— from Mindy Kayl —
As I sit in my house and watch Mt. Wollard go by in the back of gravel trucks, I wonder why is our county government so reactionary, backwards, and fearful when we have such capacity to be visionary and innovative? Because of where we have chosen to live, where we are lucky enough to live, we are called to be visionary. We have an ethical responsibility to the land we live on.
Why, then, is so much effort being put into carbon burning for the sake of more carbon burning? It seems that the SJC Public Works Department is moving Mt. Wollard, in gravel form, to build up two miles of road bed.
In this process, machines are burning carbon to gather the stone (mining of a common wealth), more carbon is burned breaking up the rock and sorting it. Then it is loaded with a carbon burning machine onto a carbon burning dump truck, driven through Forest Resource and Agricultural Resource Zoned lands and dumped near wetlands, lambing sheep, hatching chickens and turkeys, valuable pasture lands, eagle nests, and our neighbors homes. All of this to promote more carbon burning vehicle traffic.
We live at ground zero for the Orca Whale Extinction; I get mailers asking for donations to the Friends of the San Juans and the SeaDoc Society expressing how important our natural environment is. Unfortunately, the very clear message, the very visible message that all of our summer visitors and year round residents are getting is ‘drive your car.’ Could the same money and effort have been spent to purchase a small fleet of electric cars for the island? This is just one idea, from one person, to reduce the need for bigger roads and burn less fossil fuel.
Another cost to the local economy is – this federally funded project is paying an off-island, out of county contractor and laborers to complete the work. The quarry that all the rock is coming from is owned by a company based out of LaConner. So, our people and environment are being impacted while the financial benefit goes out of our county.
I have always supported bike paths on our roads. Everyone should have a safe way to travel along the county right of way. But this project is beyond the size and scale of any other road project on Orcas Island and is heading in the wrong direction.
My “let ‘er rip” comment is: Get back to reality. “Fleet of electric cars”….This was done for safety’s sake. 100%. If you look at the big picture, you would see that a lot of the money spent is on the local level.
Mindy’s points are well intended…..what can we do to limit cars and carbon? Perhaps subsidize bus service for visitors and residents willing to get out of their cars and comfort zones once in a while. Many national parks have done it successfully. Yes, very complex and costly, but carbon foot print expansion brings big, bigger, unpleasant and varied costs. Otherwise, next will be more parking space allocated for Moran Park (yep, like that 60’s song….”put up a parking lot and pave paradise”) How about significant bicycle access lanes. Encourage more e-cars. Encourage car pooling. Encourage use of public transit on mainland, this could result in better transit service when an increase in use is noted, and transit rider ship might continue to increase… That is enough for starts….
In my opinion , this whole new road fiasco is a very tragic event for our precious island. The unnecessary clear cut of so many of our once carbon sequestering old growth trees was a terrible mistake for which there is no compensation. Now we will never be able to access federal funds for a National Scenic Road designation. Sad!! What terrible decision making led us here? I personally would like some accountability before more damage is done to our island’s environment. Mindy Kayl has made some extremely important observations, and I agree with her 100%. Please let us evaluate this big stupid waste of our resources and this out of hand “road straightening project.” We need to closely scrutinize further proposed “improvements” as to whether our island’s best interests and quality of life are being upheld and protected or threatened and degraded.
This was never about safety, this was simply available funding looking for a place to get squandered.
Like Mt. Baker rd.
Like The future of our airport.
Why make new mistakes when you can just make the same old mistakes over and over and over….
Just finished the outstanding book The Overstory, by Richard Powers. It is a powerful thought provoking story about the intersection of trees and inexorable human development. Here’s an interview with Powers that gets at the heart of the social and ecological issues raised in his fine book:
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/heres-to-unsuicide-an-interview-with-richard-powers/
We are living the Overstory here on Orcas… This book can help us think about what we choose to do about it…
I couldn’t agree more!
I’d like to read a rationale for placement of the new OPALCO pole smack in the middle of the new curve at Nordstrom Lane and the reason for not removing the cedar tree where someone died last year.
All of this in the sake of tourism
Should be an interesting election this year
I’m also sad to see so much money and other resources go into this road widening project, it’s ridiculous.
I’m also curious where the proceeds of the timber sales from those old trees is going -? The property owners? The county? Somewhere else? Please comment if you know how that part of this deal worked out.
Norris, I do not know where the proceeds of the lumber heist went but I do believe that the answer will be emerging soon. It is certainly a huge piece of the puzzle and probably a big reason as to why the road is (as Mindy indicated) is “going the wrong way.” Stay tuned folks.
I am also sickened by the new straightened road, the wretched felling of so many grand old trees that graced the old scenic roadway. I am shocked at the mainland mentality and financial motivations behind these ugly decisions which have no thought for environmental respect or honest need.
We must not continue to be bullied or bought off by government programs with big city agendas and the insidious views that bigger must always be better. Our islands are unique microcosms of extraordinary beauty which we must not thoughtlessly destroy. The fear in all of our hearts is that it may already be too late with so much damage and global degradation occurring. I say to the contrary – Now is time we each must take a strong and courageous stand to protect the island that we love – to speak up for it. Please Be part of the discussion
and insist on being heard as well as counted before any such future projects are considered or implemented.
To Gail, and others: The proceeds of the sale of the timber harvested from all those downed trees went to Skillings Connolly, the firm that got the project, as part of their proposal. You can read more about some of these issues in this recent OI article: https://theorcasonian.com/orcas-road-redux-a-fait-accompli/.
The cedar tree at Nordstrom Lane was spared temporarily because IT did not kill the the person who died. It is innocent. Substance abuse and speed apparently killed the person who died. That said, it looks like it will be sacrificed for a required rerouting of all the water the new road was dumping on private property.
If you were to ask the prior County Engineer, it was all for safety, not tourists. Indeed, we were frequently presented with the awful consequences of two semi-drivers encountering each other on the Nordstrom Lane doglegs as if appropriate speed and care wouldn’t obviate any issue. Not to mention how often such an occurrence existed.
“But this project is beyond the size and scale of any other road project on Orcas Island…”? WRONG! This road project was started nearly 40 years ago, when 2.5 miles from Orcas Landing to Deer Harbor Road, and 2.5 miles from Eastsound to the golf course were built, on exactly the same scale as the present project halfway between. The County is on the way to completing a project that should have been completed many years ago.
And two semi-drivers encountering each other on the Nordstrom Lane doglegs would have to come to a complete stop because they wouldn’t even be able to fit inside the lanes of those extremely tight curves!
Hmmm…
Maybe this road project will be the “Pennsylvania Station” which finally spurs us islanders into voting out the urbanizing despoilers, and voting in a coterie of thoughtful preservationists instead.
Or maybe it’ll be the airport-expansion-to-be.
The alarm is ringing, folks. It’s past time to wake up.
This will always be the island divide:
there are those of us that think the island is a special place because of what it is (or was) and would prefer to protect that,
and those who would be fine with turning the whole island into a grotesque playground for tourists because they stand to benefit personally.
No one can seriously make the argument that this project has any benefit for locals, safety or otherwise, but like Deer Harbor it’s all just water (or money) under the absurdly overbuilt bridge….
…and now the Deer Harbor Lagoon Estuary will come back to life after it was killed by the terribly designed old bridge!
@Jay Kimball; thank you so much for the link to that interview to the author of The Overstory. I cried when I read it, as I cry for each and every tree and forest ecosystem razed for “progress.” It hurts my heart how out of touch with living sentient beings we are as a species – it hurts to watch the senseless carnage and human exceptionalism. I feel more akin with trees and birds than humanity. This comment is not off topic – it is the crux of this and all topics where we humans think in a human-centric way, without care of what we destroy. It’s time to rethink everything – including government.