March 11th, 2010 News and Events
SJPT Initiates Strategic Review: Online Survey Asks Islanders to Dream
Click here to take the online survey
Can we help to make your island dreams come true?
The board of trustees and staff of The San Juan Preservation Trust are currently reviewing SJPT's strategic objectives. As we establish our priorities for the coming years, we’re challenging you - our stakeholders - to imagine the San Juan Islands 30 years from now: A new generation, including (perhaps) your own children and grandchildren, has inherited the islands from us.
What do you want San Juan Islands to look like when they receive this inheritance? What can the San Juan Preservation Trust do today to help ensure that your dreams for the future of your islands can be realized?
As someone who has demonstrated your love for the islands through your support of this organization, we hold your opinion in particularly high regard. By responding to this short survey, you can help us to prioritize our activities as we prepare for this next generation of islanders.
PLEASE RESPOND NO LATER THAN APRIL 10, 2010. We are not asking for any personal information in this survey, and it should only take you a few minutes to complete. A summary of responses will be posted on our web site at the end of April 2010.
On behalf of all of us at the Preservation Trust, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us. We simply couldn't do this without you.
The Board of Trustees and Staff
of the San Juan Preservation Trust
Posted: Wed, Mar 10, 2010
Western Bluebirds Have Returned to San Juan Island
An early spring? Perhaps it is too soon to tell, but an earlier-than-normal return of the Western bluebird means that spring isn't too far around the corner. So far, 23 birds have been sighted on San Juan Island, 14 of which are breeding pairs. The Preservation Trust is embarking on its fourth year of the SJI Western Bluebird Reintroduction Project, and along with our partners, ask for your help in finding any returning birds. Please report your sightings to Kathleen Foley at 378-2461 or kathleenf@sjpt.org. To learn more about the effort to reintroduce these beautiful native birds to the San Juans (and to find out how to get involved), click here.
(photo of banded female Western bluebird, taken in San Juan Valley in summer 2009 by Jane K Fox)
Posted: Thu, Feb 11, 2010
SJPT Loses Giant of Conservation: Remembering Fred Ellis, Sr.
A “FABULOUS” LIFE
Dr. Frederick Ellis (1916 - 2010)
Fred Ellis, a founding member of the San Juan Preservation Trust, passed away in his historic Shaw Island home on the morning of February 5th at age 93. Fred served on SJPT’s board of trustees for 29 of the organization’s 30 year history, and – with his family - donated more than 1,400 acres of land and conservation easements on Shaw and Lopez Islands.
(To hear and see more from this remarkable island legend, click here for a video interview produced in 2009 by SJPT intern Jane K. Fox.)
Fred Ellis’s conservation legacy in the San Juan Islands began with his first visit to Shaw Island in 1936. When the Orcas Lime Company abandoned its plan to log Shaw for cordwood in the 1950’s, Fred and his family purchased their large family homestead on Parks Bay for two hundred dollars an acre. Since then, Fred, his wife Marilyn, and his family methodically acquired more than 1,000 acres on Shaw Island and an additional 400 acres of important agricultural land on Lopez Island. All of these places have been permanently protected through gifts of land and conservation easements made to the San Juan Preservation Trust and the University of Washington.
Fred led a diverse and accomplished life, enthusiastically pursuing his interests in education, astronomy, Pacific Northwest history, philosophy, cattle ranching, music, environmental activism and land conservation. His education at Reed College in Oregon was interrupted by World War II, where he volunteered as a medic with the British 18th Army Dagger Division in Burma. An landmine exploded in a village near the Irrawaddy River, killing five companions and leaving him with a walking stick as a lifelong companion. He returned from Calcutta on a freighter that mutinied (an experience he recalled as “fabulous!” – one of his signature expressions). After finishing up at Reed and receiving his PhD in History and Philosophy from Harvard University, he went on to teach at the University of Illinois, University of Minnesota, Western Washington University and the University of British Columbia. During his long tenure at the Preservation Trust, Fred’s voice influenced a number of strategic decisions, including the effort to launch the $18.5 million campaign to save Turtleback Mountain on Orcas Island.
In his later years, Fred was quick to share his favorite quote attributed to E.O. Wilson, a Harvard biologist and theorist: “Man will be defined not by what he has created, but rather by what he has chosen not to destroy.”
“It sends shivers down my spine,” he told one of many journalists that made a pilgrimage to Shaw to interview him. “Isn’t it fabulous?”
Posted: Mon, Feb 8, 2010