Guest Opinion: Habitat Analysis Prompts Comments, Due Feb. 4

By Sadie Bailey

There isn’t much time left to comment on Best Available Science, which will help determine how the Critical Areas Ordinance is rewritten. Some individuals with the monetary clout to hire lawyers have already forced a stall and a re-write of the CAO, at the expense of the taxpayers and the county. We can’t afford to let these few keep stalling and costing the county and taxpayers more money, and sensitive habitat more risk of pollution.

Habitat Analysis Map

Of particular note is the Habitat Analysis Map of 2009, (pictured at right) which depicts Eastsound Swale as “low value habitat.”  If, like me, you think the Swale is high value habitat and if you  believe that growth and development should be thoughtfully and intentionally planned, with care and respect for healthy aquifers, wetlands, forest and ecosystems, especially in high-density areas where they are needed most, please submit your comments to that effect.

Deadline is Friday, Feb. 4th. Write your comments to Janice Biletnikoff. Her email is JaniceB@sanjuanco.com

Eastsound Swale is presently (supposedly) protected in the Conservancy Overlay District. Would the new CAO remove this protection?  We have lost so much wetland in the Eastsound area already. There IS science to back up the fact that functional wetlands and forests do much good for the health of the land and ground water. We have lost much of our migratory songbird, wildlife, and amphibian population due to destruction of habitat. We are losing our native forest vegetation, such as madrona forest. If we let this map stand as the yardstick for the Critical Areas Ordinance, unplanned or poorly planned development is going to continue to trump good planning, especially in higher density and UGA areas where the only value assigned to land seems to be profit potential.

I don’t want to see the Eastsound Swale, a category 2 regulated wetland, become the toxic waste dump of Orcas Island. I hope there are others who live here in the UGA or elsewhere who feel similar, and who let their county officials know before it’s too late. We’re at an important crossroads now. How we handle this and whether or not we or not find a workable and fair solution for all islanders, including the residents of UGAs, will determine the future health of the land and its inhabitants; human and other.