Happy Earth Day

Research shows that 80% of Americans consider themselves environmentalists, including the Trojan Heron.

Enjoy your piece/peace of the earth today!

Is The State Copied On Everything?

See the email below.  It looks like at least one Council member thinks Tim Blanchard has to be refuted.  Is that why Lovel copies her email to both Linda Lyshall from the Puget Sound Partnership and Erik Stockdale of Ecology? Are they going to learn Tim some of their best available truth?

For those of you who may not know who Tim Blanchard is, he is an Orcasite and Common Sense Alliance Vice President who has donated enormous amounts of effort and time to shed a little light on the CAO process. It doesn't look like his efforts are much appreciated by Lovel.

And despite the appearance of Erik Stockdale being well integrated into many aspects of the County CAO process, I have to wonder about (yes, here it is again) the recent quote by Ecology that says:

"We don’t have regulatory authority in local critical areas ordinance issues. We don’t make rulings or issue enforcement actions under local critical areas ordinances. Those tasks are on local government turf" (Gordon White, Eco-Connect Blog, February 14, 2012.)

From: Lovel Pratt [mailto:LovelP@co.san-juan.wa.us]
Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 12:16 PM
To: Pete Rose
Cc: Richard Fralick; Shireene Hale; Linda Lyshall; Erik C. Stockdale (esto461@ecy.wa.gov)
Subject: Feb 2nd CAPR mtg

Hi Pete,

I read on the Island Guardian that Tim Blanchard is the guest speaker at tomorrow night’s CAPR meeting (at the Grange).  Prior to last Tuesday’s meeting, Richard met with Tim and told me that he was hopeful that Tim is interested in working productively – and expeditiously – on the CAO update.  I am not convinced of that given the communications I received from him last week (attached - and for some of those copied here FYI the Council’s identified next steps for the CAO update process).

Tim has some wrong assumptions about the CAO adoption process.  During public testimony last week (where he outlined what is included in the attached documents) there were no responses from the Council or staff to refute his wrong assumptions regarding the CAO update process.  While he was present to hear the Council’s later discussion (with the PA there answering questions) about the CAO update process, I’m not sure that he now has and will be presenting accurate information at the CAPR meeting.

My bottom line question is: How do we best get accurate information about the CAO update process to the public?

I would appreciate any insight and ideas you have!

Thank you!

Lovel

Lovel Pratt

San Juan County Council, District 1

Office: 55 Second St. N., 1st Floor

360-370-7473

Mail: 350 Court St. #1, Friday Harbor, WA 98250

Everyone is welcome to join me for a community meeting and brown bag lunch on the 4th Monday of every month at noon in the legislative building's large conference room (55 Second St.).

Confidentiality Notice:  This e-mail message, including any attachments, is subject to the Washington State Public Records Act, RCW Chapter 42.56 et al.  This e-mail and attachments is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information.  Any review, use, disclosure, or distribution by unintended recipients is prohibited.  If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.

Oh The Humanity!

This is an example of an environmental problem that County staff evidently feels is so severe and demonstrative that they had to obtain photographic evidence and send it to three consulting CAO wetland scientists under contract to the county.

Ever get that feeling that somebody's watching you (and your downspouts)?

From: Shireene Hale [mailto:shireeneh@co.san-juan.wa.us]
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 2:52 PM
To: Amanda Azous; Dan Nickel; 'Paul Adamus'
Subject:

Attached is a photo taken by one of our staff in Lopez Village showing grass around downspouts killed by something, likely in runoff from the roof.

Shireene Hale, EHS

Planning Coordinator/ Deputy Director

San Juan County Community Development & Planning

PO Box 947

135 Rhone Street

Friday Harbor, WA 98250

360.370.7569

shireeneh@sanjuanco.com

Pseudoscience Zombie - It's In Their Head

If you've never heard of Robert K. Merton, I'm sure you've at least heard of some of the phrases he's invented, such as self-fulfilling prophecy, or maybe you know of the Thomas Theorem or Matthew Effect. Aside from being the father of Nobel Economist Robert C. Merton, Robert K. was a giant in his own right, a social scientist whose principal area of research was the scientific process itself. Robert K. wrote a lot about science and even pseudoscience, and when I look around our community to see what is happening on the CAOs and SMP, I feel like we're living in a Robert K. Merton research project on pseudoscience.

The Stanford University Philosophy Department has a website about pseudoscience which discusses Robert K.'s ideas, along with those of others.  It is an excellent read. On that website, there is a list of pseudoscience criteria that really hits home for me. Here is what it says.

"One such list (of criteria for identifying pseudoscience) reads as follows:

1. Belief in authority: It is contended that some person or persons have a special ability to determine what is true or false. Others have to accept their judgments.
2. Nonrepeatable experiments: Reliance is put on experiments that cannot be repeated by others with the same outcome.
3. Handpicked examples: Handpicked examples are used although they are not representative of the general category that the investigation refers to.
4. Unwillingness to test: A theory is not tested although it is possible to test it.
5. Disregard of refuting information: Observations or experiments that conflict with a theory are neglected.
6. Built-in subterfuge: The testing of a theory is so arranged that the theory can only be confirmed, never disconfirmed, by the outcome.
7. Explanations are abandoned without replacement. Tenable explanations are given up without being replaced, so that the new theory leaves much more unexplained than the previous one. (Hansson 1983)"

In short, when I read this list, I can't help but hum the refrain from Zombie, the 1994 protest song from the Irish rock group, The Cranberries. Although written for a different time and place, the refrain still seems relevant to aspects of our lives here. When is something non-science?  When it's, "In your head, in your head ... ZOMBIE .... ZOMBIE ... ZOMBIE ... heh ... heh ... heh ... OH!

Damn It Feels Good to Be a CAO Gangsta!

The following quotation appeared in a local newspaper regarding the Charles Dalton case:

County Prosecuting Attorney Randy Gaylord said islanders can contact the county to view a "wetland inventory map" and if a wetland is shown on your property, and you disagree, it's up to you to disprove it.

With that kind of approach and with the desk-jockeys making County wetland maps at full throttle for the last couple of years, they'll be more Dalton-like cases than you can count. Take, for example, the long-time islanders who wrote the following letter to the Planning Commission today.  Do you hear the bell tolling yet?

We are the owners of water front property on Lopez Island.  As such, we are following with grave concern the San Juan County writing of a Critical Areas Ordinance, and in particular the Wetlands Section of the CAO.  It is our understanding the County has again requested citizen input regarding its proposed Wetlands Section.

We have reviewed the proposed wetlands designation map and are flabbergasted to see a “non-tidal wetlands” label pasted upon our property.  We are flabbergasted because no standing water or any semblance of a “wetland” has ever existed or been observed on our property in the past 44 years the property has been owned by us or our parents.  It appears to us that San Juan County has acted erroneously and randomly in their analysis of and labeling of our property regarding “wetlands”.

If our property is any indication of the overall  manner in which San Juan County “wetlands” have been identified, we consider the county’s work quite flawed.  We do not claim to be particularly knowledgeable regarding wetlands, but it doesn’t take much knowledge to understand that our property is no “wetland” of any type.

We respectfully request the proposed Wetlands Section not be incorporated into the CAO until its errors are corrected and impacted private property owners are given proper and satisfactory answers to their concerns.

It ain't easy bein' owners in a CAO world, yo!  Damn It Feels Good To Be a CAO Gangsta!

Going Down Down Down Down ...

The latest reports are out about the steady inexorable decline in real estate sales here. Of course, there are those who have said repeatedly that it has nothing to do with the CAOs or the SMP, but with national trends instead. That hasn't stopped Stephanie Buffum, during public access testimony before the Council, from saying that the CAOs are needed to eliminate the uncertainty hovering over the local real estate market. Are the Friends really interested in improving market conditions for real estate? Do you believe the CAOs will eliminate uncertainty and worry, or increase it? You decide.

Maybe your conclusion will be like that of the President of the San Juan Builders Association. Given the abysmal declines with no end in sight, one has to wonder where the growth is that we're supposed to be managing with such severe new restrictions.

We're going down, down, down, down ... sick and tired of ya settin' me up, yeah, set me up ah just a knock-a-knock-a-knock-a-me-down ...