 4th year of engaging Earth Day learning experiences on Orcas Island and adds new features during this month-long series of Science,
No Place Like Loam | The pruning mistake creating water sprouts
(and costing you fruit, time, and money) ||| NO PLACE LIKE LOAM by ALEX TAMAYO WOLF ||| The Problem Made Visible I walk the same roads through Eastsound most mornings. It’s an old habit now.
Spring 2026 Great Islands Clean-Up | Our power, our planet
Join us for the 2026 Spring Great Islands Clean-Up on Saturday, April 18 ||| FROM SAN JUAN COUNTY COMMUNICATIONS ||| When islanders work together, small actions add up to big impact. This spring, the community
News Brief | AI and the decline of human agency
||| FROM POPULATION BALANCE ||| AI, under the dangerous control of tech oligarchs, is creating a world with shrinking human choice, creativity, and connection. How tech journalism emphasizes novelty and business profits and amplifies tech
Larsen announces $17.5 Million investment in Skagit Transit
||| FROM THE OFFICE OF U.S REP. RICK LARSEN ||| WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Representative Rick Larsen (WA-02) released the following statement: “Finally! Trump’s Department of Transportation (DOT) released $17.5 million it was holding hostage that
News Brief | Inside the dirty, dystopian world of AI data centers
||| FROM THE ATLANTIC ||| This is Colossus: a data center that Musk’s artificial-intelligence company, xAI, is using as a training ground for Grok, one of the world’s most advanced generative-AI models. Training these models
The Exchange Update | March 2026
||| FROM ORCAS RECYCLING (THE EXCHANGE) Drifting Dock Highlights Growing Microplastic Risk Last month, residents of Orcas Island responded to an incident involving a drifting dock with deteriorating plastic-wrapped styrofoam floats. The floats were breaking
Guest Opinion | Another Eastsound Water essay
||| FROM THOMAS OWENS ||| A Path Forward Eastsound Water’s ongoing turmoil is multi-faceted involving both tense Board-Membership interactions and instability in internal operation. While these two elements of the Association’s crisis are certainly intertwined,
CWR logs encounter with inbound J Pod
||| FROM CENTER FOR WHALE RESEARCH ||| Full Encounter Report ObservBegin: 10:55 AM ObservEnd: 03:00 PM Vessel: KCB III Staff: Dave Ellifrit, Michael Weiss, Katie Jones Pods: J IDsEncountered: J16, J19, J22, J26, J27, J31,
Kwiaht: Preparing for the next avian flu outbreak
||| FROM RUSSEL BARSH for KWIAHT ||| The San Juan Islands experienced an outbreak of highly-pathogenic avian flu (H5N1) from mid-November to mid-January. It probably began in lower San Juan Channel, between Cape San Juan
As Alaskan Chinook crisis deepens, Federal Court imposes deadline on overdue endangered species act decision
||| FROM EMMA HELVERSON for WILD FISH CONSERVANCY ||| Today we’re sharing an update on Wild Fish Conservancy’s effort to secure a timely federal decision on the status of Gulf of Alaska Chinook salmon under
Wind advisory in effect Wednesday afternoon through Thursday morning
||| FROM NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ||| URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Seattle WA 216 PM PDT Tue Mar 10 2026 San Juan County-Foothills and Valleys of the North Cascades- Foothills and Valleys of
