Record South Whidbey
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 2012 | Vol. 88, No. 33 | www.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.com | 75¢
INSIDE: Heal thyself, Island Life, A12
County to add beach access to parks list
Welcoming the grays in Langley
By JUSTIN BURNETT Staff reporter
Justin Burnett / The Record
Children (and dog) lead the way down First Street in Langley at the ninth annual Welcome to the Whales Day Parade and Festival Saturday afternoon. Organizers estimate that up to 1,000 people participated in the event.
Sunshine helps make whale of a parade day By JUSTIN BURNETT Staff reporter
Both the sunshine and a healthy crowd turned out for the ninth annual Welcome to the Whales Day Parade and Festival in Langley on Saturday. The 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. event featured educational displays, slide shows and activities along with costume-making, music, the ever popular parade and a presentation by an out-ofstate whale specialist. Sherry Jennings, communications director for the Langley Chamber of Commerce, estimated that about 1,000 people attended the parade, which she said was probably the most successful to date. “It’s the largest so far,” Jennings said. “It grows every year.”
The day-long event was so popular, even a few whales made an appearance. Earlier that morning, three gray whales were spotted from the waterfront feeding in the waters of Saratoga Passage. Whales Day, which partners with Bayview’s Earth Day on Sunday, is held every year to honor and celebrate the arrival of resident gray whales to Whidbey Island. It was organized by the Orca Network based in Greenbank, the chamber and Homeplace Special Care in Oak Harbor. According to Susan Berta, co-founder of Orca Network, Homeplace was a generous sponsor and enabled event organizers to host Dr. Bruce Mate of Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute
Gray whale dies, see story on A11 In a bit of irony, about the same time Langley was celebrating Whales Day a whale was found dead in the waters of Saratoga Passage. The whale was towed to Navy property on North Whidbey where experts are trying to determine the cause of death. See story on Page A11 for details. as a guest speaker. His presentation, held at the Langley United Methodist Church on Anthes Avenue, drew an inquisitive crowd that asked a lot of questions, Berta said. At about 80 to 90 people, it was also pretty large. “That’s about double what we usually get, especially on a sunny day,” Berta said. But the main attraction of the day was still the parade. It was a little
different this year in that instead of starting on Cascade Avenue, paraders started in the US Bank parking lot and marched the length of Second Street before heading down First Street and through Thomas Hadley Memorial Park to the waterfront. From there, several speakers took to the microphone to talk about and offer a blessing to the whales. See parade, A4
The days of scratching your head over which beaches on Whidbey Island are public and which are private may be numbered. After an exhaustive inventory effort, Island County parks officials are in the process of revising its list of county parks land. While there is still a lot of work left to do, more than 20 little known public properties have been added to the list of Whidbey Island properties alone, and many are public beach accesses. “We still need to do research on tidal access, but these are properties where people can get to the shoreline,” said Bill Oakes, director of Island County Public Works. “It’s our intent to make known these public beach accesses,” he said. Late this past year, the Island County commissioners adopted a comprehensive plan outlining the direction parks will take in the future. Part of the effort included an inventory of all publicly owned property in the county. The idea, said Oakes, was to study patterns of use and identify all property owned by county taxpayers. The inventory yielded a few surprises, such as a handful of small parcels in residential areas that no one knows how or why were acquired. They may be auctioned off, while a few other properties, such as two offleash dog parks on North Whidbey, may be passed off to neighboring municipalities or junior taxing districts.
Beach access parks list South Whidbey: Shore Meadows public access Limpet Lane public access Brighton Beach public access Sunlight Beach public access Central Whidbey: Hidden Beach and public access off North Bluff Road Sand Piper Lane beach access North Whidbey: Three shoreline properties on the North side of Penn Cove As for shoreline properties, the inventory effort established with certainty at least a dozen beaches and public beach accesses. They are expected to be added to the existing list of park lands posted online sometime this summer. Identifying these properties was important for several reasons, Oakes said. First, while creating the parks plan it became clear that the public placed a high value on the preservation of beach accesses. It was important for logistical reasons, as well. Individual parks have never before been formally identified in the county code. Oakes hopes to rectify that, opening up the See beach access, A9