Fall Color – Peggy Sue McRae photo

First of all a big “THANK YOU!” to the San Juan County Fair, The San Juan Island Community Foundation, and to everyone who supported the Mullis Center and other local non-profits during the Community Foundation’s 2021 Virtual Fair Fundraiser. Thanks to our generous donors support we raised $5,520! All money raised will be used to complete the final stages of the Mullis Center’s Green and Clean Capitol Improvement project*.

The Mullis Center had hoped to start opening up once a week with in-person lunches this September. Sadly, this darn virus has doubled down and we are back to masks, distancing, and meeting outdoors.  To soften this disappointment San Juan County Senior Nutrition Program partners invite island seniors to a Drive-Thru Picnic in the Parking Lot. Come by and grab a fresh grilled burger, Hempler’s hot dog, or vegan burger with potato salad, fruit, and a cookie ($5.00 suggested donation) take-away/picnic style.

Also on the autumn calendar is our election. The Senior Services Council of San Juan County, San Juan District is seeking qualified candidates to serve on the San Juan District Committee, also known as the Operating Committee for the Mullis Community Senior Center. If you are interested in engaging with your community in a meaningful way you may want to go to the Mullis Center website where you will find more information and the application. There are multiple openings with terms lasting one, two, or three years beginning in November. Applications are due by September 15 and the election will take place the week of October 11.

September on the island can be especially beautiful. We get our fill of apples, plums, and zucchini. Enjoy the bounty! 

Link to: The Mullis Center website
Link to: *Island Senior: Mullis Center Upgrade For A Green Future

Since the last update on Friday August 27th, there have been sixteen new confirmed cases in San Juan County. Current total case count is now 266.

Of these sixteen new cases, initial investigations indicate that five appear to have occurred in fully vaccinated individuals. San Juan County numbers continue to confirm that vaccinated individuals are less likely to become infected than those who are vaccinated (remember, the vast majority of island residents are vaccinated). 

There are approximately eight unvaccinated close contacts of positive cases who are currently in two-week quarantine. Note that vaccinated close contacts do NOT need to quarantine and this number would be far higher if not for the high vaccination rate in San Juan County.

• Lopez Island: There are no new cases on Lopez Island since the last update. There is one positive case under active monitoring on Lopez Island.
• Orcas Island: There are ten new cases on Orcas Island since the last update. There are eleven positive cases under active monitoring on Orcas Island.
• San Juan Island: There are six new cases on San Juan Island since the last update. There are six positive cases under active monitoring on San Juan Island.
• Shaw Island: There are no new cases on Shaw Island since the last update. There are no positive cases under active monitoring on Shaw Island.

9/1/21 Covid-19 Policy Update:
Proof of Vaccination & Masking REQUIRED
A Letter from the Executive Artistic Director

Dear SJCT Patrons,

Nathan Kessler-Jeffrey – Contributed photo

You may have seen our social media posts today regarding the new policy requiring proof of vaccination at San Juan Community Theatre performances and events. If not, you can find our updated policies here. We have already received numerous messages, both concerned and appreciative, as we work collectively through another year of this pandemic. I want to thank everyone who has offered feedback across the spectrum because it reminds me that we all care deeply about the place that SJCT has in our community.

This was a difficult decision, and I have heard intelligent, reasoned, and articulate arguments from all along the spectrum. And I deeply admire people who think in differing ways on the subject. But my purpose in writing to you isn’t centered on policy.

My purpose today is to celebrate something wonderful: Continue Reading

Care for a cup of tea?  This notorious dynamic duo is sure to add charming character to your home.  Bachelor Wooster and his talented valet, Jeeves have found themselves navigating the cat-societal mishaps of San Juan Island.  You see, somehow they both ended up in a cat trap together and were labeled as pesky “ferals,” immediately sent straight to the animal shelter to be “dealt with.” 

Fortunately, for Wooster, his pal Jeeves went ahead and beguiled the shelter staff into bailing both of them out by using his cunning demeanor and his flawless tuxedo.  Don’t be fooled though, Wooster can be JUST as charming as his main man Jeeves, however he is more independent and not used to asking for help.  

Now Jeeves and Wooster have found themselves as a couple of homeless besties looking for a new place to dwell.  The shelter staff won’t let them leave until they have something lined up.  Perhaps you have something worthwhile?  It doesn’t have to be anything boujee… but they would like to stick together.  

• Age: Approx 4 years old & 6 months old
• Sex: Male & Male
• Breed: Domestic Shorthair & Domestic Longhair

Application: https://www.apsfh.com/adoption-program/feline-application/

About

• Origin: San Juan Island
• Weight: 8lbs & 4lbs
• Personality: Shy & Outgoing, Reserved & Confident, Playful & Playful
• Energy Level: Medium        
• Likes: Hide & Seek, Zoomies, Jazz Music, Tea with Friends
• Dislikes:  Small Spaces, Unfriendly Folks, Rock n’ Roll Music

A letter of thanks to you from the Library…

Dear Friends,

A tremendous thank you to everyone who joined in and donated during the virtual San Juan County Fair in August to raise funds for the new library building project.

We were grateful to join the San Juan Island Community Foundation’s matching grant program, which highlights organizations in our community, and draws attention to current and future needs.

We are thrilled to announce that we raised more than $14,000! In addition to your donations, we earned an extra $500 bonus grant for the highest dollar amount raised on the first day of the Fair, as well as the Foundation’s $1,000 matching grant for our first $1,000 raised.

In addition to the funds raised, your participation continues to affirm the strong interest and commitment this community has in building a new library! We will continue to work hard on this project to make that dream come true.

This project still has a long way to go, and we’ll regularly communicate with you as we progress. With widespread community support like yours, we can get there!

Many thanks for your support!

Laurie Orton
Library Director

Click to enlarge

You can see thousands of gulls on the shore or in the water around the San Juans right now. It would be easy to dismiss them as “just a bunch of seagulls”, but next time you see a flock of gulls, take a closer look. Are there different sizes of gulls? Do they have different colored wingtips or legs?

In our area, many of the gulls are Glaucous-winged Gulls. These large gulls with pale grey and white wingtips and pink legs, raise their youngsters on the islands and are here year-round. However, in late summer and into fall, other types of gulls arrive as they move from their breeding grounds out to the coast for the winter.

Look for California Gulls with black wingtips and yellow legs, Heermann’s Gulls with dark bodies, pale heads and red bills, and small Mew Gulls with yellow bills and legs. Don’t be fooled by the darker, mottled, brown, juvenile gulls that can be really challenging to identify.

Have fun gull watching!

Read more Wolf Hollow news here.

Enjoyment Guaranteed at Art For Fun at SJIMA

Art for Fun is a great way to celebrate a birthday, share a date night, create team building,  just enjoy a night out on your own or try your hand at making art. The two-hour, fun-filled art party takes place in a relaxed, interactive atmosphere.   Budding artists follow step-by-step instructions from experienced artists.  Everyone paints the same picture yet takes home his or her own unique creation. Enjoyment is guaranteed.

Kristen Douglas-Seitz is the instructor for all three sessions. Class size is limited, so sign up early online at www.sjima.org under “Learn”  of phone 360-370-5050 during museum hours Thursday – Monday 11-5. The schedule is below.

The class fee is  $40, all supplies are provided by SJIMA and everyone leaves with their own 16” X 20” painting.   No experience is needed. Call Kristen at 918-688-6596 or email her at [email protected] if you have questions.

• Friday, September 10, 2021
  5:30 pm-7:30 pm
  Guiding Light
• Saturday  September 11th, 2021
  9:30 am – 11:30 am
  Poppies by the Sea
• Saturday  September 11th, 2021
  2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
  Twilight Glow

Please accept our sincere appreciation for all County residents who participated in and enjoyed the 2021 Virtual Fair. Your Willingness, Flexibility and Creativity during these unique times is why the San Juan County Fair was a success!

We are especially grateful to all our Superintendents and Volunteers who dedicated much time & energy in order to “Lettuce Entertain Ewe”. Your Community Spirit is invaluable.

We thank our sponsors for their essential, generous support:

• King’s Market
• San Juan Brewing Co.
• King’s Marine
• LOEA Designs
• Joe Friday’s Shirt Co.
• Market Place

On behalf of the San Juan County Fair Board and Staff, Thank You to everyone who supported this wonderful countywide community event!

The Salish Seeds Project’s popular, twice-annual wildflower sale is happening soon. Reserve plants online September 10 – 17, and pick them up on Saturday, October 2 at locations on Lopez, Orcas, and San Juan islands. All plants are produced locally by the Salish Seeds Project, a joint program of the San Juan County Land Bank and the San Juan Preservation Trust.

The online plant sale will go live at 8am on September 10. To access the sale, click the WILDFLOWER SALE tab in the menu bar.

Local wildflowers offer beauty, attract pollinators and other wildlife, and are perfectly adapted to our island habitats. This year’s fall sale features over two dozen species of potted plants, including local favorites Canada goldenrod, red-flowering currant, and nodding onion. Packets of sea-blush seed will also be available. A complete guide to the sale, including descriptions and photos of the plants, is available now on the Salish Seeds Project webpage.

More plants than ever are being offered this year, but quantities are still limited. Early shopping is recommended to avoid disappointment. The price per plant offsets the cost of production, allowing the Land Bank to provide this community service.

The Salish Seeds Project is dedicated to restoring native wildflowers and grasses in the San Juan Islands. Plants and seeds for habitat restoration are produced at a nursery located at Red Mill Farm in San Juan Valley. In a fruitful partnership, The San Juan Preservation Trust owns the property and the Land Bank runs the nursery. For more information contact Outreach/Volunteer Coordinator, Tanja Williamson at 360-370-7655 or email [email protected].

San Juan Island Garden Club Meeting – September 7, 2021 at 1:00

We are excited to see you at the first meeting of the year on Tuesday, September 7 at 1:00. We will have the meeting outdoors at the Historical Society. No refreshments will be served but please feel free to bring your own beverage and/or lunch or snacks.

Our featured speaker will be Diana Mancel – a volunteer at the Historical Society. She will share some history of the Garden Club as we begin the acknowledgement of our 75th Anniversary next year! She is a wealth of information and is very passionate about the archives that she helps organize at the Museum.

We will also have a short business meeting to review the upcoming year. If you have anything that you would like to cover, please contact Karol at [email protected].

We look forward to seeing you there. If the meeting must be canceled due to covid regulations, you will receive a ZOOM invite for a meeting online at the same time.

Please follow all masking regulations as defined by San Juan County.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email Karol at [email protected] or Vonnie at [email protected].

Enjoy your time in the garden!

Masked Musicians – John Miller photo

John Miller shares this photo of Masked Musicians he caught at Brickworks.

Thanks for sharing John!

In late August, the SRV SAM, a 48’ aluminum ketch, set sail from the Haida Gwaii Islands in British Columbia to the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Labs (FHL) – the latest leg of its 8,000 nm voyage across the North Pacific for the Ocean Genome Atlas Project (OGAP). The vessel will be moored at the labs over the coming months, with the OGAP team collecting marine samples in the region and making use of FHL’s advanced laboratory facilities and equipment to conduct their research.

Over the past five years, from Baja to Hawaii, across the Aleutian chain and along the Gulf of Alaska coastline, the team have collected many thousands of samples of marine organisms for documentation, observation, and genetic sequencing.

Through this work, they are increasing our knowledge of the physiology, evolutionary history, and biodiversity of these organisms, and generating data relevant to everything from marine food webs to the regeneration of animal and human brains.

In fact, research on some of these organisms has been critical to our understanding of the cellular bases of behaviors, memory formation, degradation, and depressive and locomotory disorders. From their studies, the OGAP team intends to generate research articles in top science journals and publications, including a targeted manuscript with Nobel Laureate Dr. Eric Kandel and others, describing cells with regenerative capabilities and resistance to aging. Continue Reading

Important Note: A total of 17 previous cases have been removed from the list of confirmed cases in San Juan County. These are cases that occurred after June 1, 2021 and were first identified by a positive over-the-counter COVID test result, but were not confirmed in a subsequent PCR lab test. This adjustment brings San Juan County in alignment with WA State Department of Health reporting protocols.

Since the last update on Friday August 20th, there have been six new confirmed cases in San Juan County. The total number of cases is now listed at 250 (see note above about adjustment of case list that explains total count discrepancy from last week’s report).

Of these six new cases, initial investigations indicate that at least one appears to have occurred in a fully vaccinated individual.

There are approximately six unvaccinated close contacts of positive cases who are currently in two-week quarantine. Note that vaccinated close contacts do NOT need to quarantine and this number would be far higher if not for the relatively high vaccination rate in San Juan County.

The transmission sources for these new cases are mostly unknown. One is due to household contact with a positive case, and another is due to out of state travel.

• Lopez Island: There is one new case on Lopez Island since the last update. There is one positive case under active monitoring on Lopez Island.
• Orcas Island: There are no new cases on Orcas Island since the last update. There are no positive cases under active monitoring on Orcas Island.
• San Juan Island: There are five new cases on San Juan Island since the last update. There are seven positive cases under active monitoring on San Juan Island.
• Shaw Island: There are no new cases on Shaw Island since the last update. There are no positive cases under active monitoring on Shaw Island.

All the animals that come through our shelter doors are cherished and loved.  We honor and remember every pet that we have touched – doing our best to give them happy endings to the unfortunate circumstances that brought them into the system.  Occasionally, there are pets who manage to beat all the odds stacked against them.  Connor was one of those stories. 

Connor was brought into the shelter on a snowy, freezing February day after he was found lying in a ditch; hypothermic and nearly dead.   The shelter team wasn’t sure he would make it through the night because his condition was so poor, but he did…and that was our first introduction to one the most tough, one-of-a-kind cats that we have ever seen. 

Even after his first near death experience, Connor continued to beat the odds; severe diabetes, an upper respiratory infection that refused to go away, and the stress of living at the shelter without a home to call his own.  Because of his unstable condition, we thought it likely that Connor would live the remainder of his life in the shelter. But Conner’s good fortune continued, and a longtime volunteer took special interest in him and took him for hospice care and the opportunity to live out his life in a loving home. Continue Reading

Southern Resident orca, J28, with “peanut head” swimming with her malnourished calf, J54 (October 2, 2016/CWR Encounter #110). J28 is estimated to have died between October 16 and 18 – Photo © Copyright Center for Whale Research

The Center for Whale Research shares this story…

What is it, when does it happen, and what are the causes?

Several weeks ago, K21, the oldest male killer whale (orca) in the Southern Resident community, was photographed and videoed in a state of severe emaciation, showing an extreme version of what killer whale researchers sometimes refer to as “peanut head.”

READ FULL STORY

M/V Yakima at dock – SJ Update file photo

This story comes from Washington State Ferries and it may help shed some light on all the ferry sailing cancellations due to “Shortage of Coast Guard documented crew”…

We’re not the only marine transportation system dealing with a lack of crewmembers. Following BC Ferries’ cancellation of a couple sailings last week due to a staffing shortfall, the company’s president and CEO said the service disruptions were caused in part by a “global shortage of experienced mariners.”

We know this situation very well, as our dispatch team has been working in overdrive for more than a year now to staff our vessels. We hired a few oilers a couple months ago and continue to recruit deckhands. However, we’ve been having trouble finding qualified mariners – evidence that there is a shortage at least in our region, and possibly the world.