Our Shorelines Need You
If your vision for San Juan County shorelines includes vibrant ecosystems and a healthy respect for natural erosion, San Juan County needs to hear from you. If you think it wiser to plan for sea level rise than to ignore it, San Juan County needs to hear from you. If you want to improve our plan for building out the undeveloped ~50% or our shorelines, San Juan County needs to hear from you.
The County recently held Shoreline Master Program visioning meetings, and voices for clean water, fish, birds, whales, shoreline trees, and public shoreline access were in short supply. The more vocal message was that human development has not impacted our shorelines and that existing regulations therefore work just fine. But if you have seen surf smelt spawning beaches covered or squeezed by bulkheads, shorelines denuded of the trees intended to screen houses from shoreline views, or eelgrass threatened by overwater structures that could have been built elsewhere, you know that our current Shoreline Master Program needs work.
So, if your vision for the next 25 years includes stunning viewsheds, sandy beaches, community docks, or spawning smelt, herring, and sand lance, then stand up and be counted! Share that vision with your family and your friends.
And share it with Colin Maycock at the County Planning Department by the October 14th deadline, at PO Box 947, Friday Harbor, WA 98250.
The Shoreline Master Program update is our opportunity to preserve vital shoreline resources for fish, wildlife, and people. Help improve our plan for the future of our Shorelines!
Kyle Loring, Friends of the San Juans
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We don’t have many sandy beaches here, Kyle. Perhaps you’re thinking of southern California?
Yes we do! it’s just good old Pacific NW grey gritty sand — but it’s sand!
To be fair,the percentage of shoreline in San Juan County that is sand, regardless of color, is very, very small. Smaller yet is the number of sandy beaches available to public access, with Shaw having perhaps the least and Orcas not far behind.
There are over 80 miles of beaches in San Juan County! They may be more mixed gravel and sand than that classic ‘sandy beach’ we conjure up in our minds from the movies- but beaches all the same. And if you are a surf smelt or sand lance (those forage fish that provide the cirtical link between plankton and predators like salmon and seabirds) that requires upper intertidal portions of beach habitat to spawn- they are important. Our beaches are essential for many of our shellfish too!
For more information on the “soft” (non rocky) geomorphic shore forms of San Juan County and results from a recently completed county wide mapping project conducted by Coastal Geologic Services (a Bellingham firm that has mapped beaches and bluffs for six other WA State Counties as well as SJC) visit your local SJC libray and ask for a copy of the feeder bluff mapping report. The County’s SMP inventory and characterization report should also have the details.