The Town of Fri­day Har­bor is adjust­ing its poli­cies relat­ing to util­i­ty billing and col­lec­tion in response to Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee’s Recov­ery Plan for the State of Wash­ing­ton. We ask you to call the Town as soon as pos­si­ble if you are hav­ing dif­fi­cul­ties mak­ing pay­ments on your Town util­i­ty bill. Staff can walk you  Con­tin­ue Reading

FREEZER BURNED: Tales of Inte­ri­or Alas­ka is a reg­u­lar col­umn on the San Juan Update writ­ten by Steve Ulvi… (Author’s note: This camp­fire sto­ry is most­ly fic­tion in terms of char­ac­ters and events. His­toric, eco­log­i­cal and polit­i­cal themes will always be sculpt­ed fac­tu­al­ly. The won­ders of the sub­arc­tic nat­ur­al world are as I under­stand them and  Con­tin­ue Reading

Mer­ri Ann Simon­son shares anoth­er episode in her video series and says, Local San Juan fish­ing der­bies, they are the best!

Islanders, unable to afford den­tal care, can receive it for free thanks to the local non­prof­it Fish For Teeth on Fri­day, Oct. 2 and Sat­ur­day, Oct. 3 at the Mullis Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­ter on San Juan Island. Due to health pre­cau­tions dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, the clin­ic will host half of the num­ber of patients usu­al­ly  Con­tin­ue Reading

Open Coun­try Press is proud to announce the win­ner of the 2020 Open Coun­try Chap­book Con­test. Khaty Xiong chose Bare­foot Up the Moun­tain by Tara Mesa­lik MacMa­hon of Fri­day Har­bor, Wash­ing­ton. Tara Mesa­lik MacMa­hon, a grad­u­ate of Pomona Col­lege and Har­vard Busi­ness School, is an emerg­ing poet. Her poems appear or are forth­com­ing in Rhi­no,  Con­tin­ue Reading

Flu shots are now avail­able at Even­tide Health. It’s impor­tant to get yours ear­ly this year. We will be host­ing a few flu clin­ics this year and car­ry­ing on the tra­di­tion of San Juan Health­care and offer­ing the ser­vice as pub­lic health to the com­mu­ni­ty. We will also be par­tic­i­pat­ing in joint flu clin­ics with  Con­tin­ue Reading

Due to fire dan­ger and stretched resources, San Juan Coun­ty is extend­ing the cur­rent burn ban to pro­hib­it all out­door fires (includ­ing char­coal), effec­tive imme­di­ate­ly and until fur­ther notice.  This change is prompt­ed by sev­er­al fac­tors. Hot and dry weath­er has made con­di­tions ripe for igni­tion and fast fire spread, and fore­casts pre­dict more of  Con­tin­ue Reading

San Juan Coun­ty Mas­ter Gar­den­ers wel­come keynote speak­er Robin Haglund to the Annu­al Gar­den­ing Work­shop Series. Robin’s pre­sen­ta­tion, Grow­ing a Year-Round Hum­ming­bird Habi­tat Gar­den, guides you through craft­ing and main­tain­ing a gor­geous year-round gar­den that pro­vides habi­tat for our res­i­dent hum­ming­birds. You will learn the vital ele­ments need­ed for food and nest­ing, while enjoy­ing the  Con­tin­ue Reading

Be a Super­hero for Plan­et Earth! 2020 Fall Great Islands Clean-up Sep­tem­ber 28 – Octo­ber 4 We’re ask­ing Super­heroes of all ages to unite and help us clean-up our islands dur­ing this year’s Fall Great Islands Clean-up! The event will be a week-long household/individual effort begin­ning Sep­tem­ber 28 and run­ning through Octo­ber 4, 2020. This is  Con­tin­ue Reading

Pacif­ic her­ring – also known as for­age fish – play a key role in marine food webs as food for out-migrat­ing juve­nile salmon, seabirds, and even marine mam­mals. Her­ring rely on sen­si­tive eel­grass mead­ows found along our tide­lands to spawn and incu­bate their eggs. Her­ring spawn­ing pop­u­la­tions in the San Juans are clas­si­fied by the WA  Con­tin­ue Reading