By Tom Welch

What are we doing to our island and community? Are we going in the right direction, or is it time to take a breath and consider what we’re collectively up to here?

It seems to me that taking my trash to the dump is a fundamental part of island living, and something I’m sorry won’t be possible in the future. Instead, we’ll have giant garbage trucks rumbling up and down our narrow roads, and we’ll all get to pay a non-competitive fee for the ‘service’. We used to use ‘burn barrels’ and burn our trash, and more than a few disposed of theirs by the simple expedient of digging a hole. We moved beyond those methods some time ago, and disallowed both….but I suspect we’re headed there again. I know, we all voted on this matter, and that should have settled it. But I think we made a mistake, and we’ll come to regret closing the dump.

The county will work on Mt. Baker Road soon, widening, raising the roadway, leveling, straightening it out so vehicles can increase their speed. This is, from what I’ve read, a requirement of the Scenic Byways designation. This whole project seems like a giant boondoggle to me, frankly, and an almost complete waste of money. I know, it’s not our tax money, most came from a grant. Still, why do all this roadwork simply to increase speed for emergency vehicles? Won’t they still have to slow down rather dramatically to make the turn, rendering all that fuss about speed somewhat silly? Couldn’t this amount of money be spent on something better? We have a wonderful EMS crew and a terrific bunch of firemen, and their response times are simply amazing. Do we really need and want these changes to Mt. Baker Road? (I’m told by county officials that ‘that train has left the station’, which I guess means no point fussing about it, it’s a done deal. I still don’t like it.)

We want to save money by cancelling school bus service one day a week. Thankfully OIEF, a foundation, stepped up and raised the needed funds to continue five days a week of bus service. But what the heck are we doing here, anyway? What sort of community wants to cancel a necessary public service, school bus transportation for our children, and replace budgeted tax money with private foundation/donor funds? Isn’t bus service a fundamental part of educating our youth, particularly on an island where, not many generations ago, consolidated schools were impossible due to poor and dangerous roads? Did Howard Wilson drive that old school bus with canvas window shades and bench seats, bouncing and rattling all the way to Eastsound and back every day, for so many years just so we could decide bus service wasn’t ‘necessary’? He went through eight chainbrakes (basically a set of logging chains on a lever that he could release and throw under the rear wheels of the bus to slow or stop on dangerous hills) in a single year, never had an accident, and never harmed a child. A remarkable legacy, our tradition of school bus transport. While I respect the school board, and each member, the very idea of cancelling bus service seems ridiculous.

Many, if not most, of us came here for the sheer beauty of the island and the wonders of the Salish Sea. Orcas Island is a unique treasure of forested hills, towering mountains rising boldly from the sea, green fields rolling down to rocky, tree-lined shores….you know, all those superlatives that still don’t adequately describe this wonderful place. Vancouver’s logbook mentions Orcas, and the U.S. Exploring Expedition in 1841 positively gushed about our green hills with cascading waterfalls. Thousands have come and admired the natural beauty and incredible scenic vistas found at every turn on Orcas Island. But more and more of us seem to delight in transforming the island, cutting the trees, grading the hills, slashing roadways through terrain that took centuries to develop and mature. Why all the ‘terraforming’ of a pristine, natural landscape and ecology just to make it more valuable, or affordable, or convenient for a few? Have we all forgotten why we came here in the first place?

Orcas Island has long been known as the ‘Gem of the San Juans, and rightfully so. But I wonder if it isn’t time to reflect and consider, as we go about pursuing ‘progress’ and ‘value’, and as we change our island landscape and terrain in personal pursuits of one sort or another, whether it isn’t time to change our ways. Every slash, every bulldozed knoll, every tree fallen for a view or because it was ‘in the way’, are simply more rough ‘facets’ in this gem. Even the most rare and precious gem is ruined by cutting too many facets in it. If we continue in this manner, I fear we risk turning our beautiful Gem of the San Juans into just another rock.

Well, I see that I’m alone up here on this soapbox, so I’ll get off it. Thanks for listening!

Tom Welch is a Shaw Island native who now lives in Olga. He is the author of the book, Orcas Island.

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