I’m writing to let everyone know that today will be the last day in publication for the San Juan Update. I’ve enjoyed running the Update over the last year, but other work and family demands have increased dramatically in recent months, and those demands require more of my attention in 2023 and beyond.

Thank you for your long-standing support of the San Juan Update, and for helping make the Update one of the great things about living in this community.

The County shares news about the opening of County Park camping reservations for 2023 for full-time San Juan Islands residents.

San Juan County’s Parks, Recreation, and Fair Department is offering advanced camping reservations for San Juan County year-round residents beginning Wednesday, Jan. 25 at 6 a.m. through Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 4 p.m. This two-week window is your chance to reserve private, individual campsites early. Choose from San Juan, Odlin or Shaw County Parks or the San Juan County Fairgrounds.

Proof of residency is required prior to receiving the resident reservation packet. Email your name, along with local resident and mailing addresses, to [email protected] to begin the process. Once you are on our mailing list, you will receive the instructions, forms, fee schedules, and park maps. There is a limit of two sites per household, per camping stay, with a maximum of two different camping stays.

For the Jan. 25 opening day, email requests are accepted starting no earlier than 6 a.m. via email to [email protected] only. We receive 95 percent of all requests within the first hour. Hard copy forms may be placed in a drop box outside the Parks & Fair Administrative office at 849A Argyle Ave. After 1 p.m. on opening day, reservations can also be made by phone by calling 360-378-8420. Resident reservations are not available online, but we request online payment. To secure reservations, form and payment must be provided before 4 p.m. on the same date.

Individual campsites can be reserved for local groups of eight or less. If you have a local group of nine or more people, we ask that you reserve group campsites instead. Call or email the department today to receive group camping information and forms. Group camping allows you to gather for all activities and helps us manage our parks for the good of all campers.

SJCT sends along news about the upcoming high school performance it will be hosting.

San Juan Community Theatre welcomes Friday Harbor High School students as they present a playful new adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility, under the direction of new Drama Director Lindsey Saarie. Kate Hamill’s adaptation is both classic and modern at the same time, being described as inventive, faithful, clever, and hilarious.

Sense & Sensibility opens on Thursday, Jan. 19 and runs through Sunday, Jan. 22. Evening performances begin at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, with a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students. Thursday’s performance will be pay-what-you-can admission at the door.

To purchase tickets, call the SJCT box office at 360-378-3210 or visit the SJCT website.

Contributed photo

One of San Juan Island’s most popular nonprofits shares news about its future.

PADs for Parkinson’s, the first program anywhere to train dogs for the detection of an odor associated with Parkinson’s Disease, is excited to announce that in June 2023, the program will move to its new home at Nosais, a nonprofit research department within the National Veterinary School of Maison-Alfort, France. Established in 1775, and encompassing 11 acres, NEVA is the French public research institute of scientific research and higher education for veterinary medicine with 1,000 aspiring veterinary students, a teaching staff of 400 veterinary science specialists, and eight research laboratories. Here, PADs will finally have the needed room to stretch, run and expand to its full potential.

Since 2016, PADs has been raised, fostered and groomed on San Juan Island. During these past seven years, and only with the tremendous supporting efforts of over fifty local volunteers, hundreds of sample donors, 35 dedicated and passionate canine/handler teams, and a giving, caring community, PADs has fulfilled its three-fold mission of training dogs to detect an odor associated with Parkinson’s Disease, establish reproducible training protocol, and assist research science in the quest for the cause and cure for Parkinson’s Disease.

Now for the benefit of the millions of people worldwide facing Parkinson’s Disease, it is time for PADs to publish the finding of its many years of carefully collected canine detection research, and then formalize and encourage efforts for this research to go forward at Alfort. It is planned that beginning in June, the PADs program will be under the direction of longtime NEVA Professor Dominique Grandjean, DVM. Professor Grandjean directed the first program to publish proof of canine detection of Covid-19 and has published numerous scientific papers in the growing new field of medical canine detection.

“The Nosaïs team of the National Veterinary School of Alfort is honored and excited to continue building upon the ground-breaking detection research already established by PADs,” Professor Grandjean says. “We will continue the work and put forth all our efforts into providing the new possibility of early detection of Parkinson’s Disease through canine olfactory detection, thanks to the marvelous pioneering work done by PADs.”

At this time, we wish to gratefully acknowledge the tremendous effort and giving spirit of the many hands and hearts of the San Juan Island Community Foundation, the numerous island volunteers, and the many individuals who have supported and helped to raise PADs to a level of international interest and acceptance. Additionally, as we turn the page to the next chapter, we extend our very deep gratitude to the PADs sample donors and supporters who are battling Parkinson’s Disease. You remain the inspiration for the work we do — and the work to come.

On behalf of the entire PADs team, we remain grateful and honored to be a thread in the fabric of an organization that continues to work for human health, here and across the Atlantic.

The Animal Protection Society of Friday Harbor shares a look at the adoptable animal of the week — Max, a large tbree-year-old American Bulldog mix.

Oh hiya guys, my name is Max! As soon as I saw you coming, I just knew I had to come and introduce myself. As you may be able to tell by my big smile and super waggy tail, I am very happy that you are here. Although I may take a few seconds to warm up to a person here and there, I am usually quick to show people my (super) soft side. When it comes right down to it, I’m just a big boy with an even bigger heart.

Speaking of my heart, one of the ways to mine is through one of my love languages, physical touch. Who says big pups can’t be lap dogs? Not me. I’m quite the cuddle bug, and would love nothing more than to scooch in close for some grade-A-quality closeness. I’ve heard some misguided people say things about me being a “bully,” or being mean, or being “ferocious,” but anyone who knows me will tell you that I am just a big loveable goof. Is a loveable goof the next kind of best friend you’re looking for? Well then, look no further! If you want to come see if we’re compatible, fill out the adoption application so that my shelter friends can schedule a time for us to meet in person.

Contact APS to learn more about Max.

The EDC sends along an update about the next installment in their tech training initiative.

The Economic Development Council of San Juan County will facilitate a GIS learning cohort this winter as part of their Tech Training Accelerator Initiative.

This cohort will follow the upcoming Esri course titled Going Places with Spatial Analysis. This course will help participants gain a deeper understanding of spatial data analysis and the important role location plays in a variety of business and policy matters. The course will be offered online through Esri, and a cohort of students will meet each week with an EDC advisor to achieve successful benchmarks, working through the course materials on their own schedules.

In this course, students will learn how to identify and describe uses of several spatial analysis techniques, while gaining hands-on experience with authentic spatial analysis workflows in a cloud-based mapping environment. The assignments will use ArcGIS Online, which will be provided for the duration of the course. This low-cost course is open to participants from San Juan County, ages 18 and older, who are looking to enter careers in GIS.

The course will be broken into weekly sections that can be completed on one’s own schedule, averaging three to four hours per week. The EDC will host weekly advisory meetings via Zoom, on Tuesday mornings at 10 a.m., from Feb. 1 to March 15. These meetings will give participants the opportunity to check in with the rest of the group, discuss course material, and ask questions. Participants who finish the course within the six-week timeframe will earn a certificate of completion from Esri.

A $50 registration fee is required. Visit the EDC website for more information and to register. For questions, contact EDC Tech Training Coordinator Jillian Urbach at 360-378-2906 or [email protected].

The Town of Friday Harbor shares details about its annual Christmas tree recycling efforts.

The Town will collect Christmas trees for residents inside town limits this Thursday, Jan. 12. Trees must be placed at the curb no later than 9 a.m. and must be separate from other unbundled trash and woody waste.

To ensure the success of the tree recycling program, please remove the tree stand and all tinsel, lights, and ornaments, as these items will contaminate mulch and compost. Trees more than eight feet in height must be cut in half. Trees should not be in plastic tree bags. Artificial or flocked trees will not be accepted.

If you have any questions, call the Town of Friday Harbor at 360-378-2810.

Freezer Burned is an ongoing series for the San Juan Update, written by Steve Ulvi. Read the previous story in this series.

A Mystery Unfolds

At Alapah Creek the first days of 1984 began with the entire region locked down in extreme cold. The kind of harsh cold you can taste in the air and easily hear with each exhalation. The incomprehensible black expanse above – studded with stars and the smear of the Milky Way, long meteor streaks and slow passing satellites – is undiminished by artificial light. The auroral spectacle was lively and tinged with an uncommon crimson blur.

As a result of ground water seeps, shrinking stretches of open water purled along an overhanging bank on Alapah Creek a few hundred yards upstream from the cabin. Drab American Dippers bobbed and waded into the shallow riffles beneath hoar-frosted willows while a ground fog crept down drainage. At the cabin, chickadees, redpolls and grey jays swooped in to peck busily at leg bones hung for them. At night these small birds perched with fluffed feathers among the protective limbs of spruce trees, saving precious energy by slowing their tiny heart beats. Surely a few would not make it to the sunless dawn.

Nate reminded Sonny about the old practice of banking snow high along the outer walls of the cabin and then splashing water against the exposed upper logs to encase them in ice. They nailed a large blanket to the header of the door frame to hang as a curtain and a small one completely over the single frosted window. Nate cut up an old shirt to plug obvious air leaks, now well-frosted and visible, as 65F cabin air met minus 50F outside air. Steel nail and spike heads in the wall logs conducted the intense cold and built out in frost buttons along the log walls. Sonny entertained Nate with village tales of a few poorly prepared people, sometimes handicapped by addictions, who had resorted to burning outdoor fish racks and even furniture as fuel oil ran out or stopped flowing.

They employed all the tricks they knew to sustain warmth and slow the burning of their diminishing pile of dry wood. The door was opened as little as possible and closed quickly with a low wave of fog spilling along the cabin floor. The strips of coarse black bear hide tacked at the edges of the thick door helped. The men wore felt boot liners or down booties as everything on the floor level was freezing hard. They made time to fell dead standing spruce from the edge of the burn across the Kuuk to man-haul short lengths back to the cabin with a small wood sledge. During the long winter bush dwellers could never have too much firewood. Continue Reading

Rootbound, by Islay Ross

San Juan Island School District shares news about the achievements of Friday Harbor High School student Islay Ross.

Friday Harbor High School is excited to announce that the 2022 AP Art and Design Digital Exhibit is now available online and that one of our students, Islay Ross, has been featured.

The exhibit features 50 high school artists from six countries selected from more than 62,000 portfolios who submitted work to the 2022 AP Art and Design Exam. The featured students represent outstanding examples from the Sustained Investigation and Selected Works portfolio components. The exhibit is designed not only to showcase the rigor and excellence of the AP Art and Design portfolio but also as a teaching tool shared with AP Art and Design students worldwide. In this capacity, high-achieving students’ artwork and statements, teacher statements, and school leader statements help teach best practices and support arts advocacy.

Student participation in AP Art and Design requires that each student’s work is informed and guided by observation, research, experimentation, discussion, critical analysis, and reflection, relating individual practices to the art world. Students document their artistic ideas and practices to demonstrate conceptual and technical development to create a portfolio of work. Portfolios include works of art and design, process documentation, and written information about the work presented. In May, students submit portfolios for evaluation based on specific criteria, which include skillful synthesis of materials, processes, and ideas and sustained investigation through practice, experimentation, and revision, guided by questions. Students become inventive artistic scholars who contribute to visual culture through art making.

“I am so proud of Islay’s amazing achievements,” says Andrew Anderson, Friday Harbor High School art teacher. “Islay’s hard work has been recognized and celebrated earning multiple awards and honors. She received top scores on both of her AP Studio Art Drawing and 2D portfolios. The College Board sent her letters congratulating her on earning the highest possible score in every rubric category on both portfolios, placing her in the top 1.2% of all portfolios submitted.”

“Washington State selected her work to be displayed in the State Capital Building as part of its permanent collection. She was also awarded several Gold Key awards from Scholastics Arts and Writing Competition. Ultimately, the quality of Islay’s portfolio submission clearly illustrates her exceptional technical skills and creative thought process. She is the third student in the past 10 years from Friday Harbor High School whose portfolio has been selected by the College Board.”

“Building this portfolio has been an incredibly personal journey,” Islay says. “I’ve loved having the opportunity to explore my artistic voice through this class, and I am beyond excited and proud to share my work with all of you. I hope it’s inspiring to see the end result of so many hours of hard work — conceptualizing, creating, writing. It’s a multifaceted process.”

The San Juan Preservation Trust is looking for volunteers for its annual Swan Count project, which takes place throughout San Juan County two weeks from tomorrow.

“All morning on Friday, Jan. 20, we will be coordinating a county-wide effort to record as many observations of trumpeter and tundra swans as we can,” the Preservation Trust says. “The more eyes out looking, the better results we can hope to find!”

If you have a preference for the location where you’d like to search for swans, SJPT asks that you send an email to their Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator at [email protected] by Sunday, Jan. 8.

 A rare sight, but this fox played in the same tree as a kit eight months ago.

The Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team shares news about their upcoming training session on San Juan Island.

On Feb. 5, the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team will deliver a free training session for members of the San Juan Island community. COASST is focused on the intersection of science, conservation, and communities. COASST participants help make a difference for the environment by collecting data on beach-cast carcasses of marine birds and marine debris on a monthly basis to establish the baseline pattern of beached bird mortality and debris deposition on North Pacific beaches.

Through an interactive, hands-on workshop, trainees will become acquainted with COASST survey protocols, have a chance to learn more about the seabirds that live in their area, and learn about the effects of marine debris on sealife. The COASST training provides participants with the tools to monitor for potential changes in the marine environment and promote stewardship of local marine resources.

COASST is a citizen science project of the University of Washington in partnership with state, tribal, and federal agencies, environmental organizations, and community groups. COASST believes residents of coastal communities are essential scientific partners in monitoring marine ecosystem health. By collaborating with community members, natural resource management agencies and environmental organizations, COASST works to translate long-term monitoring into effective marine conservation solutions. Currently, nearly 1,000 participants survey beaches in Washington, Oregon, California, and Alaska.

The training session will be held on Sunday, Feb. 5 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Friday Harbor Lab Commons — 620 University Rd. There will be a short break in the middle of each session for lunch, so please bring your own sack lunch, or money to purchase food in the area. Participants need no prior experience with scientific data collection, just a commitment to survey a specific beach at least once a month.

Masks are recommended, but not mandatory. Staying safe is our top priority and we will have disinfectant wipes and sanitizer on hand.

For more information and to reserve your training spot, call COASST at 206-221-6893 or email [email protected]. More information about the COASST program can be found on our website.

The County shares news about the swearing-in of eight elected officials.

San Juan County is pleased to announce the swearing-in of eight elected officials on Thursday, Jan. 5. The ceremony will take place at 9 a.m. in the Superior Court Courtroom with Superior Court Judge Kathryn Loring presiding.

Four newly elected officials will be sworn into office for the first time. The County is pleased to welcome them and their expertise.

Jane Fuller is the new County Councilmember representing district three — Lopez, Shaw, and Decatur islands. She has a background in international development as a federal civil servant, diplomat and United Nations representative, and is active in local organizations including the Friends of Lopez Island Pool, the Lopez Island Parent Teacher Student Association, and the Charter Review Commission.

“I will be ready to provide thoughtful and creative leadership to address the challenges county residents are facing in their daily lives,” said Fuller.

Natasha Warmenhoven is San Juan County’s new Auditor. After serving as the Chief Deputy Auditor for the last three years, she has supervised the Accounting, Licensing, and Recording divisions, and served as the Capital Committee chair.

“During my time as Chief Deputy Auditor, I’ve served on the Canvassing Board and continue to learn more about the Elections process. I look forward to serving the citizens of San Juan County as your next County Auditor.”

Amy Vira is San Juan County’s new Prosecuting Attorney. She has served as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney since 2011. In addition to experience prosecuting both felony and misdemeanor crimes, Vira has broad civil experience in a variety of areas including land use law, public records compliance, contracts, and general liability. She will also serve as the County Coroner.

“I look forward to serving the citizens of San Juan County by providing accurate and unbiased legal services and upholding the law in a fair and just manner that treats victims with respect and honors the rights of all parties,” said Vira.

Eric Peter is San Juan County’s new Sheriff. He retired as a Sergeant with the Houston Police Department, has worked with the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office on Orcas and San Juan Island since March of 2017, and brings a background in progressive policing, focusing on de-escalation and communication skills.

“I look forward to this opportunity in growing a deeper relationship with our extraordinary community,” said Peter. “I appreciate and am humbled by your support.”

The County is pleased to welcome back four returning elected officials. Their expertise benefits residents and the organization alike.

Rhonda Pederson has been serving as San Juan County’s Treasurer since 2015. During her tenure, she has implemented systems to improve efficiency, compliance with new legislation and mandates, streamline services to the public, and work closely with taxpayers facing foreclosure.

“I look forward to continuing to serve as Treasurer and remain committed to meeting the needs of our citizens and the challenges of the future with competence, efficiency and ongoing growth and development,” said Pederson.

John Kulseth has been serving as San Juan County’s Assessor since 2015. He has spent the last eighteen years of his career working to understand and successfully respond to the challenges of the Assessor’s Office, including moving from a three-year cyclical re-valuation process to an annual re-valuation process, and adapting to the increasing public desire for online information.

“I will continue to dedicate my time and effort to providing the service taxpayers expect and promoting an assessment process that is professional, fair, and clearly understood,” said Kulseth.

Lisa Henderson was hired as Chief Deputy Clerk in 2014 for the Clerk’s Office and was appointed by the County Council to complete the unexpired term of her predecessor. She was elected to a full term beginning January 2019. During her first term, she helped navigate the unique challenges brought on by the pandemic and plans to build upon her experience.

“I am committed to continuing the work we have started and to leverage technology in a balanced way to best serve our community efficiently and economically,” said Henderson.

Carolyn Jewett has been serving as San Juan County’s District Court Judge since January  2019. During her first term, Jewett worked alongside judges across the state at all court levels to ensure San Juan County had meaningful access to the courts despite emergency conditions.

“It is critical that we keep working together to provide fair, impartial administration of the law,” said Jewett. “I look forward to continuing this work as your District Court Judge.”