Record South Whidbey
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Langley celebrates court decision See...A4
SATURDAY, JULY 4, 2015 | Vol. 91, No. 52 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢
Beaver, wildlife rules appeal holds water with hearings board By JUSTIN BURNETT South Whidbey Record Island County’s 2014 beaver dam rules sprang a significant leak recently when a state regulatory board found they failed to protect critical areas as required by state law and were not based on best available science. The Growth Management Hearings Board for Western Washington issued the ruling late last month. It also identified six other failures
in the fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas update adopted by the Island County Commissioners this past September. The decision leaves the commissioners with a one-year deadline to bring the ordinance into compliance, and a local environmental group once again saying, “I told you so.” “I try not to, but you can see it 100 miles away … and here we are all over again,” said Marianne Edain.
Edain is the “brushfire” coordinator for Whidbey Environmental Action Network (or WEAN), a non-profit group with a mission to restore and preserve native biological diversity on Whidbey Island and in the Pacific Northwest. The group has repeatedly and successfully challenged county growth and development rules, such as its critical areas ordinances. The 2014 update itself was the result of an earlier hearings board decision in
which WEAN protested the county’s plan to complete the wildlife rules and comprehensive plan updates at the same time in 2016. The county was already years past a statemandated 2005 deadline and the hearings board upheld WEAN’s appeal that it be completed sooner rather than later. Island County Commissioner Helen Price SEE HEARINGS BOARD, A10
All in a day’s catch
Ben Watanabe / The Record
Things were slow and steady for these four young men crabbing at the Port of South Whidbey at Langley dock. From left are Brandon Brown, Jordan Bond, Cameron Brown and Jaeden Bond. The Bond brothers of Everett were visiting the Browns of Langley. In only a couple hours of tossing their ring traps, they had already hauled up three red rock and two Dungeness crabs.
Read more about opening day of crab season on page 8.
Congressman visits Coupeville to address transportation plans By DEBRA VAUGHN Whidbey News Group
Debra Vaughn / Whidbey News Group
Congressman Rick Larsen visited county officials in Coupeville earlier this week to talk about transportation needs for the area.
Roads, bridges, highways, ferries — all are essential for the economic health of the state and Island County, and Congress needs to pass a long-term bill to pay for critical infrastructure, Congressman Rick Larsen told county officials this week. The Second District Democrat visited Coupeville Wednesday to talk with Island County leaders about transportation needs for the area and to tout a $478 billion, six-year transportation proposal floated by the
White House. The Grow America Act would provide more money and a steady source of revenue for highways, bridges, transit and rail systems. It’s paid for by supplementing revenue from the federal Highway Trust Fund and taxing corporate overseas profit. Larsen helped introduce the bill earlier this year. Most of the federal money for transportation projects comes from the Highway Trust Fund. At the end of this SEE CONGRESSMAN, A10