Examiner The Whidbey
Rally at the wharf Page 3
www.whidbeyexaminer.com
First-place winner, 2014 WNPA General Excellence
Thursday, January 8, 2015
50¢
VOL. 20, NO. 22
Pennies to help with wharf fixes By Megan Hansen Co-Editor
Two Coupeville business groups are partnering in a new campaign to help raise money for repairs to Coupeville Wharf. Pennies for Preservation launches this month and will feature collection jars around the community hoping to catch shoppers’ spare change. “We realize the Port of Coupeville is doing what they can,” said Vickie Chambers, executive director of the Coupeville Historic Waterfront Association. “We really wanted us Coupevillians to help the wharf.” The goal is to collect one-and-a-half million pennies to pay for a specific project on the wharf. “I think it’s a unique and fun way to raise money,” Chambers said. “It’s a great way to educate people and bring attention
See, Preservation, page 2
Artist chosen for next arts festival poster By Megan Hansen Co-Editor
Coupeville artist Mike Wise was chosen as the 2015 Arts and Crafts Festival poster artist. His original piece was unveiled Monday to festival association members along with a first draft of the new poster. Wise said he really appreciated being the poster artist this year and was happy with how the poster was shaping up. Wise is an Impressionist oil painter best known for landscapes. His winning submission features a festive scene of Front Street in Coupeville lined with festival booths and filled with crowds. “Mike’s representational art is achieved by using loose brushwork and an extensive use of a palette knife, which creates paintings with movement and energy, that are rich in color, texture and a distinct threedimensional feel that draws the viewer deep into the painted image,” said Carol Moliter, who presented the art. Wise is a member of Oil Painters of America and American Impressionist So-
See, Poster, page 2
Ron Newberry photos
Robert Pelant, chief executive officer of the Pacific Rim Institute for Environmental Stewardship, inspects a prairie grass known as Roemer’s fescue on part of the 175 acres the institute now owns in Coupeville. Before learning centers took over, the land was a longtime state game farm.
f o l l u f Prairie possibilities Pacific Rim Institute explores future after property purchase By Ron Newberry Staff Reporter
For a visionary such as Robert Pelant, the possibilities are endless. For nine years, he’s lived in a quaint house surrounded by pheasant coops and other plain structures on a vast piece of mostly barren land. Where some might drive along Parker Road in Coupeville and view seemingly endless open space, Pelant sees a gold carpet of unlimited potential. Never has that view been more clear and more exciting for Pelant than since the announcement last month that the Pacific Rim Institute for Environmental Stewardship had finalized a land deal with Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies. By purchasing the 175 acres it had leased and managed since 2009, the Pacific Rim Institute is now able to chart its own course with
Pelant, the institute’s chief executive officer, leading the way. “Ownership greatly expands the opportunities we’ll have for education, opportunities for the public as well as opportunities for developing our place as a truly regional center for restoration,” Pelant said. The Pacific Rim Institute will continue to partner with the Au Sable Institute by offering field-based college courses during the summer and plans to remain entrenched in various research projects, particularly in relation to native prairie species. Aside from education and research, a major institute goal is to better identify itself with the public in Central Whidbey and extend an invitation to the greater Coupeville community to utilize its trails for outdoor activities such as hiking and birding, as well as its facilities
See, Purchase, page 12