— from Ed Suij —
There is a saying that “If you don’t change direction, you will wind up where you are going.”
Life on the planet is in peril, we have entered the Anthropocene and the 6th great extinction. Humans are having the equivalent effect of the meteor impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. Where we are going on a global and local level is not a desirable destination. Reading the recent scientific reports one learns that the climate is changing irreversibly, 50% of all known species will be endangered or extinct by 2100, the sea level will rise, the ocean is acidifying, sea bird populations are collapsing, fisheries stocks are plummeting.
On a local level the islands are facing injured ecosystems, groundwater pollution, cluttered suburban fractured landscapes. One has only to drive the length of Whidbey island to see what these Islands will look like in 20 years as development towards ‘build-out” continues.
I recently attended two candidate forums on Orcas to inform myself about the upcoming elections for County Council. Both were poorly attended by the public.
I did not hear the words climate change, sea level rise, sustainability, carrying capacity, bio-diversity, healthy ecosystems, food security, resilience, transition movement or carbon footprint spoken by either Mr. Hughes or Mr. Jarman in either of those forums. These issues will be crucial to islanders.
The two sitting Council members proclaimed they would leave the Growth Management Act in a snap if they could. They talked about streamlining regulations, changing the densities and designations and were eager to update the Comprehensive Plan. Mr. Jarman talked about “busting up” farmland into smaller pieces and “tweaking the Critical Area ordinance so people can do what they want on their property”. Both of these candidates are pro development and would like to stimulate the tourist industry even more, for example by boosting cross border travel with an international airport in Friday Harbor. They seem to find predictions of a development corridor from Seattle to Vancouver a good thing, and to hope for it to include the islands.
Within the last 20 years a detailed study of San Juan County real property taxes and expenditures found that growth does not pay for itself. It is paid for by the residents already here. Residential land consumes more in services than it pays for in taxes. Development thus raises taxes which will make land unaffordable for farming and drive low income people from the Islands, leaving behind a less diverse community. By consuming less in services than they pay in taxes open space and resource lands (agriculture and forest) subsidize residential development.
The policies of Mr. Hughes and Mr. Jarman will be part of the problems instead of the solutions.
Development sells the commons (shoreline, quiet, water resources, rural character) to the highest bidder. Development kills the tourist industry goose with the golden eggs. How many people will come and visit when all the roads are widened, straightened and, the shoreline is fully occupied, the orcas and sea birds gone, ecosystems in decline, the landscape cluttered?
The incumbents presided over the enactment of the new Shoreline Master Plan, which lessens protection of the shoreline and makes development easier and more likely. When the shoreline suffers, the marine ecosystems are less resilient and the community suffers.
A section of Dolphin Bay road was paved against the wishes of hundreds of islanders. The Deer Harbor community is unhappy with the new bridge design. More road widening and straightening is planned by Public Works.
After not replying for two years to an important letter about island agriculture, Mr. Hughes said he is not a letter writer.
These examples suggest constituent concerns may not be adequately addressed.
Elections are not a popularity contest. Being a competent county councilor requires the ability to grasp the complexity of the problems we are facing in the coming years and implement effective solutions.
Shouldn’t we be part of the transition generation, away from short sighted solutions depleting and despoiling natural resources? In the words of Albert Einstein: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” It is time for a change of thinking.
We can muddle through four more years of going in the wrong direction or craft the path to where we want to be in 20 years.
Can the incumbents muster the imagination and creativity to devise solutions to grow the world we want to see? I have not seen or heard it.
At the moment a dead orca is considered toxic waste. Does that point to too much regulation?
Remember that dead orca is us.
Thank you for this letter! Very clear and on the mark about a lot that needs fixing here! The Growth Management Act is The Excuse for the rampant degradation of the Islands! Two years ago SJC had the opportunity to “OPT OUT” of the GMA. Unfortunately the Council didn’t have meetings for the Public on the main islands. They did NOT support opting out! So the deadline slipped by. One excuse I heard was that it would cost too much money to do so. It has Already cost too much money to comply with all of the unnecessary short-sighted regulations under the GMA. Forced change in Island Demographics, has separated the “workers” into the Urban Growth area of Eastsound on Orcas! Fifty one percent of the people Must live in the UGA! One of the Most Important Wetlands in Eastsound is being degraded to the point of extinction of Species that are critical for the health of the Wetland! Eastsound’s Fishing Bay Bay doesn’t have long because of all of the development in the hills of Eastsound,OUR Urban Growth Area. A critical culvert on Enchanted Forest Rd is too small to handle the run-off from the development in the hills surrounding Eastsound! About a year ago I mentioned this at a Meeting; nothing was done about it. I emailed Commissioner Hughes about it and he never answered.
So, thanks for caring enough to write this letter Suji
Spirit Eagle
Bravo, Ed Suij! – for caring enough to speak the truth so eloquently and accurately. You spoke so well to the urgency of these harms to the environment. We in Eastsound Urban Growth Area (UGA) – and Lopez and Friday Harbor UGAs- are the sacrificial lambs of the GMA and our county officials, who have allowed our once-viable and functional forested wetland, Eastsound Swale, to be murdered piecemeal. We have watched and fought for years, horrified and unable to stop them. Time’s running out; soon there will be nothing wild or natural left here. Our concerns continue to fall on deaf ears.
What was done to the Shoreline Management Plan and Eastsound SubArea Plan (ESAP) in the last year, by the incumbents and a few members of an advisory committee and a senior planner – even though we repeatedly protested – was a profound betrayal. Its sole purpose was to make every single parcel developable. The nails were put in the coffin-lid for Eastsound Swale, which was already so degraded, under the County’s mismanagement and turning a blind eye to us, to the Comp Plan, and to existing protective regulations for Eastsound Swale.
The new ESAP is disconnected from any vision that understands the importance of harmony with lands and waters; it’s not representative of all economic classes OR the original balanced vision of the Comp Plan, which I now fear will be changed “after the fact” to support these more egregious development agendas in the re-written ESAP. This should have been approached the other way around. The committee who rewrote the ESAP were ONLY charged to put it into the UDC – NOT rewrite the whole thing. IMO, a coup happened. I still wonder about the legality of it.
What has happened for years is a deliberate and systematic watering-down and gutting of environmental protections. This Council furthered that agenda even worse.
Bless the people who understand that the earth is suffering at our hands, who care for it, and who try to do something to alleviate the suffering. Thanks again for your letter.
Many years ago I was on the ferry watching an eagle drift on the wind currents. At the time, we humans were having the same spirited discussion about the GMA. Should we, shouldn’t we !! How many and where?
Fast forward to 2016. The conversation suggests that the islands are changing. Of course they are! We live in a free society, one of those freedoms being freedom of movement. I can live in Philly, North Dakota or Hawaii at my pleasure.
Those folks, like me, who have lived here for many decades, certainly can speak to the effects of change. I wonder, then, what my friend John Willis must think, his family having lived on Orcas for well over 100 years.
Change is inevitable. Some of those folks who visit here, return to live here because these islands are a special place. Should we “pull up the bridge”? No, because those interesting neighbors who have moved here after me have added to the diverse fabric of our society. Should we try to manage that change? Yes ! No one wants a toxic waste dump on Shaw. No one is suggesting that we build a bridge to Anacortes.
I suspect that growth in the Islands is self-limiting because we have no real economy. Granted, we get lots of visitors during the summer. Why are they not here in February? Rain, and no snow!! The age dynamic in the islands is drifting higher. Though the population of Orcas is double that when my sons were in grade school, the graduating classes still average about 30.
A vibrant community must attract young families to replace those of us who are getting older. Otherwise, the issue of growth is a moot point as we all leave the islands for one reason or another.
Unless you are John Willis, stop complaining about the changes to the islands. YOU are the change. Interestingly, the ferries are free traveling east to Anacortes !!!
The responsible people who have a deep connection to the Earth and who grieve over the destruction of a town, an intimate community of people, of appreciative children of our Earth Mother is not something to be be flippantly disregarded. The wildlife that was here until recently is gone. There is Nothing “Charming” about the building boom in Eastsound! Birds that are supposed to be protected under the International Migratory Bird Treaty Act used to visit the Wetland during Migration! They no longer do so because the County has been unconcerned with issuing large fines for these builder’s egregious conduct! Those who have built in the Wetland without Permits have just gotten a slap on the wrist and the County has changed the Wetland borders to accommodate these encroachments. No one seems concerned with the run-off into Eastsound Bay engendered by more paved roads and sidewalks. In fact, a culvert on Enchanted Forest Road is too small; this has been brought to Public Work’s attention at a Hearing, only to be ignored! As a result, during rainy season you can watch the water poor down from the hills surrounding hills and go directly into the Bay without going through the Wetland where some of the pollutants harm would be mitigated.
When the residents of Eastsound complain they are indulged at Hearings, but mainly ignored if the issue conflicts with someone’s “Bottom Line” you can bet that the people whose lives will be most impacted have no influence over the decisions made by the Commissioners.