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Just beyond the deer fencing, lying between this old rotting house with fruit trees just as old, between these and a dense development, lies what used to be called a “vacant lot.” It might have been called a “swamp,” also, rather than a vestige of an estuary. It did take on some water in the 2022 flood. One engineer called it a “natural catch basin.” But all that belies an amazing feature: it’s ability to grow food. Eons of decomposing salmon bodies makes this soil, like much of the Skagit Valley where I live, among the top 1% of agricultural...
Dear Editor: I am writing to express my deep concern regarding the recently announced closure of Little Braves preschool due to lack of funding. As a member of our community and a parent who understands the importance of early childhood education, I believe that eliminating programs for young children only harms our community and creates hardship for families. The Little Braves Preschool program, which operates in the elementary school through funding from Head Start, is the only publicly funded early education program in La Conner. The...
When the Supreme Court took up the issue of presidential immunity, it became even more doubtful that the former president’s criminal trials could be completed before election day. So what is a voter to do without a trial? I say, look to information that can be relied upon with confidence. We all experienced the horror of Jan. 6, 2021. Many of the 91 counts charged against the president in various indictments relate to the events of that day. But what do we know without a trial? We know a lot. We know from uncontroverted reports that a United S...
Oh how I wish I didn’t think about our little town’s budget, but as a businessman, I can’t help myself. I had to manage a small farm’s budget, and I didn’t get any grants from either the state or the feds, and I had to educate my employees, since they hadn’t been educated by the education system in place. I employed many college grads who had no understanding of economics, even with their four-year degrees. So, it was with great interest that I read La Conner Schools Superintendent Will Makoyiisaaminaa (Nelson)’s letter of recognition to our sc...
Last Thursday I reached out to Rep. Dave Paul (and our two other state reps as well) and shared my frustrations and asked for help over the La Conner Drug Store closing. Here is the core of my message to Rep. Paul: Don’t know if you can do anything about this but I feel you should know that Rite Aid just purchased our only local pharmacy – La Conner Drug. This little business was first established in 1877. The corporate chain operation made this acquisition only to close the store and transfer the prescription files to their store in Ana...
In his message for the 57th World Day of Peace this Jan. 1, Pope Francis reflected on the impact of artificial intelligence on world peace and urges the international community to adopt a binding international treaty that regulates its development and use. New technologies must always be directed to “the pursuit of peace and the common good, in the service of the integral development of individuals and communities.” Pope Francis urges world leaders to ensure that progress in developing forms of artificial intelligence “will ultimately serve...
Hello and Happy New Year! First and foremost, I hope you have been able to spend time with loved ones and had some time to reflect on 2023. Secondly, I wish you and yours a safe and prosperous New Year. May 2024 bring the necessities we need to make La Conner the best it can be. The following note represents my reflections of social, economic and environmental perspectives that impact our town as I take office. Think of it as a “State of La Conner” of sorts. One of the great things about our community is that it is a unique microcosm of a bro...
By Glen Johnson Agritourism, is it a good thing or bad? A wedding in a farmer’s backyard is a great place and time to congratulate the couple, while also putting the spready on the table. Foods from area farms could be shared, marketed and sold to these wedding attendees. Most smaller farms still have a farmyard with a barn and a storage shed or two with space between them that allows for parking that doesn’t encroach on or impede the production of crops in the field. I was in the business about two decades ago, or at least I gave it a try...
Did you know that in Skagit County only 2% of the farms in the valley are over a thousand acres? Did you also know that 41% of farms in Skagit County are noted as residential or lifestyle farms, aka hobby farms? The face of farming has changed: There are fewer farms that are operating at a commercial level, or what would be considered financially self-sufficient operations. There are fewer new farmers entering the industry, as there are greater barriers to entry – more so then ever before. It takes years to see a rate of return when you are s...
The Puget Sound Partnership recently released its biennial State of the Sound report concluding that while, overall, Puget Sound is holding on, its recovery remains uncertain (Puget Sound Partnership: State of the Sound (wa.gov)). This very mixed scorecard is concerning. Merely clinging to life with little movement towards improved health of the Sound, its ecosystems and species is not sufficient progress in restoring this beautiful inland sea around which we live. The report uses 44 vital signs to represent the many aspects of the Sound’s h...
I recently went out for dinner with a neighbor, a part-time, mostly-here-in-the-summer kind of neighbor. He teaches at a university, leads research and publishes interesting work on human behavior. As we waited to order he mentioned his frustration at it all taking so long — to order and get served. When I responded that it was one more sign of the local housing crisis, he looked confused. He apparently didn’t understand why I was bringing up an issue in our otherwise lovely social evening, especially when it had nothing to do with the situatio...
With a degree of urgency appropriate for the planetary catastrophe we face today, Pope Francis’ latest exhortation, Laudate Deum, “to all people of good will on the climate crisis,” builds on his 2015 encyclical letter, Laudato Si’, “On Care for our Common Home.” That the pope has explicitly described the current state of the climate as a “crisis” could be viewed as affirming what climate activist Greta Thunberg said in her 2019 address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland: “Our house is on fire. I am here to say, our house is...
As faith leaders, elected officials, community leaders, educators and individual residents of Washington state, we are heartbroken and horrified by the escalated violence and bloodshed in Israel/Palestine. As people of all faith backgrounds and conscience, we deeply value life and are appalled by the significant loss of human life. We condemn all targeting and killing of civilians, whether Israeli or Palestinian, of any or no faith background. Such indiscriminate violence harming innocent civilians is not only a violation of law, but also of...
Can you imagine the Pacific Northwest without salmon? Their life cycle feeds many beings in the whole ecosystem. Salmon have been the center of spirit and community here for centuries And yet – they are at the brink of extinction in the Snake River. Research by the Nez Perce Tribe shows that: “About 40% of spring and summer Chinook populations from the Snake River are at the threshold for quasi-extinction, meaning they will likely go extinct.” And, at last count, only 110 individual coho salmon and 46 individual sockeye salmon returned to spawn...
“When the big things seem out of control … focus on what you love right under your nose” writes Charlie Mackay in his book, “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.” And it does seem so, that the world is out of control. There are the Republicans, there is Hamas, Israel and the Palestinians, horrific, deadly chaos after years of neglect in Palestine, encroachment and abuse; military takeovers in southern Africa; German politics swinging right; New Zealand politics swing right, Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, Putin’s aggression everywhere; C...
The current Israel / Hamas war is tragic. The scenes of devastation and destruction in the Gaza strip and the reports of those killed and injured is heartbreaking, The continuing loss of human life and growing humanitarian crisis is overwhelming in the reality of little or no promise of reconciliation or peace. This past May my wife and I were able to join a group of people in a religious study tour of Israel and Palestine (also called the West Bank, Judea and Samaria) visiting the historical sites. It was good to see the land and to walk the...
I have been a part of our local farming community for sixty plus years now. I’ve seen more than half of the farm history in the region. I was able to observe the demise of peas, sweet corn and carrots. Now I’ve seen the arrival of dry beans, peppers, specialty grains and brussels sprouts. What new crop will we someday learn to grow, perhaps a new variety of quinoa or cauliflower? We could grow fish, but we’d rather grow cows and chickens. When I was young I worked the land, planted and tended the peas until they brought the industry to its knee...
On Oct. 19 at 9 a.m. 800,000 or so folks in Washington will take part in the Great Shakeout drill to practice the steps necessary to effectively respond to a major earthquake. Unlike floods and maybe wild fires, there is no way science has discovered to prevent earthquakes. There are rumors that Italian scientists are experimenting with warning signs of oncoming earthquakes, but so far the warnings are limited to Italian earthquakes and they can’t warn more than a few minutes before the shaking starts. The only available option in W...
One of the joys in my year of health challenges was the fun and exciting opportunity to honor “our own” Tom Robbins on Sept. 2. It was a real blast! Tom enjoyed it, he and Alexa rocked it, the library’s programs benefited and everyone entered into the sweet, happy, excellent spirit of the day. Some of us came from far away to celebrate the occasion and we celebrated with all our hearts. That’s why, when I read your recent Musing about the day, I was aghast at the last unfunny paragraph suggesting pushing a mummy of Tom through the streets...
So, Sept. 2 came and went, there couldn’t have been a finer day in La Conner spent. There was a “King” in town, complete with a crown, and a shiny white old fire truck. Yeah, mega author Tom Robbins was kinda awestruck. The town was full of its regular crew and then there were the curious and people who didn’t have a clue. Who’s this fella anyways, what did he write, what did he say? Well he wrote words that he turned into novels and one into a movie! Yeah, he wrote about eclectic characters and notions that could raise your eyebrows and maybe...
I attended the meeting of the Skagit County Planning Commission Tuesday, July 25, along with scores of others to express concern regarding proposed increased regulations for local farm families, many whom are already struggling to keep their family farm businesses viable. It is being reported that many limits and restrictions could be put in place to prevent celebration events and would even block new farm stands from opening. Many of the good people in the room have been the backbone of preserving Skagit farmland over the years, leading the...
I read your editorial “La Conner needs to plan for more than just floods,” (Weekly News July 12) with great interest, and your words raised my eyebrows more than once. You see, you made a blanket statement, “No one in La Conner, elected officials, town staff, activists, or this paper, saw, much less grasped the opportunity and possibilities for working family housing when Dave Hedlin offered to sell his family’s Maple Avenue property in 2020.” Now, I think of myself as an activist, and I did see an alternative plan, even went out of my way to...
Oh dear god it’s almost all I wanna do, to hear music that makes my body move, yeah, like it’s in a smooth groove. Some might see me in my trance, moving from a slide to prance, jumping and gliding like a bird, from branch to branch. Yeah, all I wanna do is dance! Oh dear god, it’s what you made me pretty good at, I think I’m supposed to move the way I do, besides, it’s you that takes ahold of my feet, and flaps them around like they’re on high heat. Yeah, all I wanna do is dance! Oh dear god, what would they do if they saw me in France, would...
Once again, I find myself in the infuriating position of responding to the news of yet another horrific mass shooting in the United States. Despite the common defensive refrain offered by gun advocates that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” the simple truth remains that people with guns kill people. And people with guns are killing more people every day and for seemingly trivial reasons. This spring alone we have witnessed several of these horrific shootings. Tragically, this list could go on and on. While much of the Ameri...
Thank you for your spot-on Musings (June 7 Weekly News) in regard to Memorial Day, especially the service at Pleasant Ridge Cemetery on May 29. As always, it was a moving service, conducted quite ably by Rev. Don Robinson. As I listened to and observed the folding of the flag protocol and recounting of the military conflicts that our flag has symbolized, whether noble or otherwise, I, too, was struck by the omission of the Civil War. This was no careless omission. The Civil War was the most pivotal point in the history of the United States. It...
