Island News
Smiles for miles
After the two-hour ceremony, it was time to celebrate with family and friends. Then it was time for the graduates to board the bus and head off to grad night festivities. Matt Pranger photos
News Brief | Science-backed reason being in nature makes you feel good
||| FROM COUNTERPUNCH ||| Fish farming, a form of aquaculture, is now the fastest-growing form of factory farming worldwide. Industrial fish farms, particularly open-net salmon pens, concentrate thousands of animals in confined spaces, producing waste and requiring significant inputs of feed, antibiotics, and chemicals to maintain productivity. Fish are essential to healthy ocean ecosystems, but almost 90 percent of the world’s fisheries are considered “fully exploited” or “overfished” by the Un
News Brief | Impacts of fish farming, industrial aquaculture
||| FROM COUNTERPUNCH ||| While discussions about land-based farmed animals, such as cattle, pigs, and poultry, are dominated by their impact on emissions and the environment, aquaculture has been positioned as a sustainable alternative. Industrial fish farms, particularly open-net salmon pens, concentrate thousands of animals in confined spaces, producing waste and requiring significant inputs of feed, antibiotics, and chemicals to maintain productivity. Fish are essential to healthy ocean ecos
Tickets now available for 2026 Orcas Island Garden Tour
||| FROM ORCAS ISLAND GARDEN CLUB ||| Mark your calendar for the annual 2026 Orcas Island Garden Tour on Saturday, June 27 & Sunday, June 28 from 11 am to 5 pm each day. Tickets are $25 each. The garden club provides education and experiences to the garden community to enrich lives and to improve the overall ecology of Orcas Island. This one fundraiser helps us fund many educational programs and fun events throughout the year as well as support […]
Free workshop for writers at Orcas Library
||| FROM SAM GAILEY for ORCAS ISLAND PUBLIC LIBRARY ||| In this evening workshop hosted by the Orcas Island Library, authors Veronica Kornberg and Jill McCabe Johnson use objects and mapping to create fresh writing on family. Participants are asked to bring an object that evokes family memories to use as a springboard for guided writing, listening, and small group sharing. It can be a photo, a teapot, a tie-pin—anything. All ages are welcome. Date: June 10 Time: 6-8:00 pm […]
SUN Bucks program returns to provide summer food support for Washington children
Submitted by the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services.
Consumer alert: Workers’ compensation scam targeting Spanish-speaking workers
Submitted by the Washington State Office of Attorney General Nick Brown.
Diplomas, hugs, tears and $560,000 in scholarships
Fifty students received their diplomas on Saturday, June 6, 2026 in Turnbull Gym at Friday Harbor High School. The 51st member of the class was studying abroad in Germany. The ceremony included the processional, the history of the class, speeches by the Valedictorian and the Salulatorian, the slide show and the awarding of scholarships. The […]
Friday Harbor High School’s Class of 2026 receive their diplomas
Friday Harbor High School Class of 2026
Friday Harbor High School’s Class of 2026 received their diplomas in a traditional ceremony at 5 pm Saturday, June 6, 2026. The ceremony included the processional, the history of the class, speeches by the Valedictorian and the Salutatorian, the slide show and the awarding of scholarships. The scholarship dollar amount was an astounding $560,000. Photos […]
Help us celebrate the Class of 2026 at Baccalaureate
||| FROM ALICIA WIGFIELD for ORCAS ISLAND COMMUNITY CHURCH ||| On Wednesday, June 10, 2026, at 6:00 PM, Orcas Island Community Church will be hosting the Baccalaureate Service for the Class of 2026 at the Moran State Park Picnic Shelter. This is a wonderful opportunity for our community to come together to celebrate and encourage our graduates as they prepare for the next chapter of their lives. We would love your help in making this event a welcoming and memorable celebration for the […]
Seven Sisters: Return of the Matriarchy coming to Orcas Center
||| FROM COLLEEN SMITH SUMMERS for ORCAS CENTER ||| Indigenous women have played an outsized role in major environmental justice campaigns in the Pacific Northwest. Se’Si’Le, an Indigenous-led nonprofit, is bringing to Orcas Island an event to honor and celebrate these matriarchs as part of its nation-wide 2026 campaign: Seven Sisters — The Return of the Matriarchy on Saturday, June 13 at 5 p.m. on Center Stage. These courageous women have stood up time and again against overwhelming odds, achie
School music rings in summer on a high note
||| FROM SHARON HO for MUSIC ADVOCACY GROUP ||| Family and community members filled the Orcas Center on Thursday, May 28, to celebrate another successful year for the Orcas public school strings program. Mrs. Pamela Wright, the music teacher and strings director, who will be retiring after 24 years, received a standing ovation. This year’s All-District Strings Concert saw a large group of 66 students from grades 4 to 12 performing on main stage. Mrs. Wright awarded letters to three […]
I’m not the Church Lady | What’s really between psychology and spirituality?
What if the most sane and sacred thing I can do is trust what I know? ||| I’M NOT THE CHURCH LADY by ROSIE KUHN ||| Psychology, at its best, says: What happened to you shapes you—how can you go forward? Spirituality, at its best, asks: Who are you beyond that? Both can become systems that tell us what we should experience instead of helping us articulate what we actually experience. Families—No Escape With the insanity of the world in […]
Trailer theft and cut conifers | SJC sheriff’s log
The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office responded to the following calls.
Kristina Girvan’s sculpture wins Governor’s Choice Award
Friday Harbor High School 9th-grader Kristina Girvan earned statewide recognition at the 53rd Annual OSPI Superintendent’s High School Art Show. Her ceramic sculpture, Octavious, received the prestigious Governor’s Choice Award from Washington State Governor Bob Ferguson. Girvan’s artwork was originally selected to represent the Northwest ESD 189 region, which includes five counties and serves approximately […]
Happy Pride from Orcas Island Pride
Are you ready to Dance? ||| FROM ORCAS ISLAND PRiDE ||| Happy Pride We are so excited to celebrate this month with you all! In this time where queer people are being villanized, it is VITAL we stay visible and loud. It is VITAL we refuse to slink back into the margins we are pushed to. It is VITAL we come together in this month to celebrate all we are. So come be LOUD with us! Tickets are on sale […]
Strengthening civic culture on Orcas Island
||| FROM LINDSAY JENNINGS for ORCAS ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ||| Earlier this week, 52 nonprofit board members and staff gathered to bring fundraising into focus on Orcas Island. What may have been surprising to some, was that much of the workshop didn’t focus specifically on asking for donations. Successful nonprofits can’t, and don’t, just rely on funding. They rely on people. People who care, who invest not just their financial resources, but their time, their hearts, their vision. When n
Zuckerberg’s Launchpad visits Orcas Island
||| FROM ROBERT AUSTIN ||| LAUNCHPAD current position and history of port calls are received by AIS. Technical specifications, tonnages and management details are derived from VesselFinder database. The data is for informational purposes only and VesselFinder is not responsible for the accuracy and reliability of LAUNCHPAD data. Photo by Robert Austin
UN report warns AI could soon use 3% of world’s electricity and more water than we need to drink
||| FROM THE CONVERSATION ||| One argument often used to quell concerns about the rising energy and resource demand of data centers is that artificial intelligence (AI) models will need less in the future as they improve and become more efficient. But this seemingly logical thinking is a trap, according to a new United Nations report that quantifies the environmental costs of AI. The report estimates that by 2030, AI’s energy use could double to consume 3% of the world’s […]
Sheriff’s Report | May 27 – June 1, 2025
||| FROM SAN JUAN COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE ||| WEDNESDAY, MAY 27 26-003064 Found Property 08:18:11 05/27/26 A credit card was found on San Juan Island and turned into the Sheriff’s office which was booked into the property and evidence room. No known contact for the owner. 26-003066 Found Property 09:55:17 05/27/26 A silver bracelet was found on San Juan Island and turned into the Sheriff’s office which was booked into the property and evidence room. No known contact for the […]
Legacies of D-Day | June 6, 1944
||| FROM DOUGLAS MARSHALL ||| Before dawn, a seasick 22-year-old 2nd Lieutenant and his mortar platoon climbed into their landing craft and motored three hours toward the French province of Normandy, on a day code-named D-Day and toward a place code-named Utah Beach. Approaching the shore, the ramps of their landing craft dropped into the cold waters, and they waded into eleven months of combat with the German army which had occupied France for four years. Utah was the westernmost […]
School music rings in summer on a high note
Submitted by the Music Advocacy Group.
LWVSJ Observer Corps*: San Juan Island School Board, May 27, 2026 The Board celebrated retiring employees: Ray Adams, school tech support; Tamara Carter, Speech & Language Pathologist; Myah Thompson, teacher; Al Turnbow, teacher: and Jose Domenech, Director of Finance. Two students (Charlotte & Hazel), 3rd and 4th graders, and teacher, Alex Finch, from Stuart Island School presented […]