Good Steward Awards Highlight Sustainability Fair

Iris Parker Pavitt, Winner of the Youth Stewardship Award, at the 2009 Sustainability Fair

Updated May 3 at 6:45 p.m.

Orcas Islanders win in Youth, Educator & Business Stewardship categories

The sun shone on Saturday as the Sustainability Fair — and the opening day of the Farmers Market — took place on the Village Green in Eastsound. Vendors and agencies displayed their products and projects, and the “Finnie” Stewardship Awards were handed out.

The Stewardship Award winners were:

• Youth Stewardship Award (Iris Parker Pavitt, Orcas Island)
• Educator Stewardship Award (Denise Wilk, Orcas Island)
• Business Stewardship Award (Smith and Speed Mercantile, Kathleen Smith and Errol Speed, Orcas Island)
• Individual Stewardship Award (Julia Loyd, Waldron Island)
• Farmland Stewardship (Mitchell Bay Farm, Owners Bruce Gregory and Colleen Howe, San Juan Island)

The County-wide sustainability fair as organized by the Stewardship Network was held on Lopez Island last year, and on San Juan Island the year before. Orcas Island had its own Sustainability Fair in 2009, organized by Sharon Abreu, Samara Shaw, and Sustainable Orcas Island.

The noon ceremony announcing the Good Steward winners included remarks by Phil Heikkinen about the Youth Stewardship Award, and by Kathleen Foley about the other awards, shown below:

Youth Stewardship Award — Iris Parker Pavitt, Orcas Island

Once again, the Good Steward Award for Youth Stewardship goes to an Orcas Island teen. We are pleased to announce that Iris Parker Pavitt is this year’s award winner.

Iris is a junior at Orcas High School. She is currently the President of the Orcas High School Environmental Club. Since taking over the leadership of the club, Iris has led the charge to continue pressing for good recycling practices within the school.  She has also orchestrated the making of a video for entry in “America’s Greenest Schools” contest. The video depicts a variety of projects the club has conducted, as well as ideas for how they could use the $20,000 “Green School Makeover” that is the grand prize.

Iris served as a delegate to the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development from 2006 through 2008.

Iris is also a coordinator of the Farm Education and Sustainability for Teens (FEAST) program on Orcas, and serves on the Farm-to-Cafeteria board. In 2009, she attended the National Farm-to-Cafeteria board. She attended the Real Food Challenge Northwest Summit held in 2009, and this year helped to organize the Summit with a particular focus on involving high school students. She completed an internship with Rhonda Barbieri of La Campesina Project from 2009 to 2010.

She is currently teaching a Green Kids class at The Funhouse to children interested in learning more about sustainable living practices.

For this year’s Sustainable Living Fair, in her role as a Library Intern, Iris compiled and annotated a bibliography of books related to sustainability for the Orcas Island Public Library.

Iris, your energy and enthusiasm for creating the change you want to see in the world is infectious. Thank you for sharing your time and talents. We are pleased to honor you with this year’s Youth Stewardship Award.

Shona Aiken of Wolf Hollow and Jeff Hanson of the County Marine Advisory Committee at the 2010 Sustainability Fair

Educator Stewardship Award — Denise Wilk, Orcas Island

Denis Wilk has a passion for the environment. For the past seven years, she has single-handedly organized and hosted the “Environment Fair,” which takes place each May at the Orcas Landing. She has visited a number of schools to talk to island children about conservation issues and shares a simple and direct message about our connectivity to the natural world. In her work with schoolchildren, she has had the children express what they learn through art, which is subsequently displayed at each year’s Environmental Fair.

Her love of all things marine has led Denise to serve as the Vice President of  the “Keepers of the Patos Light” group, as a volunteer for three years at the Turn Point Lighthouse on Stuart, and as a board member of the Marine Resources Committee for 5 years.

Denise is a force of nature… for nature. We are happy to present her with this year’s Educator Stewardship ‘award.

Business Stewardship Award : Smith and Speed Mercantile Kathleen Smith and Errol Speed, Orcas Island

Kathleen Smith and Errol Speed have come to be known as the “go-to” people for the supplies, equipment and advice for living a low-impact and sustainable lifestyle on Orcas Island.

Kathleen and Errol set up their storefront, “Smith and Speed Mercantile” after discovering a mutual passion for environmentally-friendly products and a sustainable lifestyle.  Kathleen had a background in distribution of natural products, and Errol had many years’ experience in organic gardening and agriculture. The Mercantile is touted as an “alternative general store,” and it is here that Kathleen and Errol sell everything from woodworking tools, local art, organic clothing, seeds, and gardening equipment. In fact, they stand firmly behind the products they sell, as they have used everything in the store personally.

At home, Kathleen and Errol live off the grid, plow their fields with draft horses, and use goats to clear brush. They provide low-impact land development and building services. Through the store and their services, they have been very effective at being a hub for local sustainability. They connect land suppliers and buyers, and service providers with clients.

We thank Kathleen and Errol for sharing their knowledge and passion for living a sustainable lifestyle with the island community, and are happy to present them with the Business Stewardship Award.

Individual Stewardship Award — Julia Loyd, Waldron Island

Julia Loyd exemplifies grassroots commitment to environmental stewardship based in home and community. Julie, along with her husband David, is passionate about sharing their sense of place.

She has been influential in fostering scientific knowledge in the Waldron community through projects that range from surveying beached birds and witer seabirds, to zooplankton population studiens, and has helped create a citzne science program that is being looked at as a model in other areas. Julie added depth and perspective to scientific knowledge by interviewing elders and creating an archive of local nature observation.

When you’re surrounded by water, it’s easy to slip into being island-centric. By reaching out while keeping a strong, sustaining sense of place intact, Julie breaks through this isolationism by fostering partnerships that connect us into one island community. Thank you Julie, for your commitment and vision. We are happy to present you with today’s Good Steward Award for Individual Stewardship.

Woodland Stewardship Award — Shaun Hubbard and Harold Kawaguchi, San Juan Island

Shaun Hubbard and Harold Kawaguchi have a mission. They are dedicated to the preservation and restoration of a highly imperiled ecosystem – the Garry oak woodland. Shaun and Harold live on Cady Mountain, where this remnant ecosystem still survives. For the last eight years they have been working diligently on restoring the oak trees on their property.  They have planted numerous oak saplings and have used low-impact forestry techniques, such as girdling and controlled burns, to remove encroaching Douglas fir forest and shrubs. The result is a peek into our islands’ past. Wildflowers abound, and the large oaks spread out with full reaching crowns, supporting a range of biodiversity not found in much of the islands.

Shaun and Harold have taken an active role in preaching the gospel of the Garry oak by helping neighbors conduct similar activities on their lands and attending conferences and seminars to educate themselves further. They have been active participants in the San Juan Islands Western Bluebird Reintroduction Project, a species that is closely associated with Garry oaks throughout its range. So that the property that they have so lovingly restored will remain that way in perpetuity, Shaun and Harold have taken steps towards long-term conservation in partnership with the San Juan County Land Bank.

Thank you, Shaun and Harold, for all you are doing to enhance the biodiversity of our island, by sharing your enthusiasm, and by leading by example. We – and the oaks – thank you, and are pleased to award you this year’s Good Steward Award for Woodland Stewardship.

Farmland Stewardship — Mitchell Bay Farm, Owners Bruce Gregory and Colleen Howe, San Juan Island

Bruce Gregory and Colleen Howe-Gregory own Mitchell Bay Farm and Nursery (MBFN), located on San Juan Island. MBFN is one of the most sustainable farms in San Juan County. They raise a variety of products on their 20-acre farm, including a nursery with a focus on organically produced and deer-resistant plant varieties; orchard and cane fruits including multiple varieties of apples, kiwis, plums, figs and Asian pears; lambs which are sold for meat and fleeces; and honey made by bees that spend a lot of time in Colleen’s beautiful and bee-friendly garden. Colleen also makes soaps and salves, using natural ingredients.

Mitchell Bay Farm is a place for experimentation. It was the first nurserty to be WSDA Certified Organic and Colleen’s research and on-the-ground experimentation have assisted other nurseries in the transition from conventional to organic. Bruce received a Farmer Research Grant (SARE) to install a V-trellis that uses electric fence protection wiresto allow controlled sheep grazing in the Asian pear and Kiwi orchard. This provides nutrient cycling, takes care of mowing the grass, and allows beneficial insects and garter snakes to live a quite happy life while protectingthe orchard. His published study has been replicated in several locations in the nation.

Mitchell Bay Farm focuses on sustainability. As much as possible, all of the inputs on the farm come from the farm; for example their compost, containing sheep manure and plant wastes, is an important component of their garden soil blend. All the water used for the plants is collected with a pond catchment system. They follow a strict regimen of rotational grazing for the sheep, insuring that the pastures are always kept healthy and vegetative. A lot of their food is grown in their vegetable garden with a few exceptions. And they live in a house that is 100 years old this year.

Bruce and Colleen are also very committed to their community. Bruce has been very active in the development and implementation of the Island Grown Farmers Cooperative and the mobile slaughter unit. He has also been helping other farmers through his work at the San Juan Islands Conservation District. Bruce and Colleen have also used their expertise in fruit tree propagation and pruning to teach in Kyrgystan. Colleen has spent countless hours teaching organic plant propagation and landscape gardening techniques to the local community.

We are so grateful to have this hard-working duo leading the charge of exemplary farm stewardship right here in our community, and are happy that we can honor their good work today with the Farmland Stewardship Award.