I ran into Wendy at the Farm­ers’ Mar­ket last week­end where she was sell­ing her tuna…it is troll caught, dol­phin-safe, high in omega‑3 oil, and you’d love it. She says she’ll have crab lat­er in the season.…

You can find out more at her web­site (click here) for www.highseastuna.com or call her at 360–378-4810. You’ll be glad you did!

Just got a note from the Wash­ing­ton State Fer­ry folks:

The Wash­ing­ton State Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion Fer­ries Divi­sion has now com­plet­ed nec­es­sary repairs to the 144-auto fer­ry Elwha. It will return to ser­vice on the Anacortes/San Juan Islands route on Thurs­day, April 9. The  Sealth will return to the  inter-island route by reliev­ing the 34-auto Hiyu.

Just got a note from the Wash­ing­ton State Fer­ry folks:

The Wash­ing­ton State Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion Fer­ries Divi­sion has now com­plet­ed nec­es­sary repairs to the 144-auto fer­ry Elwha. It will return to ser­vice on the Anacortes/San Juan Islands route on Thurs­day, April 9. The  Sealth will return to the  inter-island route by reliev­ing the 34-auto Hiyu.

You’ve always won­dered what those flow­ers on the trail were (I know I have) — now you can find out! Here’s more from Louisa and Ann:

Spring is com­ing!  Catch the bloom!

Won­der­ing what that flower is that you saw on the trail?  We have a new way to find out!

The San Juan Island Trails Com­mit­tee, a com­mit­tee of Island Rec, has devel­oped a new web tool for island wan­der­ers on many of San Juan Island’s trails.  Just go to the San Juan Island Trails Committee’s web­site (sanjuanislandtrails.org), click on “Trails”, click on the name of the trail that you wish to walk, and print its map if needed.

Then click on “Plants” to access the new down­load­able pdf file of plants to be found along your select­ed trail. (Note: Plant lists for all trails are not yet avail­able.)  Print the spe­cif­ic trail plant list and the leg­end, grab your favorite field guide book, and you are ready to go for a “walk in the woods”.

Con­tact Louisa Nishi­tani (louisan@rockisland.com) or Ann Jar­rell (anndon66@hotmail.com) with ques­tions, com­ments, or additions.

You’ve always won­dered what those flow­ers on the trail were (I know I have) — now you can find out! Here’s more from Louisa and Ann:

Spring is com­ing!  Catch the bloom!

Won­der­ing what that flower is that you saw on the trail?  We have a new way to find out!

The San Juan Island Trails Com­mit­tee, a com­mit­tee of Island Rec, has devel­oped a new web tool for island wan­der­ers on many of San Juan Island’s trails.  Just go to the San Juan Island Trails Committee’s web­site (sanjuanislandtrails.org), click on “Trails”, click on the name of the trail that you wish to walk, and print its map if needed.

Then click on “Plants” to access the new down­load­able pdf file of plants to be found along your select­ed trail. (Note: Plant lists for all trails are not yet avail­able.)  Print the spe­cif­ic trail plant list and the leg­end, grab your favorite field guide book, and you are ready to go for a “walk in the woods”.

Con­tact Louisa Nishi­tani (louisan@rockisland.com) or Ann Jar­rell (anndon66@hotmail.com) with ques­tions, com­ments, or additions.

When the Navy uses sonar in the waters inhab­it­ed by whale, you can be sure of one thing: It’s rough on marine mam­mals who get around using echolo­ca­tion to “see” with. At the least… A num­ber of us have peti­tioned the Navy to stop the exer­cis­es, and it’s gone to the Courts & back…presently the Navy is allowed to car­ry on with its work.

Tues­day evening, whale pho­tog­ra­ph­er Jeanne Hyde start­ed hear­ing sounds — now she files this report (as of Wednes­day evening):

Start­ing at about 7pm I began hear­ing strange elec­tron­ic type nois­es on the Lime Kiln hydrophones… I con­tact­ed a few peo­ple try­ing to fig­ure out just what it was…then all of a sud­den a loud ‘PING’ — it was sonar…  at first it was intermitent…then it got con­sis­tent.  I logged in what I heard until 4:30 a.m.

Please go to my blog (click here) and read what happened..also on my blog, there is a link to Scot­t’s blog where he wrote what he heard.. and a link to Orca­girl where she made some recordings.

(Note from Val Viers, adding to this con­ver­sa­tion: “Just a heads up that some Navy ship (prob­a­bly one or more sub­marines) put a lot of noise into the Haro Strait last night for 6 — 8 hours.  My hydrophones and those at Lime Kiln light­house picked up SONAR pings and lots of what sound­ed like gar­bled human con­ver­sa­tion for hours and hours. 

The Whale Muse­um works with Beam Reach Marine Sci­ence and Sus­tain­abil­i­ty School to main­tain a net work of hydrophones that are lis­ten­ing 24/7 and stream­ing to the world.  Check out my son Scot­t’s blog entry at: http://www.beamreach.org/blog/2009/04/07/sonar-in-haro-strait )

The Navy com­ment peri­od for extend­ed train­ing in these inland waters ends on April 13th.
If you haven’t already send them a com­ment there is a link on my blog so you can — it’s on the right hand col­umn.  If you already have, send it along to some­one that you think cares and will weigh in with their opinion.

When it hurt my ears over the com­put­er I can­not imag­ine how it may have impact­ed marine life.

Jeanne

Moni­ka Wei­land shoots great pho­tos of killer whales, and the ones she shot on Mon­day of tran­sient orcas came out great, includ­ing this one of a tran­sient launch­ing a har­bor por­poise high into the air.

Click here for more of her pic­tures from a great day out on the water.

My friend Tim is shoot­ing a pic­ture a day for the year, and he’s full of sur­pris­es (you can see his blog in the “Online News” box of the col­umn to the right, under “A Pic­ture A Day”)… his entry last Wednes­day & Thurs­day includ­ed this 747 fly­ing low over the Fri­day Har­bor Air­port. Whoa!

Click here for the full story.

Wis­dom is the reward you get for a life­time of lis­ten­ing when you’d have pre­ferred to talk.
Doug Larson 

Here are Ally (sec­ond place) and Jes­si­ca (first place) with their win­ning posters — way to go, girls! ooo

Here are Ally (sec­ond place) and Jes­si­ca (first place) with their win­ning posters — way to go, girls! ooo

Mar­ta Specht says you’re gonna have fun at this:

Fri­day Harbor’s Cen­ten­ni­al Hon­ored at Ele­gant Edi­bles: Island pio­neer recipes, “The Bak­er Boys” and a “Peep Hunt” for the lit­tle ones are just a few of the new addi­tions to CATS’ annu­al Ele­gant Edi­bles on Sat­ur­day, April 11.

The gourmet bake sale and fundrais­er takes place from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the San Juan Com­mu­ni­ty Theatre.

The event starts off with a col­or­ful “Peep Hunt” for chil­dren six and under. The free hunt will have chil­dren search­ing for those sweet marsh­mal­low treats in the Theatre’s new gar­den (weath­er permitting).

Inside, the bake sale will fea­ture deli­cious good­ies just in time for East­er cel­e­bra­tions.  One table of treats will be pre­pared by The Bak­er Boys. More than a dozen tal­ent­ed island men have each giv­en their best to Ele­gant Edi­bles, and lots of dif­fer­ent items will be on hand.

The oth­er new fea­ture this year will be Island Pio­neer recipes gath­ered from descen­dants of our ear­ly fam­i­lies.  These will be avail­able for pur­chase as well as the sam­pling of two recipes tak­en from the 1901 White House Cookbook.

A child’s East­er bas­ket will be raf­fled and there will be sev­er­al door prizes, includ­ing a spi­ral cut ham from Kings, cook­book from Grif­fin Bay Book­store and seashell dish tow­els from the Sand­peb­ble, and cake plate from the Dominique’s.  The door prizes will be giv­en at 11 AM, and you must be present to win.

Come see our new, low­er prices. These will be main­tained through­out the sale.

For more infor­ma­tion, call Joann Aber­le of CATS (Com­mu­ni­ty Arts The­atre Soci­ety) at 378‑2853.

Mar­ta Specht says you’re gonna have fun at this:

Fri­day Harbor’s Cen­ten­ni­al Hon­ored at Ele­gant Edi­bles: Island pio­neer recipes, “The Bak­er Boys” and a “Peep Hunt” for the lit­tle ones are just a few of the new addi­tions to CATS’ annu­al Ele­gant Edi­bles on Sat­ur­day, April 11.

The gourmet bake sale and fundrais­er takes place from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the San Juan Com­mu­ni­ty Theatre.

The event starts off with a col­or­ful “Peep Hunt” for chil­dren six and under. The free hunt will have chil­dren search­ing for those sweet marsh­mal­low treats in the Theatre’s new gar­den (weath­er permitting).

Inside, the bake sale will fea­ture deli­cious good­ies just in time for East­er cel­e­bra­tions.  One table of treats will be pre­pared by The Bak­er Boys. More than a dozen tal­ent­ed island men have each giv­en their best to Ele­gant Edi­bles, and lots of dif­fer­ent items will be on hand.

The oth­er new fea­ture this year will be Island Pio­neer recipes gath­ered from descen­dants of our ear­ly fam­i­lies.  These will be avail­able for pur­chase as well as the sam­pling of two recipes tak­en from the 1901 White House Cookbook.

A child’s East­er bas­ket will be raf­fled and there will be sev­er­al door prizes, includ­ing a spi­ral cut ham from Kings, cook­book from Grif­fin Bay Book­store and seashell dish tow­els from the Sand­peb­ble, and cake plate from the Dominique’s.  The door prizes will be giv­en at 11 AM, and you must be present to win.

Come see our new, low­er prices. These will be main­tained through­out the sale.

For more infor­ma­tion, call Joann Aber­le of CATS (Com­mu­ni­ty Arts The­atre Soci­ety) at 378‑2853.

It was a great evening — with music and danc­ing pro­vid­ed by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame dj Pay O’Day, food pro­vid­ed by Roche Har­bor’s exec­u­tive chef Bill Shaw and his staff, and good cheer pro­vid­ed by the mem­bers of the Yacht Club. The evening hon­ored Com­modore Fred Bowen and his wife Car­olyn Bowen for their four years of ser­vice on behalf of pro­mot­ing, orga­niz­ing, and encour­ag­ing boat­ing and social activ­i­ties of yacht club members.
As you’ll see in the pic­tures of this 58-pho­to port­fo­lio from the evening by Bill Wax­man and me, the theme of the ball was “Out of this World,” because Fred worked for NASA most of his work­ing days.

The oth­er day, proud mom Bar­bara told me Cather­ine had placed high in an essay con­test, win­ning a cash prize and a trip to Wash­ing­ton, D.C., along with ace FHHS social stud­ies teacher Greg Sawyer — wow! Way to go Cather­ine! Here’s the rest of the sto­ry, from Sonia Blum­stein at the essay contest:

ARLINGTON, VA — A Fri­day Har­bor high school stu­dent has been named a top prize win­ner in a nation­al essay con­test that drew more than 31,000 entries.

As a par­tic­i­pant in the Pacif­ic region, Cather­ine Bevens of Fri­day Har­bor High School was award­ed Third Place and $1,250 in the Being an Amer­i­can Essay Con­test spon­sored by the Bill of Rights Insti­tute, a non­prof­it edu­ca­tion­al orga­ni­za­tion based in north­ern Vir­ginia near Wash­ing­ton, D.C. Bevens’ spon­sor­ing teacher, Greg Sawyer, received a match­ing cash prize.

In addi­tion to the cash prizes, Bevens and Sawyer also won all-expense paid trips to the nation’s cap­i­tal, where they were hon­ored on March 31 at an awards gala fea­tur­ing a keynote address by Supreme Court Jus­tice Clarence Thomas The D.C. trip also includ­ed a recep­tion with fed­er­al leg­is­la­tors, vis­its to the Nation­al Archives, Supreme Court, and with Pro Foot­ball Hall of Fame Cor­ner­back Dar­rell Green, who served as Chair of Pres­i­dent George W. Bush’s Coun­cil on Ser­vice and Civic Par­tic­i­pa­tion. Con­tin­ue Reading

School Dis­trict: The search for a super­in­ten­dent con­tin­ues… school board chair Boyd Pratt told me last night that the board vot­ed to shelve the search for a per­ma­nent per­son and look instead for an inter­im super­in­ten­dent for this next year, say­ing the present search did­n’t yield a wide enough field of candidates.

Skag­it Val­ley Col­lege — San Juan Cen­ter: In a press release from Mount Ver­non, Arden Ain­ley says the San Juan cam­pus will have reduced hours and an increased online empha­sis. Here’s more:

Skag­it Val­ley Col­lege Reacts to Leg­isla­tive Bud­get Proposals

Skag­it Val­ley Col­lege Pres­i­dent Dr. Gary Tollef­son react­ed to leg­isla­tive bud­get pro­pos­als today, indi­cat­ing, “Although the col­lege does not yet know how the pro­posed bud­get cuts to the Com­mu­ni­ty and Tech­ni­cal Col­lege sys­tem will play out here at Skag­it, it appears we will sus­tain sub­stan­tial bud­get reduc­tions when the Leg­is­la­ture rec­on­ciles dif­fer­ences between the House and Sen­ate proposals.”

In antic­i­pa­tion of a sig­nif­i­cant reduc­tion in fund­ing from the state dur­ing the next bien­ni­um, Skag­it Val­ley Col­lege has imple­ment­ed a pack­age of bud­get reduc­tions total­ing $2 mil­lion for the 2009-10 bud­get year.  “The planned cuts will be painful and will reduce or re-con­fig­ure some ser­vices and class offer­ings, but we have worked hard to keep the neg­a­tive impact on stu­dents to a min­i­mum,” said Dr. Tollef­son.  “In this eco­nom­ic down­turn and with surg­ing demand increas­ing our spring enroll­ments by over 15%, that means serv­ing many more stu­dents than ever and pro­vid­ing them the train­ing they need to return to work, or the best, most cost-effec­tive prepa­ra­tion for trans­fer to a four-year col­lege or university.”

The notices of non-renew­al, lay­off, or reduc­tion of hours were giv­en to employ­ees over the past two weeks in indi­vid­ual meet­ings with the Pres­i­dent.  Reduc­tions have impact­ed twen­ty-six posi­tions at the col­lege, sev­en of which were already vacant.  In addi­tion to per­son­nel actions, the reduc­tions includ­ed cuts in equip­ment pur­chas­es, re-con­fig­u­ra­tions of pro­gram deliv­ery, trav­el restric­tions, end­ing some con­tracts with local agen­cies, and numer­ous oth­er belt-tight­en­ing mea­sures.  Total reduc­tions tak­en to date total about
$2 million.

As part of the col­lege’s restruc­tur­ing, addi­tion­al empha­sis will be placed on dis­tance learn­ing online pro­grams, allow­ing access to cours­es and pro­grams by stu­dents who need to study any time and from any loca­tion.  This mod­el will be com­bined with tra­di­tion­al class­room and hybrid class­room-online course mod­els to pro­vide addi­tion­al ways for stu­dents in Skag­it’s ser­vice area to access edu­ca­tion and crit­i­cal services.

In Mount Ver­non, the Busi­ness Resource Cen­ter will con­tin­ue to pro­vide busi­ness start-up and busi­ness devel­op­ment ser­vices from the cur­rent loca­tion.  The San Juan Cen­ter in Fri­day Har­bor and the South Whid­bey Cen­ter in Clin­ton will con­tin­ue their oper­a­tions with reduced hours of oper­a­tion and an increased online course emphasis.

In a mes­sage to all col­lege employ­ees, Dr. Tollef­son not­ed the uncer­tain­ty sur­round­ing the state bud­get by say­ing ” … nation­al and state eco­nom­ic indi­ca­tors point to a con­tin­ued slow­down of busi­ness activ­i­ty and poten­tial addi­tion­al tax rev­enue short­falls which may require addi­tion­al bud­get reduc­tions, depend­ing on the final actions of the Legislature.”