||| FROM MICHAEL MJ” JOHNSON |||
Years ago I hated computers, and also the people that brought them. I’d moved from the midwest when I was still as dumb-as-a-bucket, and had been living in SW Colorado (God’s country). While living there my eyes were opened and I never looked back. I became a backcountry skier, a wildland firefighter, and a leathersmith who was hanging out with a gnarly crowd of tree-huggin’ adventure junkies when I first started noticing the pre-Oprah computer crowd that had begun moving into the small, remote, mountain towns around me… bringing all their friends & family and their city sensibilities with them, and were starting to change the region forever. But now that I have a computer I see that they’re not all bad.
Like yourselves I’m sure, I have several interesting books going on at once–
Lyle Lewis- Racing To Extinction— “One of the biggest wake-up calls for me personally was finding out as a young scientist and educator that it’s not just the corporate sector, and the politicians who dance to their handclaps in the name of “jobs and growth” aka ecocode, who are making it systematically almost impossible for concerned citizens to effect large-scale necessary change. It is also that the very agencies charged with the protection of the environment, with the education, health, and welfare of humans, and with justice in society, are complicit in undermining all of these instead.”
Bernie Sanders- It’s OK To Be Angry About Capitalism— “In this unprecedented moment in American history, there is no more time for tinkering around the edges. It is time to reject “conventional wisdom” and “incrementalism.” It is time to fundamentally rethink our adherence to the system of unfettered capitalism, and to address the unspeakable harm that system is doing to us all. The simple truth is that unfettered capitalism is not just creating economic misery for the majority of Americans, it is destroying our health, our well-being, our democracy, and our planet. If we hope to save ourselves, we must identify the people and the policies that engineer this destruction. The fight against American oligarchy- and the plutocratic arrangements that foster it- has nothing to do with personalities. Inequality isn’t about individuals; this is a systemic crisis.”
South Burn, Waldron Wa. Oct. 1983- Tourism In The San Juan Islands, A Summary Position Paper– Recommendations
Acknowledge:
- the need for tourism policy planning;
- by official declaration, that a beautiful and unique natural environment is the specific tourism attraction in San Juan County;
- by official declaration, that a beautiful and unique natural environment is a non-renewable resource;
- that tourism and tourism-stimulated land development is the major user of this resource;
- that all aspects of tourism in San Juan County are subsidized out of public revenue;
- that it is not in the public interest to subsidize, directly or indirectly, the tourist, the tourist industry, or tourist stimulated land development;
- that it is in the best economic interest of the county and resident taxpayers to preserve undeveloped areas, not only as a means of preserving our non-renewable resource, but as a direct saving of public revenue costs;
- that the economic benefits of tourism go only to those in the tourist industry;
- that it is in the best interest of the tourist industry to recognize the negative impacts of their industry; propose comprehensive, far-reaching, and imaginative solutions, and offer wholehearted support to county officials in passing the necessary resolutions;
- that financial tools are needed to ensure that the full and total costs of all public services resulting from tourism and land development be paid by those creating the need for those services;
- that tax assessment alternatives to the “highest and best use” or “sales of similar property” basis are urgently needed.
Once you see it you cannot unsee it… you see it everywhere.
In writing to you today, I ask that when you resume deliberating the future of the DMMO and the Visitors Bureau in early September that you keep in mind that many of us have witnessed what is happening here now in other communities that we’ve lived in before, that we’re seeing the writing on the wall, and we hope that you will keep in mind that the citizens of San Juan County are stakeholders too. I ask that instead of renewing the DMMO / Visitors Bureau contract, that you drastically reduce the amount of money that is being spent on tourism advertising and marketing, and that you downsize the operation of, and incorporate the Visitors Bureau within the county government.
Thanks Michael.
How many surveys must we take for our voices to be heard? Public servants please listen to your people and stop promoting our islands as a tourist destination now. Who knows, a reduction in tourists might even help with our ferry issues.
Hear here Michael! Is anyone running for county commissioner advocating the same? I well remember the deaf ear Rick Hughes gave to serious community concerns about the vacation rental problem…this is of equal magnitude
Thanks Michael for saying what needs to be said. Just one question: why incorporate the Visitors Bureau into the government?
Just eliminate it altogether. There should be no taxpayer money whatsoever spent on “destination marketing.”
When you look at who runs the Visitors Bureau today, it’s people who benefit financially from tourism.
You might change the oversight mechanism by making it part of the government, but the fundamental problem remains the same: taxpayer money is being spent to generate a financial windfall for a select few, while the rest of us are made to endure all the downside.
They want to privatize the profits and socialize the costs. Why do we allow this to happen in such a blatant way?
Where can I find the writings of South Burn? I’ll check the Lopez library first but is there anything on the internet?
After terminating our contract with the Visitors Bureau I think the next step is to place residency requirements on vacation rentals. Vacation rentals have more than doubled the number of tourist accommodations in the county and many vacation rental operators have multiple rentals or are not residents of San Juan County. I think it would be appropriate if vacation rental operators were only allowed to rent their primary residence.
That’s a great idea. Recent data from realty website Redfin shows that as of Q2 2024, one in six homes sold in the USA were bought by investors. There are simple ways to combat the predatory capitalism that allows non-resident investors to pump as much money out of the islands as possible, if only our local government is brave enough to take those steps.
The South Burn collection bounced around Waldron for many years after his death, and were donated by the family to Archives West out of Western Wa. Univ. several years ago. At this time there are few copies that I know of that exist outside of this realm. One is welcome to make an appointment with them and make a trip to their office to view this collection.
I have only a printed version of his “The Urbanization of San Juan County 1980” (which is where the above quote came from), and a copy of his “The Urbanization of San Juan County” in PDF form (which won’t copy and paste here). If you want this email me at mdjishere@rockisland.com .
I’m currently working with the archivist at WWU in hopes of getting access to more of his collection.
Archives West- Western Wa. Univ.– https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv25845
3/7-3/8 General. circa 1960s-1990s
3/9 “Tourism” undated
4/1 “The Future of the San Juan Islands” circa 1988
4/2 “Tourism: A Closer Look” 1986
4/3 “A Community Based Tourism Plan” undated
4/4 Tourism in the San Juan Islands: A Summary Position Paper 1983
4/5 The Urbanization of San Juan County: A Collection of Quotes, compiled by South Burn 1980
4/6 Waldron Island circa 1970s
4/7 Book reviews 1984-1985
4/8 Talks to friends 1990
4/9 Talks and speeches circa 1970s-1980s
It’s worthwhile checking out the link MJ provided to WWU’s archive of South Burn’s papers: https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv25845. Incisive and far-sighted beyond its time. The Position Paper (40 years ago!) quoted above provides the essential argument, and ought to be formally adopted, or at least incorporated into a Council candidate platform. Just a couple of comments on those valid points:
–“that financial tools are needed to ensure that the full and total costs of all public services resulting from tourism and land development be paid by those creating the need for those services;”
This never happens. Private land development never pays for the public services it demands; it costs public agencies (and the taxpayers) money–one reason for the County’s impending cash reserve shortfall and voters’ hesitation in approving more recently requested County levy lifts.
–“by official declaration, that a beautiful and unique natural environment is a non-renewable resource;”
–“that it is in the best economic interest of the county and resident taxpayers to preserve undeveloped areas, not only as a means of preserving our non-renewable resource, but as a direct saving of public revenue costs;”
Interestingly, this was written in 1983, seven years before San Juan County citizens approved the state’s only public Land Bank. Change can happen.
This comment is so long it’ll have to be a two- part comment. Part 1:
Thank you Michael Johnson for another well thought, insightful, well researched and backed, and inspiring letter. BRAVO! Thank you for the South Burn works of insight and vision and sharing a bit from this body of work. Many good works end up on Archive.org for the Public to read and use. I wonder if there is an archive site that could make South Burn’s work Public and downloadable. It deserves to be shared widely in our island archipelago and may help other island archipelagos around the world fight what is happening to us, and them, all over the world.
Thank you also to every commenter so far – I stand with you on points brought to this – especially the ones about terminating the contract to the Visitors Bureau and not incorporating it in any fashion within the government. Not sure what the Environmental Sustainability Dept of the County government actually does. Are they helping to promote the Visitors Bureau? If so, why? Will they focus on what we have been asking the County to focus on for many decades?
As ever, people know where I stand, and I stand always with Eastsound Urban Growth Area (UGA) and our right to have Urban forests, Mature shade trees – both deciduous and evergreen, and windbreak and the habitat protection that only forests can give. So here are my points to add to David Bowman’s, Susan Malins’ and Kevin Sterling’s points. Some Tourism and Real Estate Industry related… well, all, when you really think on what is driving unlimited growth and development.
Brian Wiese, I address your comment specifically because I know you have a passion for land preservation, yet I also know that you and I have very different visions about protecting and preserving undeveloped UGA and surrounding lands. I have tried with both Friends and the Land Bank to stress the importance of riparian forested wetlands and nearshore environments specifically within our unique Eastsound UGA watershed, and how rare and precious it is (1 mile wide, wind tunnel, nearshore and marine environments on both sides, blah blah blah.) To you I would ask: why should we write off the most diverse and precious wetland area that happens to have been picked for the worst possible land uses? (airport, Urban development up to 40 units an acre in our downtown core and 4-12 units per acre in village residential -, and the plague of vacation rentals that have popped up in the UGA and surround over the last 5-10 years) – just because something is never done up to now (your second paragraph). Why oughtn’t it be done – especially considering the unregulated glut of ‘investors’ taking over this place and what the tourism industry has done to us? How can we change it so that the people who stand to make the most profit off of clearcutting our forests and downing our mature trees for more tourist destinations and luxury condos, be fiscally and environmentally responsible for the permanent damage they cause to our Rural Character, Quality of Life, and Environment? It’s time to change that so that the County is not under constant threat of litigation from the ‘haves’ – investors, developers and their LLCs – most of whom don’t even live here or plan to be part of our community in any way (Oprah comes to mind) and simply buy up our lands to profit off them? This is unsustainable. On that I think we can all agree.
Part 2: Maybe this is unrelated to the Tourism/ Real Estate/ Gentrification issue in Town and these islands, but I think it relates:
Some other thoughts about this beloved Eastsound UGA that I call Home:
1) Urban forested undeveloped areas are more important than ever – especially in Eastsound wind tunnel wetland riparian once-forested watershed, with Eastsound Swale never getting its due in terms of protection. I have been saving scientific papers on how deforestation leads to desertification and in our case, flood zones as well. Have we factored-in liquefaction soils and sea level rise and the fact that we sit on several crossing fault lines?
2) Thanks to a heart to heart talk with Charles Toxey (EPRC’s best member we ever had)!, I concur with his assessment that we need to form a group of ‘town’ people – I think they need to be completely outside of county government or the Tourism/Realty Industry – to come up with a Plan to preserve and protect trees and encourage more people to plant large species of deciduous and evergreen trees. Because so many are slated to be cut down with nothing to replace them, we are running out of them. And, the next plan is ‘fire wise’ – which will lose us a LOT more mature trees and I believe some of that is planned for the Crescent Beach Preserve to encourage the aspens. We the people are the best oversight to the County Council and County departments – not otherwise. Policy needs to be informed and guided by Vision of those of us who live here and love the land. Not the other way around.
2b) I take this thought even further that we need 25 citizen journalists to each write 2 educational articles a year, so we have all 52 weeks covered – an educational column if you will, that features an article every week on aspects of the Natural World and Quality of Life here in the San Juans, that incentivizes people to want to do right things by the lands they call theirs. I believe most people, if given the Why, are more than willing to do the What. At least I hope so.
3) Except for a few exceptional planners, the people planning these things don’t understand the whole big picture of interconnection, inter-dependence, and contiguity; they seem to not understand what monocropping does; they need help and they need to accept our help. Just because someone went to school and has the pieces of paper, doesn’t mean they have the extensive experience of field work and observation that field scientists, farmers, gardeners, and field biologists have. The Book-learned desk-sitting bureaucrats and administrators need to work with the seasoned Observers of natural cycles over seasons, years, and decades – including assessing cumulative damage and how to rectify it.
4) Many of us are super frustrated that one department of the County doesn’t know what the other is doing; all seem at odds and work done to protect is undone by road widening planned by engineers, constructed wetlands rather than working with what’s there already, noxious weed program using glyphosate and Public Works engineers not putting enough effort into caring for county lands or even caring about them, but only about building and engineering – and such. What’s happening is not working. All departments should know what other departments are doing. Are there liaisons? And how is a sole tourism/real estate economy affecting all of this – and how can we refrain from turning our heads away and pretending it isn’t impacting us and hurting us and our lands and waters? All you NIMBYs out further from town and its sprawl; you get the benefit of using all of our resources and infrastructure here and going home to your lovely rural lands. Help us keep our town’s natural and rural character too.
5) The word ‘mitigate’ is co-opted to mean that anyone can damage and damage ecosystems and then put a bandaid on them . We can’t. The damage needs a tourniquet.
6) “Density Credits” is about as short sighted and unworkable an idea as “Parking Credits.” It must not be allowed to happen within or around our UGAs! We need less density, not more. In fact, we need to ‘demote’ our UGA to a LAMIRD (Limited Area of More Intensive Rural Development). Anyone promoting Density Credits who is running for Council – please explain yourself to me and the Public – exactly where you do stand on this, why, and how would you use it and what kinds of things do you envision, Rick Hughes and Justin Paulsen?
Sorry to co-opt your letter, Michael. Guess I am pretty fired-up about this and how the constant promoting of tourism has impacted our little town. I’m hurting over it more than I want to be. The environment is doing much worse than I am.