Real Estate
REAL ESTATE SECTION Monthly special magazine inside this edition
in the
CROSSROADS Lecture series delves into deep topics Page 9
San Juan Islands March 2014
SOUNDER THE ISLANDS’ Contributed photo
NEWS | Would be robber gets two years [3] COMMENTARY | Vote yes on the levy [5] ARTS | Shakespeare Festival is this week [11]
Serving Orcas, Lopez and San Juan County
Published the third Wednesday of each month by the Journal of the San Juan Islands, Islands’ Sounder and Islands’ Weekly
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Wednesday, March 19, 2014 VOL. 47, NO. 12 75¢ islandssounder.com
Lessons from animals by COLLEEN SMITH ARMSTRONG Editor/Publisher
Dogs are cute and furry, and rushing up to them is a natural response for kids and adults. However, this kind of behavior can bring unfortunate results. “So many dog bites can be avoided,” said Dr. Sally Hodson. “Many people just don’t know the right way to interact.” Hodson, a K-12 educator and former executive director of The Whale Museum, has developed educational materials for kids to learn about dogs and cats. She recently joined the board of the Orcas Animal Shelter, and she has designed a program called “Pet Pals” for grades kindergarten through sixth. The goal of the curriculum is to teach children about “kindness, responsibility and respect for animals, themselves and other people.” Hodson teaches the classes free of charge to local schools. Students can also come to the shelter for a session. Her first installment is titled “Stay Safe With Pets.” It teaches children how to tell if a dog or cat is friendly and the prop-
Contributed photo
Left: A student learns how to approach a dog. Above: Dr. Sally Hodson talks to a group of island youths. er ways to interact with animals. Upcoming offerings are “All About Cats and Dogs,” “Caring for Pets,” and “Understanding Pet Talk.” For more information, call 3766777 or email info@orcaspets.org. Hodson talked to the public school third grade class on March 5 at the shelter. She explained how
The task of managing a monument By SCOTT RASMUSSEN Journal editor
The amount of acreage in the newly created San Juan Islands national monument totals just about 1,000. But that number itself does little justice to the character or landscape of the monument – the only one in Washington state. That’s because the monument is comprised of no fewer than 31 small islands and 40 different groups of rocks and reefs, some of which nearly disappear at high tide. It stretches from the northernmost corner of San Juan County (Patos Island) to one of the southernmost (Iceberg Point), as well as from its westernmost (Turn Point) to beyond the county’s eastern border to include low-lying rocky features and the tip of several islands in Whatcom and Skagit counties. More than half of the land mass of the monument is concentrated in three distinct areas;
400 acres at the southend of Lopez Island, 80 acres at Kellet Bluff on Henry Island and 80 acres at Turn Point on Stuart Island. The rest is scattered all across the archipelago. So, how does one go about managing and keeping track of such an extended and farflung enterprise? In a word, it’s “partnerships,” or so says Marcia deChadenedes, the monument’s newly appointed manager and veteran administrator with the Bureau of Land Management. She notes that a long-standing partnership with Washington State Parks and with Keepers of the Patos Light, a grass-roots group devoted to maintaining the islands’ historic lighthouse, have proven instrumental in helping BLM manage and maintain the 207-acre Patos Island. At a meet-and-greet in Friday Harbor, hosted March 12 by the San Juan Preservation Trust, deChadenedes said that forging partner-
ships with other like-minded public agencies, federal, state and local, and with private organizations (like the Preservation Trust) and various citizen groups offered an effective route for the BLM to maximize its limited resources, balance the sometimes competing interests of recreation and conservation, and keep the monument’s natural and cultural resources in tact. It’s proven to be a successful formula for other conservation-oriented agencies as well. The San Juan County Land Bank benefits from its affiliation with the Terrestrial Managers Working Group, Land Bank Director Lincoln Bormann said. The group, whose roster includes the Nature Conservancy, Preservation Trust, county parks, and state and federal parks, work together to find common ground and cooperative approaches to issues involv-
SEE MONUMENT, PAGE 6
to read dogs’ and cats’ body language and the correct way to say hello. Animals don’t look each other in the eye when first meeting. Instead, they sniff butts and use their noses. So it’s important not to stare at a dog. If you see a dog or cat you
SEE ANIMALS, PAGE 6
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