Prep sports preview Stories, schedules, team photos, and more, in a 4-page special section PAGES 7-10
Calendar
Bragging rights on the line in annual students vs staff hoop fundraiser PAGE 16
Letters
Sailor entangled by red-tape, What’s Gates got to do with it?, Why can’t OPALCO be more like the town? PAGE 4
Journal
The 75¢ Wednesday, March 18, 2015 Vol. 108 Issue 11
Lawsuit targets permit fees
Cultures collide in clash over coal
Film traces the cross country journey of Lummi totem pole
Journal staff report
By Emily Greenberg Journal Reporter
If the pen is mightier than the sword, can’t it be true for all forms of art? Perhaps that’s why the Lummi Nation, opponents of the proposed coal terminal at Cherry Point, north of Bellingham, carried a traditional totem pole from the far reaches of the Wyoming coal fields to its final resting place in British Columbia in 2014, a journey of 6,000 miles, and made a film about it. The journey connected tribes, towns, cities and rural communities along the coal-train path to Xwe’chienXen, the name for the ancient Lummi village site and burial ground located at the proposed Cherry Point coal port. The journey concluded in B.C., where the totem was placed as a symbol of support for the Canadian First Nations’ opposition to the transport of tar sands oil by pipeline across their territories. “Their fight is against the Keystone Pipeline, we’re fighting the coal terminal,” said filmmaker and Lummi tribal member Freddy Lane. “I’m a storyteller, and the story is about protecting the earth and what we have.” See COAL, Page 2
Journal photo / Emily Greenberg
Horsewoman extraordinaire Emma Billington recently started her own business, Inherited Horsemanship, where she teaches people how to train their own horses. Above, Billington works with Blaze, a client’s rescue horse.
San Juan County is the target of a potential class action lawsuit for allegedly over-billing for building and land-use fees, and for the alleged misuse of the fees that it did collect as well. Initiated March 9 in San Juan County Superior Court, the lawsuit filed on behalf of Community Treasures, formerly known as Consignment Treasures, contends the county Community Development and Planning Department collected fees in excess of what is allowed under See FEES, Page 3
San Juan ‘whisperer’
Island girl takes the reins of her future, starts own enterprise By Emily Greenberg Journal Reporter
It’s mid-afternoon on a Wednesday and Emma Billington, 26, has just gotten off the ferry from Orcas Island to San Juan. She drives out of town and the Olympic Mountains stand tall as the background to sprawling farm fields. She opens the gate and travels down a winding dirt driveway where she’s greeted by three excited dogs, a few seemingly ambivalent horses, and one very grateful student. They say do what you love, but how many people actually get the opportunity to make a living doing it? This is Billington’s office—her clients’ pastures,
trails and barns. She travels to all Lopez, Orcas and San Juan Islands, not only as a horse trainer, but as a person trainer. “You can’t train a horse without training its owner,” Billington said. “You have to build a partnership between the person and their horse.” In her new business, Inherited Horsemanship LLC, which she opened in Dec. 2014, Billington works closely with the horse and its owner to help create a lifelong relationship between the two. If the horse is skittish (which they often are, she said horses are prey animals and behave accordingly) she uses her skills and techniques to calm the horse and help it adjust to new situations. Then, it’s her job to impart those skills to her student, so they can eventually adjust the horse themselves. Sometimes, it’s the people who are nervous, especially if their horse is new to them. That’s why Billington will often put a client on a calm horse See WHISPERER, Page 6
Winner of six 1st place awards in Washington Newspaper Publishers Association 2014 BNC, 17 in all
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Published the Journal of the San Juanthird Wednesday of each month Islands, Islands’ by the Sounder and Island s’ Weekly
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Brent Rameno Kathryn Sherman
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Harvey Olsan
Lisa Botiller Mary Clure Locally Own ed and Oper Victoria Shaner ated
Marty Zier
Asya Eberle
Real Estate in the San Juan Islands
See inside for February’s real estate sales, listings and statistics.